An almost sunny spring day in St James's Park

I happened to wander into St James's Park yesterday afternoon. The sun was almost shining and hundreds of people were sprawled out on the free deck chairs or on the grass as they do here in London when it's almost sunny. At least the temperature was mild and the rain held off.


The spring flowers were out in full bloom, despite a dump of snow just a few weeks ago. There's nothing like a good English garden, and the flowers in St James's Park yesterday were spectacular. Check out more pics at this album.


I wouldn't begin to know what varieties of plants and flowers I was madly taking photos of, but I took over about 250 pictures on the new EOS 400D and 55-250mm lens, in about an hour.

Tulips, one of the few varieties I was familiar with, abounded, in almost every colour imaginable. Beautiful!

The wildlife were also out "sunning" themselves - cute ducklings and even cuter squirrels, zipping frantically through the grass finding nuts, or simply just looking at them.

A day as a tourist in London

It's funny how when you live in a place you can begin to take for granted all of the amazing sights around you.

I remember when I first moved to London three and a half years ago, I used to walk across Tower Bridge and be awestruck by the Bridge itself - the Tower of London and the thousands of years of history that surround that entire part of the "Pool of London". And yet when that walk became part of my daily commute, it seemed to lose its awe along the way.

The same thing happening when I lived in Sydney and drove across the Harbour Bridge every day - a landmark that people from all over the world dream about seeing and walking over, yet somewhat of a chore when you're stuck in a bus on your way to work.

And now, as I'm getting closer to my move back to Australia, I'm hanging out to do a lap of the Harbour Bridge. And I know that I'll fall in love with Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Australia all over again as I familiarise myself with my favourite places and discover new ones.

Similarly, yesterday, I jumped on a big red bus and spent a day being a tourist in London. Again.

My first visit to London was with my family in about 1980 and I remember staying in a hotel in Russell Square. I don't remember too much other than the big res buses, black cabs and seeing Changing of the Guard. I then came back in 1999 by myself before setting off for a 3-week Contiki tour around Europe.

When I arrived in London that second time nine years ago, jet-lagged and bleary eyed, I remember feeling instantly that I could live in this city. I loved the buzz and the familiarity, yet difference of it all. London somehow felt like "home" even then.

My bus ride yesterday took me past a bunch of the landmarks and attractions that I've seen a stack of times in the last few years, and that perhaps I'd become a bit blase about. But I'm glad I did it. It reminded me of the many things I love about London, the amazing friends I've made here and the wonderful times I've had.

It's been a pleasure and privilege to call this place home.

The spires of St Pauls.

View from South Bank.


Buckingham Palace.

For more pics of my big tourist day around London, check out this album.

Nobu rocks!

I recently had one of the yummiest meals I've ever had, at London's Nobu (am a bit behind on posting here, but this momentous event took place about 2 months ago).

I'd heard about Nobu's legendary degustation menus, and we decided we'd try one of each. This would provide a selection of Nobu's signature dishes like the broiled black cod with miso and the scallop tiradito nobu style, as well as a general mix of sashimi and other amazing creations.

We teamed it with chilled sake served out of a chilled bamboo decanter and matching glasses.

It's a shame I didn't write this post a bit closer to the time, because I can't remember the names of all the dishes we tried. Suffice it to say, it was truly one of the most amazing meals. The food was exquisite in terms of presentation and freshness, and the combination of flavours was mind-bogglingly tasty.

If you love Japanese food, check out this fine restaurant. Your tastebuds will long cherish the memory after the credit card has recovered.

A little Japanese Cocoon in London

Following the yummy Taste Festival in June and a sampling of its delicious wagyu beef over hot stones, a visit to Asian-fusion restaurant Cocoon moved rapidly onto the to-do list. We crossed off the task last Saturday night.

It's really centrally located, just off Regent Street near Piccadilly Circus.

When you walk into the bar and restaurant section on the 2nd floor, you walk into a sea of mute green and orange - it has a modern, casual, somewhat retro oriental feel to it. And then you're seated at low tables with rose petals sealed into a laminate table top. The cocoon shape is everywhere - round edges, smooth lines, circles.

Two veteran sushi chefs were in full view of our seats, preparing bits and pieces. I shall remember to try to get a seat at the sushi bar next time - I love watching sushi chefs do their thang.

