Bordeaux - Chateâus et Terriors

Wednesday 25 July 2007
Yang met up with Allison and Aaron to watch a performance of the controversial yet lyrical Barber violin concerto as part of the BBC Proms. Unfortunately Allison's friend was unable to make the concert and efforts to give away her ticket on the day were not met with great success, which was a bit of a waste. A highlight of the evening (apart from the remarkable performance of the Barber concerto) was the Copland Symphony number 3. The main theme of the fourth movement is the Fanfare for the Common Man, also known by Aaron as "the cricket song" that they play on the Wide World of Sports on Channel 9 in Australia. Aaron was most impressed by the grand finale which involved a musician banging on an anvil with a hammer in each hand.

Thursday 26 July 2007
This evening, we met up with Tammy, Linus, Nicole and Jane at the ICAA Summer Drinks. We needed to get our annual subscription worth of drinks and canapes, as $536 for 12 magazines a year is quite ridiculous! The Summer Drinks was held at The Little Ship Club, on the bank of the Thames beside London Bridge. We also got to see some old faces from PwC Perth, and Sean's friends Ryan and Aaron from KPMG Perth, and some ex Shell work colleagues. Yang and I left soon after the bar tab finished, as we had an early start the next day.

Friday 27 July 2007
A huge thank you to EVERYONE who called, SMSed and emailed me birthday wishes this week, it was greatly appreciated and thanks for remembering (given I am so bad at remembering birthdays!).

So another early start this morning, as for Jason and Ammy who met us at Gatwick for our flight to Bordeaux for my Birthday weekend! I'm quite sure that I'm not alcoholic, however, it does seem quite coincidental that 2 years in a row I have visited vineyard regions, Champagne last year and Bordeaux (the largest wine growing region in the world) this year. I'll put it down to the beautiful Chateâus in both regions!

Visiting vineyards in Bordeaux is very different from driving around Margaret River, for example:

1. You have to book an appointment at least one month in advance (and this is often too late to get into the Premier Crus);

2. You often have to make the visit request in writing, which is made more difficult as the Chateâus don't have addresses (which is also annoying for navigating by GPS...or even by map!);

3. You don't just go for a tasting, you tour their estate from where the grapes are sorted, pressed, fermented, and aged in oak barrels. It is only after you do this tour (usually about 45 minutes) that you actually get to taste the wine;

4. The vineyards don't like groups, so tours are personal and for only a handful of people so all the tours we had were just for the 4 of us;

5. Wines are ranked by the Classification of 1855 according to a Château's reputation and trading price, and more recently the 2003 Cru Bourgeois classification (for new vineyards that were not included in the Classification of 1855); and

6. The Bordeaux wine region is spread over several areas, the main ones being Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Médoc, and Graves. Then in each of these regions are comprised of small villages with their approved appellations.

Today we visited the Médoc region which is famous for its complex red wines. Our first appointment was Château Lascombes, a Deuxièmes Cru, in the Margaux appellation. We visited their 18th Century Château, complete with steeples and vines; the Fermenting room; and the Cellars. The tour ended with a tasting of their first wine, Château Lascombes 2004 (named after the Château as for most Grand Crus), which they were selling for €57).

After this, we made our way through the Pauillac appellation and stopped at the fairytale looking Château Pichon Longueville, a Deuxièmes Cru. This Château was modelled on Château Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire Valley. Unfortunately our appreciation and view of this beautiful Château was impaired by renovation works being carried out on the Château.

Then it was time for lunch so we stopped at La Salamandre on the Quai Léon Perrier, the waterfront area of the village of Pauillac. Ammy and I had a trio of duck...yummy. Jason and Yang had steak but unfortunately for Yang, medium was well done so it wasn't very good. It is very unusual for the French to overcook their food, but this turned out to be a trend in this trip...

