Friday Night

Another busy week over. Friday was a very quiet day at work. The company had its AGM in the afternoon, so most people were at that. I stayed on at the office and did some tidying of my files.

We had a very pleasant evening though with Chris C and his wife Michelle. They are in town for a long weekend celebrating their anniversary and we arranged to have dinner together at The Laughing Gravy on Blackfriars Road. After the very tasty and convivial meal, we walked along the river to the Tate Modern and crossed the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul’s. Michelle seemed quite entranced and it reminded me yet again how easily you grow to take this magnificent city for granted. Then we cabbed it back to Covent Garden and on impulse took a tricycle-rickshaw down to Charing Cross. Our drivers got into the spirit of the evening and raced each other to see who could get there first; great fun (although hideously expensive at £4 per person.) By now, I’d taken on the mantle of Tour Guide, as Michelle seemed to be loving the sightseeing, and was planning to walk up through Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square into Chinatown and on to Soho before picking up a cab to the hotel.

In the end though, we only made it to Trafalgar as Brett was flagging considerably (it’s been a long week for both of us!) Chris & Michelle had invited us back to their hotel, so we hopped in a cab to Millbank where they were staying.

Chris had obviously spared no expense on the weekend; they were staying in a full suite on the twelfth floor overlooking the river, there was chilled champagne on the side and the maid had been in to sprinkle the bed with rose petals…

We all had a drink and admired the view (which from the twelfth floor is beautiful at night) but we didn’t want to outstay our welcome, so we only had the one before heading off. As we were pretty far west and pretty late (1ish, I think) we opted for a cab home and made good time.

A most enjoyable way to spend a Friday evening – and it reminded me how long it is since I’ve really visited home; the last time I saw Michelle she was pregnant with her third child, who is now two years old…