We munched away on some steamed edamame beans, which somehow now seems the thing to do before a Japanese meal. While I was very tempted to order the wagyu beef on hot stones, I really could not stomach the £65 price tag. So...instead, I ordered yellowfin tuna sashimi and beef gulgogi for the main, with a side order of sesame spinach. Ant ordered the wild mushroom spring rolls and BBQ chicken. And sake to wash it all down.

The meal was really well presented and delicious. The servings of the mains were huge - much bigger than you would usually expect in a place like this. We couldn't actually finish everything on our plates, which is pretty rare for me.

The one thing I didn't really like about the service was that the waitress cleared our plates too quickly...she practically grabbed them as soon as the last mouthful went down. Although the place was crowded and we had to be out before the second setting, there was really no need for them to be as er....efficient as they were. The sake really complemented the food as well.

Cocoon is renown for its sashimi and sushi and the yellowfin tuna was spectacular. I would love to go back again and try a more fishy meal.

This one is definitely worth a visit!

Giant guitars line the river

As I walked to work today through the More London area just near City Hall, I saw a bunch of huge painted guitars, each signed by a rock legend.

Apparently, the exhibition opened last week and there are 30 of these mega guitars. I'll have a closer look on my to work tomorrow.

This pic from the SE1 website shows Paul Weller signing a guitar at the launch.

Very cool!

Wembley ROCKED for Diana

Yesterday’s Concert for Diana was awesome. We knew it was going to be one of those amazing events to see live, but the whole 6.5 hour experience was unforgettable.

Walking into the new Wembley stadium is significant – it’s new and sparkly and absolutely vast! It was three quarters full by the time we took our seats, and the noise coming out the stadium was deafening.

The crowd roared when Elton John came out to the stage and sang Your Song. Huge black and white images of Diana flashed in the background, reminding us all why we were there. Kim, Carol, Anne Marie and I compared the goosebumps that instantly appeared on our arms, and the first droplets of emotion rolled down our faces. As opposed to the second and third droplets that strangely resembled beer.

Princes William and Harry came out onto the stage, booming: “Hello Wembley”. The crowd erupted once again, as they explained what they wanted the concert to achieve – that we all come together to celebrate their mother’s life, with many of the things she enjoyed: music, dance, charities and good friends.

The line up of star performers and celebs was great. The highlight for me was definitely Rod Stewart singing Maggie and Sailing. They’re just classic songs that everyone knows and loves. P Diddy’s tailored version of I’ll be Missing You was haunting – the crowd really seemed to get into it, and that bloke surely knows how to get a crowd moving.

The ever-stylish Bryan Ferry played classics like Slave to Love and Let’s Stick Together, and Roger Hodgson bashed out a few iconic Supertramp tracks.

More contemporary artists like Joss Stone, Lily Allen, Nelly Furtado, Fergie, Natasha Bedingfield, Orson and The Feeling did a number or two each, with the English National Ballet performing a scene from Swan Lake. The best shots of that performance were the aerial shots – you just never really get to look down onto a ballet performance.

The Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical medley was fab, with the highlight being Any Dream Will Do by past and present Josephs. Kim and I had been threatening to sing this all afternoon, and were able to let loose when the time came. I reckon we were pretty good! Or maybe that was the beer ears kicking in….

The crowd practically wet itself with excitement when a newly blond and crew-cutted David Beckham mosied out on stage to introduce Take That. The boys were in top form as they belted out Shine, Patience and Want You Back for Good.

There was much speculation as to whether Elton John would finish with Candle in the Wind – either the version he sang at Diana’s funeral, or the original. Unfortunately, it was not to be…I reckon it would have been the perfect way to end, but the never-before seen home movie footage of a young Diana, overlaid with Queen’s These Are The Days of Our Lives, made for a pretty poignant ending to an unforgettable evening.

Getting out of Wembley and onto the trains was a bit of a nightmare, but all the way home I saw people clutching their Official Concert for Diana program.

The night proved that Diana, Princess of Wales, truly was the people’s princess, and always will be.

PS - Huge thanks to Kim, Carol and Ann-Marie for a GREAT day!

Hoorah! The smoking ban kicks in today

July 1, and the smoking ban kicks in today throughout the UK. Hoo-bloody-ray! Of most interest to me is that the ban now applies at train stations and railway concourses.

Each morning when I walk down the concourse at my local station, I'm blasted with the stale smoke of commuters who are banging down fag after fag before the eternal (15 minute) journey. From today, that will be a thing of the past.

I'm also loving that the ban will apply in shops, pubs, bars and restaurants. It's about time!