We were running slightly behind schedule so we sped out of La Salamandre and headed for our next appointment at Château Lafite-Rothschild, in the Pauillac appellation, which was actually quite hard to find, even though it is one of the largest in the Médoc. Château Lafite-Rothschild is a Premier Cru and producer of one of the world's most expensive red wines, prices range from £250 to £955 per bottle depending on the vintage. The Château is fronted by a lake and manicured gardens, but the actual Château wasn't as pretty as Château Lascombes. However, the Cellar blew us away...it was this huge underground circular temple. They actually hold concerts in there between Cellar times (otherwise the vibrations from the music and crowds would affect the aging process). We had our glass of Château Lafite-Rothschild 1994 in the Cellar and then headed outside to admire their vineyards.

We drove next door to Château Mouton Rothschild, also a Premier Cru and also part of the Pauillac appellation. The Château is one of many former homes of the Baron Philippe de Rothschild and his American born wife, Pauline. It is the most visited Château in southwestern France, but we didn't really see the attraction, so we just drove around and headed to Château Cos d'Estournel, a Deuxièmes Cru in the Saint-Estèphe appellation. This Château was beautiful, unfortunately it was closed for renovation so we were unable to walk the grounds.

By this time, we were due at our next appointment at Château Haut-Marbuzet, a Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, also in the Saint-Estèphe appellation. There was a stark difference in the size and quality of equipment in the Fermenting Room and Cellars of Château Haut-Marbuzet compared to Château Lafite-Rothschild and Château Lascombes...I guess because their bottles are a more reasonable priced at around €8 to €30. However, it was good to see a mix of vineyards and because our host knew the owner, Henri Duboscq, personally, she took a lot of pride in showing us around. We tasted one vintage of their first wine and two vintages of their second wine (Château Chambert Marbuzet and Château Tour de Marbuzet), which was another major difference as the previous 2 Châteaus only gave us a taste of one vintage. Then we were on the road again.

Our final appointment for the day was at Château Peyrabon, a Cru Bourgeois, in the village of Saint-Sauveur. This Château has recently been winning a string of awards for their 2001 to 2004 vintages for their Château La Fleur Peyrabon (our host graciously told us that vineyards for this label border on the vineyards of Château Lafite-Rothschild, and their blender is also from Château Lafite-Rothschild so the wine should be the same!), and their Château Peyrabon label. Given the numerous awards, the Château was in the process of expansion, and this was highlighted to us during the tour with the amount of new equipment on the property. Finally, we got to the tastings, which we thought would not end. Firstly, they poured us the vintages from 2002, 2003, and 2004 of their second wine, Château Pierbone; then the same vintages of their 2 first wines, Château Peyrabon and Château La Fleur Peyrabon. So after 9 glasses of tastings, we were all red wined OUT. Poor Yang, who was driving, had to stop after the Château Peyrabon which was sad given the Château La Fleur Peyrabon was actually a better first wine.

We took the Château route to Bordeaux and made a stop at the "Versailles of the Médoc", Château Margaux, a Premier Cru. The Château is a four-square palace with a columned portico in neo-Palladian style, it is actually a classified historical monument.


When we finally made it to the Bordeaux City Centre, we headed straight to La Tupina for my Birthday dinner. La Tupina is situated right behind La Porte de la monnaie, one of the old city gates. A big wood fire is situated right in the middle of the restaurant and is actually used to cook the food. Despite excellent reviews of this restaurant, we actually found it only so so...Yang's fish was overcooked, as was Jason's meat, and their famous roti-chicken that Ammy and I ate was nothing special...I actually had better chicken in the Oktoberfest Tents in Germany! Yang had arranged with the restaurant to bring me a birthday dessert, which was a nice end to the meal.

After dinner, we visited the gothic style Basilique Saint Michel with its impressive Bell Tower, Fleche Saint Michael (which is separate from the Basilique like the Italian Campaniles, and the tallest in Gironde). Then we took an evening drive along the Quai and over Pont de Pierre to see Bordeaux at night. Finally, very weary, we checked into the Hotel de la Presse for a good night's sleep after a very long day, but it was a great birthday and one I definitely won't forget!

