Gill's Birthday Weekend August 2-4

Friday to Sunday Aug 2-4 Gill’s Birthday

Flowers from Pat

This was to be a big weekend, but at the beginning we were not sure how we would get around in the road closures of the London Cycle Events. The early part of Friday was  given over to preparing for Hayley’s visit, plus some light maintenance on the boat (the cockpit door lights had gone intermittent due to weathered contacts).

Tower Hill plus 1000 cyclists

Hayley arrived (with her new camera) for the weekend in the early evening, having enjoyed the tourist experience of busy London landmarks in the heavy traffic.



Taxi hailing by GPS

Drinks on “the patio”, dinner in “the bistro”, and nightcaps in “the lounge” punctuated a very pleasant evening for three, and we were ready for birthday celebrations.

Dressed for a birthday

 

Saturday was a very busy day indeed. For a start, all the roads around were clogged by a million cyclists of all shapes, sizes, sexes, and ages on a similar range of bicycles. Birthday cards and flowers were arriving for Gill, and we were waiting for Nadine to arrive with her prize of a Champagne experience at the exclusive “Luggage Room Speakeasy” in Grosvenor Sq. Luckily, there was one road out of the marina, and the “Hail-O” app sound found us a taxi.

 



Champagne, anyone?

The evening of Saturday August 3 was memorable. Nadine’s prize took us through the “knock first” door of “The Luggage Room” ( where, it turned out, the manager was a well established friend of hers), and we had the royal treatment—cocktails, champagne (the best!), more cocktails, canapés, and goody-bags for the girls.



Knocking on The Luggage Room door

 

From there, it was a short taxi ride to Browns of Maddox St, where Nadine used to be manager, and there we enjoyed a delicious dinner. Nadine took a Tube home from Oxford Circus, while we jumped into a taxi which sped us home before midnight.

 

Dinner at Browns in Mayfair

Sunday August 4 was the big day! Birthday cards galore, chats with the neighbours, “Happy Birthday” singing from two lovely little passing girls, phonecalls from everywhere, and countless Facebook greetings and text messages all made sure that the morning was not unremarked.



 Because of the “bloody cyclists” (as the marina man called them), we had to walk across the Tower Bridge  (in the middle of the road!) to “Pont de La Tour”, where we had a long and lingering lunch.

Jaywalkers!

 

A fine birthday lunch

Luckily, there were taxis available later in the afternoon, so we hail-o-ed one to get back to the boat, where it was soon toime for Hayley’s departure.

 

 

A quiet evening-in finished off a great day and a fab weekend.

On reflection, a great weekend