Tim and Helen come to stay

We’ve got Phil‘s Bristol mates Tim and Helen staying this weekend, and after a leisurely morning Tim and Helen arrived in time for a late lunch, after which we headed out for our local guided tour, taking in Smithfield/Farringdon, St Barts, St Pauls, the Wobbly Bridge, Tate Modern (where we revisited Rachel Whiteread’s Embankment (white plastic moulds of cardboard box interiors, which bear a striking resemblance to giant sugar cubes), Bankside to the Royal Festival Hall – where Phil succumbed to the lure of scaffold-and-sheet-wrapped buildings, lit up by the late afternoon sun (it must be catching) – and then across Hungerford Bridge, then into Trafalgar Square, popping into the National Gallery and then catching the bus from Shaftesbury Avenue up to Islington.

This latter section (i.e. from Bankside onwards) was an extension to the usual round trip, but allowed for an evening in Islington, featuring time for shopping in the Angel centre (or whatever it’s called), an early viewing of Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-rabbit (all the better for spotting Jay’s name second in the list of animator credits, and Jay and Fi’s baby Felix name checked in the ‘babies born en route’ credits a little later on) rounded off with a scrummy meal at the habitual Giraffe. Then a stroll home to atone for the feast.

Flatwarming tomorrow….