Saturday 28 July 2007
After grabbing a quick breakfast at Brioche Dorée we headed to Chateâu de La Brède, where Montesqueieu (a famous Bordeaux figure) was born and lived. The Chateâu is in the Gothic style and surrounded by a man made lake and moats. However, due to bad planning on my part, I didn't check the opening hours (I assumed it was open from 10am) but it is only open from 2pm to 6pm (the French and their funny opening hours) so we didn't get to go in.

So we drove on to Barsac in the Sauternes and Barsac region, which is famous for their sweet white wines (i.e. stickies). First we visited Château Piada, a family run Château. We tasted 3 vintages of their label and being reasonably priced, we bought a bottle of their 2003, which had won some wine award.

Our next Château was Clos Haut-Peyraguey, a Premiers Cru. The host here didn't speak any English at all, so we did a tour of the Fermenting room and Cellars in French and just smiled and pretended to understand what he was saying by repeating what we thought he said in English to each other...it was pretty funny actually. We also enjoyed this sticky and given we had taken up the kind gentleman's time, we also bought a bottle from here.

By the time we finished at Château Clos Haut-Peyraguey, it was the 12pm Vineyard "mandatory" close for lunch time, so we just drove around to see the Château d'Yquem and the Château de Malle before heading back to Bordeaux for lunch at a restaurant called Le Cinq.



After lunch we joined a walking tour of Bordeaux. Bordeaux is not just famous for its wine, it has also been a major port since pre-Roman times, and on 28 June 2007 it was officially included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites (it is the largest urban entity to be so honoured). Also, in 2004, there was a huge clean-up of the Bordeaux town centre, where the streets were pedestrianised and the city's elegant 18th century buildings restored and buffed clean. The walking tour took us to:

- Esplanade des Quinconces with its lavishly decorated Monument aux Girondins, a fountain in the form of statues symbolizing the Triumph of Concord and of the Republic. It is crowned by a statue of Liberty breaking free of her shackles;






- Place Tourny and its many Café and Majestic houses (where the prosperous bourgeois showed off their wealth), the facades of which survived the French Revolution.


- Eglise Notre Dame de Bordeaux



- Grande Theatre with its statues of the nine Muses and the goddesses Juno, Minerva and Venus. It also has a Great Staircase which inspired Garnier’s design for the staircase at the Paris Opera;





- Place de la Bourse, flanked by the Bourse (old Stock Exchange) and the Hotel des Fermes (Musee des Douanes);







- Porte Cailhau city gate which was is part of the original defensive medieval walls (there is a great gelateria behind it too!).







The official walking tour finished here, but we continued on our own walking tour of:
- La Grosse Cloche
- Cathedrale Saint-André and its belfry tour Pey-Berland (separate form the Church) (pictured)
- Hotel de Ville
- Rue de Catherine (pedestrianised shopping street)
- Basilique Saint Seurin, it has archaeological crypts with 4th to 18th century tombs.
- Palais Gallier, 2nd century, the only vestige of ancient Burdigala, as Bordeaux was known in Gallo-Roman times. It was an amphitheatre that seated 15000 people.

Then straight onto dinner at L'Estacade on the Quai de Queyries with great views of Place de la Bourse and the Pont de Pierre (a beautiful bridge over the Garonne River commissioned by Napoleon). The restaurant was so cool (no wonder it was fully booked and they were turning people away at the door), it was kind of like the Red Herring in Fremantle but with much better views. The food was great this time as well...luckily for Yang who hadn't been having the luckiest time with his food this trip. (Continuing the over cooked food trend, Jason's meat was over cooked.) After dinner we walked along the Quai de Queyries to take photos.

Sunday 29 July 2007
We said goodbye to Bordeaux this morning and made our way to Saint-Émilion, another UNESCO World Heritage site. I had high expectations of Saint-Émilion as everyone who has been there had raved about the town. I wasn't disappointed, it was quaint and picturesque, being at the top of a hill surrounded by vineyards and Châteaus.

For breakfast, we grabbed canelés, a Bordeaux speciality, they look like mini fluted cakes and have a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust flavoured with rum and vanilla; and macaroons, a Saint-Émilion speciality (these aren't like the macaroons you get in Paris...La Duree is so much better!). Both these delicacies were created by the town's nuns in the 15th century.

