Bob & Betty go British

Playing hostess

This weekend we had our first guests come to stay. Robert's Cousin Vega lives in Carlisle with her Husband Mark. They were down in London to attend the wedding reception. The wedding had already been held in Hong Kong but this was the London reception. We met Vega and Mark at a pub in Covent Garden and had a few drinks before heading home and grabbing dinner at the local Thai. This was the second time we'd tried it and I'm convinced that it's pretty close to authentic. Vega and Mark where especially excited to have Thai as they don't get the real thing up in the North country.

After a very hot and humid nights sleep on Friday (the hottest of the summer as far as I was concerned) we headed off into the city to take in a couple of museums. We went to the house of Sir John Soane (http://www.soane.org). He was an architect and turned his house into a museum. The walls are lined with bits of old roman ruins, paintings, statues and other oddities. He even has a real egyptian sarcophogus in his cellar. The man was clearly quite mad. Still, his house was very impressive. He even had plans to add a romanesque frontage to the whole row of houses on the street where he lived. Unfortunately the town planners wouldn't let him. It would have made a nice change to the usual English terrace look.

Robert and I took in a bit of the British Museum after lunch while Mark and Vega caught up with friends. After deciding was too hot to be inside with no airconditioning, we wandered around some bookshops (I got a copy of the Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller) and eventually went home. Vega and Mark came home soon after and after ironing their best clothes headed off to the reception. I was completely exhausted and fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Robert is very happy now he has his digital TV recorder that does all the things our Foxtel box used to do. He was able to watch things that we'd recorded the night before.

On Sunday we went to yum cha again. Vega and Mark were very happy to indulge in another food type that doesn't exist up North. It was just as good as last time so I think we may go there on a regular basis - at least with the people from Australia who understand the whole yum cha experience. After yum cha we went to the Chelsea Physic Garden (http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/). This garden was established back in the 17th century for research into plants and their medicinal properties. The garden houses some amazing plants including deadly nighshade and mandrake. The Harry Potter lesson on Mandrake was true to the legend. Gardeners thought that the plant screamed when you pulled it out of the ground and that anyone who heard the scream would die. They used to tie the plant to the end of a dog leash and get the dog to run away and therefore pull the plant out of the ground while the gardeners covered their ears. The other story the guide told us was about Milk Chocolate. Apparently crushed cocoa beans where mixed with milk by mothers who had sickly children to help make them stronger. Apparently this remedy was brought to England by the Apothecary who started the garden. He developed the first milk chocolate forumla which was subsequently bought by Cadbury. Sounds bit suspect to me. All fascinating stuff either way.

After Vega and Mark left on Sunday afternoon we cleaned up and did washing in preparation for Juliet's arrival from Sydney. I stayed at home this morning to wait for her to arrive. After much drama she made it to our place and I raced off to work just in time for a client meeting at midday.

Well, it's August already. Hopefully August will see the end of the drought and the end of the headwave we've been experiencing. Looks like there are cooler weather instore for the next week which will make life a whole lot more pleasant.

A very special thank you to Sharon who has provided me with a knitting project - yay! It arrived this morning in a little package all the way from Australia - pattern, knitting needles and wool. Looking forward to casting on :-)

posted by Elisabeth @ 3:03 PM