I don't care if people smoke - that's their own choice. But this new law enforces them to have consideration for the non-smokers who have had to endure smoky pubs and train stations for way too long.

Life goes on in London, bombs and all

It's always weird after major security threats, like yesterday's foiled car bomb plot in central London. I'm watching the news, and they're discussing how "normal life" seems to have resumed right in the very streets where one of the loaded cars was found. Yet there appears to be some question that it has.

Of course life must go on as usual - it's the only thing we can do!

I found it particularly amusing that two of the three quotes in this Guardian piece about how bomb alerts and travel chaos failed to deter West End revellers last night, quoted Australians. Ah, she'll be right mate.

Car bomb found in central London

Nearly two years after the 7/7 bombings, London is waking up to the news that a fairly large bomb was found in a suspect car this morning, around the Piccadilly/Haymarket area of central London.

The whole area is cordonned off, and by the looks of it, will be all day.

I'm very happy to be working from home today, as I do on Fridays. It's times like this that I truly value working for an organisation like Dow Jones, that has a work-from-home program.

Let the gormandising begin!

This weekend saw the 4th annual Taste of London food and drink festival in Regent's Park. Even though it was scheduled to rain, thousands of people turned out for the 12-4pm time slot, on what ended up being a fantastic sunny day.

At the gates we were given a convenient menu, which listed each of the 40 restaurant's three dishes on offer. Oh god...the drooling started about then, and didn't really stop all afternoon.

Cold, fizzy whisky-based drinks were thrust into our hands as we walked past the first tent, and we stumbled into the Alessi Cookery School. A cooking lesson was starting, and we managed to get a couple of spaces.

Minutes later, a loud, bossy but very charming Italian chef was booming at us to switch on the stoves, and said that we'd be cooking a simple creamy pasta in the new Alessi Pasta Pot.

We prepped some peas, garlic, pancetta and threw it all into the pot to cook for a couple of minutes. We were then instructed to throw in the dry pasta and enough water to cover it...all in the same pot. This seemed counter-intuitive, but we were assured the pasta would cook properly.

Sure enough, the water eventually disappeared and we tipped in some cream, salt and pepper. Due to ridiculous health and safety regulations, we weren't allowed to actually eat what we'd made, but it looked pretty impressive for novices!

Having been whiffing pasta for 20 minutes, we were starving and set off in search of Asian-influenced Cocoon, who had Wagyu beef on Hot Rocks on offer. Stupidly, I didn't take a photo of the dish - or any of them for that matter. I was so engrossed in the taste that the idea of taking photos seemed a million miles away. The good people at Cocoon have included their recipe for Wagyu beef though. My obsession with the delicious marbled fatty Australian meat continues.

People mosied round, stuffing their faces with goumet delights and whatever free booze was on offer. Music floated through the air, and it was all very civilised. A foodie's paradise!

Next on my radar was the stall for Knightsbridge-based Brazilian restaurant, Mocoto. Their Moqueca - monkfish and shellfish coconut stew and rice, had caught my eye. It too was fabulous - a creamy, spicy seafood curry, that definitely tasted different from my usual preferred Thai curries. I definitely need to investigate South American cuisine, and have no good reason why I have not done so before. Shame on me.

A coupla dishes down, and we were thirsty. Threshers were sponsoring the Wine Experience, so lurched in to grab two seats, just in time for the Roses from Around the World session. We sampled wines from Germany, Argentina, Chile, Spain and California, with the Chilean Vina Carmen rose my pick of the bunch. At just under £6 a bottle from Waitrose, it was a great full-bodied rose.

At this stage, we may have been slightly tipsy, with a couple of the whisky-based fizzy drinks mixing with the roses and various gourmet meals. Surprisingly no one seemed massively pizzed, although the potential was certainly there.

Being an avid oyster fan, the oyster dish at One o One really took my fancy. Oh, I wish I'd taken a photo of the Cancale Tsarkaya oyster with Ozen quail egg, apple salsa and wasabi flying-fish caviar. It was a little piece of edible artwork. The chef suggested I down the quail egg first, and follow it with the oyster. The flavours were truly amazing...the melt-in-mouth quail egg, with the tang of apple, the creamy oyster, the ping of the flying fish caviar and the firey whiff of the wasabi. Oh my god...it was quite possibly the best oyster I've ever had. And I've had a few in my time.

I just love dishes where the flavours and textures have been skillful combined.