To get a feel for the vineyards (which were closed on a Sunday for tastings), we hopped on the Le Train des Grands Vignobles and traveled around the many vineyards that surrounded the town. These included the beautiful Château Ausone, Château la Gaffelière and Château Bel-Air.

After the train ride, we joined the Tourist Office's “an Extraordinary grouping of Underground Monuments” tour that included the:
- Monolithic church, dug out of solid limestone, its volume makes it the largest of Europe;
- Catacombs with a mass grave and tombs
- St Emilian’s Hermitage, carved out of a natural grotto
- Chapelle de la trinité (Trinity Chapel) built in honour of Emilian and situated on top of his hermitage.
These monuments are not usually open to the public so we needed to join the tour to see them. Unfortunately photography was not permitted as the monuments were privately owned...in any event, the monolithic church was enormous and I don't think photos would have done it justice.

We also walked around the picturesque hilly paths of the town and saw the:
- Collegiate Church, its organ and the cloister;
- Chateâu du Roy (King’s Tower), the keep of what remains of the King’s Castle. It is used annually for the Jurade in September where the official announcement of the Harvest is made (i.e. vineyards are not able to begin harvesting until this announcement).

We had lunch at Bistrot le Clocher on Place de l’Eglise Monolithe at the foot of the Monolithic Church’s Bell Tower (the second tallest bell tower in Gironde after Saint Michel Church in Bordeaux).

After lunch, my Birthday weekend was sadly coming to an end as we drove to the Bordeaux Airport and caught our flight back to London. But it was a FANTASTIC Birthday weekend. Thanks to Yang, Jason and Ammy for coming out and sharing it with me!

Hamburg - London's bad weather continues

Monday 16 July 2007
I caught the first BA flight to Hamburg this morning for work. For once, the flight actually arrived 15 minutes early…amazing given all our flights recently have been delayed by ½ hour or more. Work was stressful as normal, and made more so by the fact that most of their documentation is in German so we were using a German-English Translation website a lot. Given my colleague and I had both woken up at 5am that morning to catch our respective flights, we left work just after 5:30pm, checked into the Radisson SAS, and walked around the Gänsemarkt area. Following a recommendation from the Country Tax Manager, we headed to the Harbour area in search of food, and then the taxi driver suggested we try Fischereihafen, the most famous restaurant in Hamburg. The entrance to the restaurant didn’t look very “famous”, nevertheless we went in (as we were now quite far from the main strip of restaurants) and saw three walls full of photos of the proprietor with famous celebrities, including Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Ex Russian President Mikhail Gorbechov. We learnt later that the Fischereihafen’s reputation as the most famous Hamburg restaurant is because it is “the” place to come for seafood, and we weren’t disappointed with our meal, the seafood was really fresh (well the Fish Market is next door!).

Tuesday 17 July 2007
We worked latish, until about 7:30pm and then headed to the Tafelhaus, also on the Harbour, for dinner. The maitre’d gave us a nice table with a view over the Harbour so we could appreciate what a large shipping destination Hamburg is. The containers were being moved on and off ships, and ships were entering and leaving the Harbour throughout our dinner.

Wednesday 18 July 2007
The Tax Team took us out for dinner this evening at another Hamburg dining institution: Paolino, an Italian restaurant on the banks of the Lake Alster. The food was really good, and it was a welcome change to have something other than seafood. After dinner, the Country Tax Manager insisted on driving us around Hamburg to see the main sights, which included:

- Atlantis Hotel, where a scene from Tomorrow Never dies was filmed
- Rathaus (Town Hall)
- Reeperbahn (Hamburg’s Red Light District)
- Harbour (yes again)
- Rickmer Rickmers (a museum ship) docked at Landungsbrucken
- Hafencity (Hamburg’s equivalent of the Docklands, but with much nicer canals)

Thursday 19 July 2007
Dinner this evening was at Das Kleine Rote. We should have realized from the Maserati in the car park that this place was going to be expensive…oh well, it was a business expense! We finished relatively early so after dropping our bags at the hotel, I went walking around the town centre as it was still light (the sun has been setting at around 10pm over the last few days). Hamburg is actually a really pretty city. There are lots of nice canals and bridges, interesting architecture and a skyline scattered with large Church steeples. I guess there may not be much to see here from a tourist perspective (although it is the second largest German city), but you can’t complain about being sent here for business, as there are lots of nice restaurants, many with outdoor seating areas overlooking the lake or situated on the canals.

