Monday - London 13 Feb 1725

Well, here we are at the end of another day in London. Again I believe we have accomplished quite a lot on this trip. Today we did the wrap up we had scheduled for tomorrow as the retail team will meet with us tomorrow and take us on a store tour so we can see for ourselves some of the challenges the stores face each day. We are especially looking FW to back room tours as thy tend to be quite eye opening. We will also ask of the store partners and their DM that will be tourin us what we can do better to assist them in overcoming their daily challenges.

After the last update Saturday, I walked up the King's Road to Sloane Square. It was great to see the place where the 60s swinging hipsters hung out and be in the neighborhood where some of the old pop stars of the day still keep houses and flats.

I made it to the British Museum and spent the majorty of the day in the ancient civilisations wing w/ the Eqypt, Assyria and Greece exhibits. What an amazing place and so much to see. It is amazing the pieces of the Parthenon and other exhibits such as the Rosetta stone that are all here. I spent some time in the Americas wing as well as the reproduction of the King's Library and found these to be wondrous exhibits as well. After the museaum, I wandered a bit more and found my way into Chinatown. I must have wandered into a werewolf because I found myself @ a place called ...










...and considered a bowl of beef chowmein (the blessed among you will understand the importance of this).

Another walk round and found myself again in Piccadilly and Leicester Squares, tried for a discount ticket to the We Will Rock You show but none available so headed back to Chelsea and stopped in a reat Thai restaurant called Jim Thompson's named after an American silk exporter that was a purported spy in 60s Thailand. Had a bowl of beef randang that was sensational and had a walk back to the hotel. Brutally cold it's been...

Raining these past couple days and even with the weather I got out and did the London Eye opposite the House of Parliament on the Thames on Sunday. I'll let you read about it here for yourself http://www.londoneye.com/. I have to say, 145 metres did not seem that high to me even when I was on the ground but even with the weather the views were very impressive and the people with which I rode the capsule were very nice and took pictures of me as well to show you all. Here you can can gaze upon my visage over London w/ Big Ben in the background

In all, this was one off the best things I have done in London and I'm glad I did it even in the rain.

After the ride, I hopped the tube back from Waterloo and grabbed a bottle of wine (Gemstone Shiraz from McLaren Vale, quite tasty) an my host for the afternoon collected me @ the station for a traditional Sunday in England. We had a Sunday roast of beef rib, yorkshire puddings, oven roast tatties, peas and a parsnip mash (heavenly, mashed w/ creme fraiche, butter, salt and pepper; MMM MMM GOOD!) with wine and beer before the Scotland v. Wales rugby (Scotland los but I did wear my Scotland jersey I picked up last time here, glad my hosts were Scotland fans!). Here's a picture of my friends in London














And one of me with my friends (Thanks Liam)














What a tremendous way to spend the day in a city far, far away with friends, food, bevvies and rugby.

Tomorrow is our last day here and although I'm having a tremendous time in London and can't wait to return, I'm ready for home. Think of living in what's referred to as a "function" hotel (along the lines of a Motel 6 or Super 8; bed, bathroom, tv) for 12 days. I'm trying not to complain but it is tiresome. The bright side is I'm in London, a vibrant city where everything is moving all the time and there are lots of things to see and do