Saturday, April 21, 2012

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.

Friday, April 13, 2012

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.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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.

Friday, April 06, 2012

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....

Thursday, April 05, 2012

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.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

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!