Binnenalster; Rathaus; Kunsthalle

Friday 20 July 2007
After a very busy morning of meetings, my colleague and I headed to the Hamburg Airport to catch our flight back to London. Unfortunately for us, torrential rain had hit London (where has the British summer gone?) so air control were not letting planes land at Heathrow (most probably a good idea after the plane crash in Brazil earlier this week). As a result my flight was delayed 3 hours. Then when I got into London, there were severe delays on all tube lines due to flooding, which added more time to my journey, and consequently affected my three engagements that evening.

My first stop was Waterloo to temporarily store my luggage from the trip, then I went across the road to my work colleague's farewell drinks at Arch One, although I only had time to stay for one. Then I met Yang, who had organised my Birthday dinner at Pétrus, London's latest two Michelin star restaurant, at the Berkley. We had the Tasting Menu, that was really tasty, and was complemented at the end by their 'truffle and macaroon' trolley (they also gave you a box of your favourite ones to take home too!), oh and the service was amazing...almost as good as the original Gordon Ramsay...if only they had the same maitre'd.

After dinner, our final engagement this evening was Ryan's Birthday Drinks. We were too late for the kick-off at Arch Angel, so we met Ryan and the rest of his friends at The Roof Gardens. I had previously been to Babylon (the restaurant at The Roof Gardens) but this was my first visit to the Night Club, as it is Guest List only, and luckily for us Ryan had gotten us on the Guest List. It isn't called the Roof Gardens just for fun either, apart from the huge indoor area, it is surrounded by gardens which have views over London. There is so much to say about it, so if you are really interested, see the review. The music was pretty good too...it's been ages since I've been clubbing and out so late!

Saturday 21 July 2007
We met Tammy and Linus in Knightsbridge for an Australian (in particular Melbourne) property seminar (we came out empty handed) before meeting up with Jason, Ammy, Peter, Phuong and their friends for dim sum at Alisan, a Chinese Restaurant in Wembley Park. Today's lunch was an after-run gathering for Ammy and her friends who had participated in the 5km Run for Cancer Research UK in Regents Park. Alisan's claim to fame is that they poached a Chef from the Michelin star Yauatcha. We weren't disappointed with the quality of the food; it was slightly better than Royal China, and not as expensive. Their siew long bao (Shanghai dumplings) were absolutely delicious...we must have ordered 6 in total for the table.

After lunch, Yang and I headed to Bond Street for shopping, fortunately there were no major purchases today! By the time we had wandered around aimlessly for a few hours, it was time for our pre-theatre meal with T&L, Ryan, Nicole and James at Getti, an Italian Restaurant on Marylebone High Street. We had a pretty quick dinner, and no time for dessert so a few of us picked up some goodies from Le Pain de Quotidien before rushing to Regents Park, and meeting up with Alli and Aaron for a performance of Lady be Good at the Open Air Theatre. Thankfully the rain clouds held out for most of the evening, although it was really cold!

Following the performance we all headed to The Volunteer on Baker Street for a few drinks. Yang, Ryan and I left shortly after midnight to catch the last train home but Linus was in a partying state so he stayed on with Tammy, Jason, A&A until the wee hours!

Sunday 22 July 2007
L&T, Tammy's Grandpa (Morris), Yang and I headed to Leeds Castle late this morning. By the time we had weaved through the dodgy streets of Peckham and Lewisham in South East London to get to the Castle, it was midday so our first stop was lunch at the Ten Bells in Leeds Village. I would have to say that this is one of the most disappointing pub lunches I have had...the meat was dry and the gravy tasted like it came out of a jar.