By chance, we stumbled past yet another wine tasting class at the Sud de France Wine Theatre. Perhaps it was because I'd already consumed a bit, but none of the wines that I sampled in that session did it for me. Oh well...each to their own. Some people were raving about the wine.

With a few Crowns (the currency of the festival) left, we decided to try a pudding. Kensington Places' Lime and Basil pannacotta was delicious. I've had a few pannacotta's recently, and I really like it as a dessert. I'm not particularly into cakes and big gooey puddings, but pannacotta seems like a nice way to finish a meal.

Our four hour gorge-fest seemed to fly by and soon we were being ushered out, as a dude from a stall that sold sea-salt scrubs from the Dead Sea snagged us and flogged us a tub of salt that made our hands feel really smooth. How this related to the food festival was beyond both Ant and I, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The Taste of London was a fantastic day out, and was a great way to experience some of London's top restaurants. All the stalls at which I didn't get to try something, will go onto my Wish List of Restaurants, as will all of those that did!

We finished the day with a tasty meal in China Town before heading home - stuffed but happy.

Off to the Concert for Diana - whoohooo!

So excited!! A very generous friend, who scored tickets to the Concert for Diana, offered me one. So we're trouping off to the new Wembley Stadium next Sunday afternoon for what I know will be a truly unforgetable experience.

I remember hearing about the famous Wembley Stadium as a kid in Oz - how artists would say they had played to a packed-out Wembley. It seemed larger than life, an iconic part of England.

And I remember Diana, a real life princess, the People's Princess - as a kid viewing her life from the other side of the world.

I remember watching her wedding, and her baptism into a globally public life. I saw the images of her marriage disintegrating as she raised her two sons...and I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing the day I heard the shocking news of her death.

It seems significant that her sons chose Wembley as the place to host a concert that marks the 10th anniversary of her death - and a celebration of her life.

And I feel extremely privileged to be going - thanks K :-). Stay tuned for pics and an update next week!

Snow in London

Once again England had a late winter, and we had a couple of huge dumps of snow that actually settled.

Snow never fails to make me feel like a kid, although the slipping and sliding isn't a good look...much nicer to be indoors watching it snow than having to be out in it....to say nothing of hte havoc it plays on the British rail system.

I confess, the night before this particular dump, they were predicting a snow fall. I woke up at 1am and went and had a peak out the window...sure enough there was a blanket of white. I squealed excitedly to myself and went back to sleep. Ah..the magic of snow!

Vinopolis - a wine-taster's delight

Wine tasting at Vinopolis is a fabulous way to spend an afternoon - just make sure you don't have to function responsibly after you leave.

We did the Vintage Wine Tasting tour and got to sample some awesome wines from all over the world. The benefit of wine-tasting at this place, is that you can try wines you may not do otherwise (I'm biased, so I tend to favour Australian wines). This particular day, we tried everything from Argentinian wines to authentic portuguese ports and some great reserve wines.



Set beneath the arches of an old Victorian viaduct, just behind Borough Markets at London Bridge, Vinopolis is a great venue for wine-tasting and corporate venues alike - Factiva held a customer event here a couple of years ago, and the unique nature of the venue makes it an unforgettable experience. Check it out!

Citizen journalism and the London Fire Brigade Exhibition

I love photography, it's importance in the news, and the way it provides a permanent reminder of a particular scene.

So the current exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery in London was a perfect way to spend an hour on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The London Fire Brigade Archive is a small exhibition at the gallery running until 17 September and features nearly 100 black and white images from the broader collection of some 300,000 images.

According to the official blurb: "The captions of each photograph will also form a prominent part of the exhibition. They document a verbal account of what happened which was recorded and attached to the back of the photograph. This documentation is a fascinating insight on how the recording and documentation of incidents has changed over the years."

Before you go into the actual exhibition, there is a smaller, equally engaging photo montage about how citizen journalism came into play during the July 7 bombings last year. It analysed which newspapers ran with some of the more shocking pictures taken with the mobile phones of commuters trapped in the various carriage and underground stations. It was still chilling to see those pictures more than a year later, but certainly interesting to see how citizen journalism did and will continue to re-shape the news agenda by providing pictures and commentary of world-changing events.

Categories: England, Photos/WIWT Archives

WIWT: Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace, London

The Changing of the Guard Ceremony at Buckingham Palace is something that I've always associated with London, and is something that I never tire of seeing!