Saturday 1740 GMT - London

Well, we made it. Pretty uneventful flight and darn comfy as well. Got about 5 hours sleep on the way over and was still able to watch all of Walk the Line. Terrific movie and very impressed with the portrayals by Reese and Joaquin. We managed to get tickets to The Producers last night and it was tremendous. Funny, fast paced and incredible scenes. Last minute tickets were even relatively reasonable in cost. The theatre was the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and it too was very impressive. Built in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren, the first governor was Lord Byron and even it's current direction has a pedigree, the Managing director since 2000 is Andrew Lloyd Webber. Pretty impressive bit of history and not far from the Covent Garden tube station, Leicester Square and the Covent Garden Market. We got our tickets with about 2.5 hours before curtain and were able to walk around the area and get a nosh and coffee. After leaving the theatre, we were all very tired as it had been 32 hours through 8 times zones with only a few hours sleep. We made it back to hotel and I ended up sleeping until noon unfortunately it was a very nice day (read "not gray") here until about 3pm. We all decided to head off on our own today anyway since no one had any idea when we'd have enough sleep.

I walked for a couple hours along the Thames and then up the road to Parsons Green where I hopped the tube to Oxford Circus, wandered for a couple more hours with a quick stop off for a cask IPA mi afternoon. I picked up a few souvenirs for Henry as well as some coffee and tea to take back to work for tastings. I hit Harrod's (open Sundays now) when first came up to the central city area, and then up to Piccadilly Circus for a bit of wandering, a quick shop @ Fortnum and Mason. I took lots of photos and will post some here when I get to a computer where it's easier to hook up the camera







Internet access at the hotel is £5.00 so I found an internet cafe close to the tubestationn where I can update everyone about our trip. I'm just outside the Fullham Broadway stations and it's right around the corner from the Chelsea football pitch and the game is about to end. There are police everywhere; walking, in paddy wagons, in riot gear and on horseback. I wonder if I'll get to see some of the football hooliganism so famous for the UK, I'm hoping not.

I'm off now, get a bite and a pint or two and take it easy before we start work tomorrow.


All the best from Chelsea