After purchasing our tickets, we walked off lunch by strolling through the Duckery, a garden area set aside for ducks and other bird life, and the park lands before touring the Castle.

We also watched a Falconry Exhibition, which was surprisingly very impressive. I don't think I have seen a vulture before...maybe when I was a lot younger?





Then the competition hotted up between Yang and I as we tried to make it to the centre of the Maze first...Yang succeeded (that's two in a row now...pooh!). The Leeds Castle Maze was so much better than the Hampton Court Palace Maze, and I would say even better than Blenheim just because of how there is a Grotto in the centre that goes underground below the Maze to get you out.


The last attraction on the grounds we visited was the Aviary and I got to see a live Toucan...they look like toys! It's pretty sad to see birds caged, looking up and squawking at the birds flying free above them.

As the castle closed, we headed to Hammersmith for dinner at Latymers, a pub with a Thai Restaurant at the back (Karen, do you remember this place? The food is just as good, especially the Panang Prawns!). Then I headed home whilst T&L, Yang and Jason headed to the Steve Vai Concert at the Hammersmith Apollo.


It was a perfect day to be out...blue skies and warm weather...finally!

Glasgow - Harry Potter Mania

Thursday 12 July 2007
Yang attended Monckton Chambers' summer party in the walks at Gray's Inn today. Unfortunately there's nothing terribly exciting to report about a bunch of lawyers standing around in a tent.




Friday 13 July 2007
I met up with Yang, L&T, and Ryan at Royal Albert hall for the Opening Night of the BBC Proms. Like Wimbledon, the BBC Proms is something I have been to for the last three years. The soloist for this concert was performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor. This piece has been one of Yang’s favourites since I flew him to Sydney to listen to it in the Sydney Opera House. We have also heard it at the Concert Hall in Perth. After this Concerto, which Yang said lacked the “urgency” required not to mention the soloist's difficulty with his intonation in places, we all trotted down to El Gaucho in Kensington for some Argentinean steak. It was not the fanciest of restaurants, but given the clientèle were mainly Argentinean and the steaks were flown from Argentina (okay, not a very carbon neutral restaurant), it didn’t disappoint in terms of food quality.

Saturday 14 July 2007
We took a 5am mini cab pick-up this morning to Gatwick for our flight to Glasgow. On our itinerary this morning was:
- St George’s Square







- Glasgow Necropolis, graveyard of famous Glaswegians








- Glasgow Cathedral







- Kelvinhall Museum, which is like the Science, Natural History, British, Tate Modern, and Tate Britain all in one



Then we stopped for lunch at Two Fat Ladies, a seafood restaurant. No, no one at the restaurant was fat. It has its name because the address is 88 Dunbarton Street. After lunch we continued to:
- Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), and not being a fan of Modern Art, this museum did nothing to change my views
- Shopping on Buchannan Street (where Yang picked up his 31st Birthday present 3 months in advance), Buchannan Galleries (where I picked up another hat…I love hats!), Princes Square, Ingram Street and the Italian Centre.
-The People's Palace and Winter Gardens.





Dinner this evening was at Rococo, which uses only locally sourced produce and apparently has the best haggis in Scotland. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no haggis on the menu as their menu changes daily. Rococo has also won several AA Rosettes.

Sunday 15 July 2007
Finally…what I had been waiting excitedly for all week….Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 3D at the IMAX in the Science Centre. Not only was the movie really quite enjoyable (although the book is still better), it was so cool to see the final scene (from when they fly to the Ministry of Magic) in 3D. I can't wait until the final book comes out this Saturday as well...Yang bought me the special edition so I am going to be spending all weekend reading I think!

After the movie, we headed back to the City Centre for a quick lunch at Red Onion before catching the train from the Central Station to Pollock Country Park for the Burrell Collection and Pollock House, an 18th century mansion.. The Burrell collection consists of 9,000 works of art collected by Sir William Burrell from his teens until his death in his late 90s. In the Pollock Country Park, we got to see a Scottish highland cow grazing.

