The log cabin arrives....

The long awaited arrival of the log cabin finally happened today, 8 hours of labour by 3 people & it's complete - all bar a bit of tweaking & painting.

UPDATE 25/04/2012 : I think I might give the new arrival a name, I shall call it "The Ark" as I think it might float away after all the rain today! Still, it could be worse, if it had rained like this before or on the day I am sure it would have delayed the installation.

The decorators have been.....

After a few weeks of negotiation and preparation, the team of decorators have finally been in and worked their magic on a few rooms at Rice Towers, feature walls covered in wallpaper are back in apparently, muted colours and floral patterns. I'll take their word for it. It all looks good & the paper is still on the walls a few days after they started, so at least they got the pasting part right.

Hopefully this will continue....

A bit of good fortune, it appears that the hose pipe ban affecting most of the southern UK hasn't been imposed in Hampshire & IoW again. I don't know why this is, maybe the mighty River Test has something to do with it?

I shall continue to conserve water by collecting as much rainfall as possible in my 2,000 litre rainwater storage capacity - I still have 1,200 litres available.

The new East End windows...

Canary Wharf looks so much more complete now, still a way to go, but much better than when I first visited 15 years ago.

I hope the Olympic legacy of infrastructure will continue to operate after everyone has gone home. I watched on today & saw a group of youths destroy 2 Barclays Boris bikes they had stolen from the local docking station - I fear the infrastructure may not be there in future....

Slumming it in Mayfair....

Today I was mostly to be found in Westminster & Mayfair......

The day started in the Palace of Westminster for a tour & a bit of lunch. Then a bit of retail therapy in the land of St James's, dinner at Il Vicolo with host Giacomo Bonavita was fantastic, then onto Dukes Bar at Dukes Hotel where I was greeted by Bar Manager Alessandro Palazzi (who had been tipped off for my arrival by Giacomo) many of his legendary Cocktail's were had.

Longstock Water Gardens

A nice day was had visiting Longstock Park Water Gardens near Stockbridge. The first day they have been open in 2012 showed off the gardens in brilliant sunshine & the early sign's of Spring were apparent across the gardens. Some of the plants look pre-historic now & when they have grown will look even more impressive.

Tea & cake was taken at the Nursery Tea Room, where lovely ladies from the local churches had baked in order to raise funds. A worthwhile £3 investment on my part gave the return of coffee & walnut cake & a nice cup of tea!