We then headed back into town and went back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport. Having seen some of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's work in the Kelvinhall, we didn't find his architecture terribly exciting so we skipped this part of our itinerary.

Overall Glasgow was not as horrible as people make it out to be. We found it quite clean and modern and the people were generally quite nice. We certainly didn't receive any Glaswegian Kisses! We would probably still consider Edinburgh to be the place to visit in Scotland if you were only going to one city in Scotland, but Glasgow was certainly worth a visit.

London - Live Earth and live sheep

Monday 2 July
Sean arrived in London tonight for a short holiday in London/Denmark/The Netherlands.

Tuesday 3 July & Wednesday 4 July
Sean and Yang flew to Denmark for their visit at the Bang & Olufsen factory in Struer, in north west Denmark. They flew into Copenhagen and spent the day there before taking a train to Struer. Sean hasn't been to Denmark before so Yang gave him a whistlestop tour, including Tivoli Gardens, the Town Hall, Frederik's Church, Amalienborg Palace, and the Copenhagen Opera House, followed by a drink by the canals in Nyhavn. After strolling down the pedestrianised shopping area Strøget, they headed to the train station to catch their train to Struer.

Struer is a small farming and port town 357 km from Copenhagen. It is literally on the other side of the country and the train journey took around 4.5 hours.

B&O was founded in 1925 by two young engineers who had met in college. The first products were made in Olufsen's parent's house and their first factory was designed to be sold for use as a school or a block of flats after their project failed (there's confidence for you). However, 82 years later B&O occupies a series of factories by the ocean in Struer, with the main building comprising a glass and steel structure, named "The Farm". Complete with grazing sheep.

The next morning Yang woke up to find that his bed was wet. After checking that he didn't have an "accident" during the night, it turned out that the roof was leaking. After a quick breakfast downstairs, they jumped in a taxi to take them to The Farm for their tour.

Unfortunately the taxi dropped Sean and Yang at the wrong building. After wandering around the building looking for the reception (there was absolutely no security there), a kind employee set aside his breakfast to get his car and drive them to the main building (as it was raining). In the meantime they were left standing next to the recycling bin containing unshredded documents and rejected design drawings.

The tour was quite interesting (although they got lost and found themselves once again wandering around the factory unaccompanied) and it was interesting to see the care and attention to detail the workers used when making their products. They also saw parts being made for BMW cars (B&O is one of the largest aluminium manufacturers - hence most of their products are made from anodised aluminium instead of plastic) and visited parts of the building that are used for product photos in their catalogues.

After the tour ended, they headed straight for the train station and took the 4.5 hour train back to Copenhagen, stopping off at Strøget for Sean to buy a pair of white pants for Sensation White and for Yang to buy me a Tempur pillow, before heading to the airport (to find their flight delayed and that the BA lounge was closing early).

Overall they had a good trip. The Danish people were really friendly, except for a freaky muttering bag-lady on the train to Struer who smelled and ate an entire chicken (with Turkish bread, chips and salad) by herself. However, the service there was painfully slow, but then half of their meals were from McDonalds (due to rushing for trains and planes).

Thursday 5 July
After lunch, my work colleagues and I headed to Wimbledon to watch the Championships. We had been planning on going for some time but rain delays meant it wasn't worth our time heading there. As it was past half way through the Championships, there wasn't any seeded players on the outer courts, so we ended up watching the Hewitt v Djokovic match on the Hill (very disappointing..Hewitt actually played quite well and it was bad luck with all the tie breaks); and then Federer v Ferrero match before it was interrupted by rain. After waiting for the clouds to clear for 40 minutes, we decided it wasn't going to happen so we headed back to London. Well at least I got my Wimbledon Towel; I have been collecting one each year for the last three years I've been (one of the few souvenirs I actually collect!).

Back in London, I walked around Covent Garden to pass time...it was not a good idea as I ended up buying more clothes as the Reiss sale had finally started! Then I arrived fashionably late at Guanabara for Sean's Catch-Up drinks.

Friday 6 July
After work, Yang and I had dinner at Pied a Terre, a Michelin star restaurant in Fitzrovia. The food was nice, but we were disappointed that the two glasses of Billecart-Salmon Demi-Sec they poured were flat...so it pretty much tasted like white wine, albeit really expensive glasses.

Then we headed for Linus' and Tammy's "4 Years Anniversary in London" Celebration drinks at the Porterhouse. The Porterhouse was a really cool, split level pub with interesting beers (although not all of them were to everyone's taste).

Saturday 7 July
Yang and I woke up extremely early for a Saturday to make it for the Harrods opening at 10am. This weekend I had an additional 10% off on all sale and normal priced merchandise. I ended up buying a Collette Dinnigan dress...I'm not sure when I am going to get to wear it though. We had a quick lunch at Yo Sushi! and then Yang headed to Harvey Nichols and I met up with Jason and we headed to Wembley Park for Live Earth!

This was another huge concert with heaps of great performers. Not sure which concert I enjoyed more...this or Concert for Diana. Concert for Diana had more variety and more songs I recognised, but Live Earth had so many "get up off your seat and dance songs". I loved the Black Eyed Peas as they were so energetic; Snow Patrol got the crowd going with Crashing Cars; Red Hot Chilli Peppers played my favourite song of theirs...Can't Stop (I love the opening guitar riff); and Keane and Metallica were also highlights for me.

Snow Patrol, Black Eyed Peas, Keane

Whilst I was at Live Earth, Yang went to Alli and Aaron's flat in Angel to give them a quick tutorial in Lightroom, as Alli had a boat load of photos to process following her trip to Croatia. The three of them then went to Green Park to meet Linus, Tammy, Olivia and Felix to see the Tour de France time trials. Unfortunately there were so many people there that it made taking photos rather difficult. So they called it a day and decided to get a drink instead. Unfortunately, due to all the people around that area it was impossible to get in anywhere (in particular the Hard Rock Cafe). Furthermore it was impossible to get a cab so after walking for an hour, they ended up at St Christopher's Place.

Yang, Olivia, Alli and Aaron had dinner at Busaba Eathai (yes it was dinner time by the time they got there) before Yang went to join me (I had left Live Earth after Metallica performed) at Tower Hill to see Elvis Costello with the Allen Toussaint Band & Horns as part of the Tower Music Festival. We didn't know a single song...he didn't play any of his famous ones...so I kinda of wished I had stayed longer at Live Earth.

After the concert we met my cousin Ben from Melbourne who was stopping by in London on his way to Sheffield. We brought him back to Hotel Yang & Sonia where he could rest after his long plane journey before he caught his bus for Sheffield in the morning.

Sunday 8 July
At a time much too early to be waking up on a Sunday morning, I took Ben to catch his ride to Sheffield and bid him goodbye. I was still able to get a little more sleep before we had to meet Linus and Tammy at their house later that morning.

We had a slow (thanks to the traffic heading to Wimbledon) Sunday afternoon drive through Surrey with Tammy and Linus to Hampton Court Palace, a former Royal Palace. Our first stop was lunch on the outdoor terrace of the Rivers Edge Brasserie, which as the name suggests is on the banks of the River Thames. It was fantastic to be able to finally enjoy an al-fresco lunch outside after the last two weeks of rain in London.

After lunch we explored the Hampton Court Palace Gardens, which were extremely busy as the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was taking place in the Home Park (and therefore we didn't get to see any deer!).

Our first stop was their famous hedge maze (and this is a picture of the Tammy and Linus trying to copy a picture in the brochure!)...I'm not sure why it is so famous as it was pretty disappointing compared to the one at Blenheim Palace. Yang successfully navigated to the end of the Maze first. The other key highlights of the Hampton Court Palace Gardens were the:

- Lion Gate;


- Privy Garden (the King's private gardens);







- Great Fountain Garden;







- Pond Gardens (sunken flower gardens with ornamental ponds);






- Great Vine (planted in 1768, it still produces grapes); and
- Banqueting House (overlooking the River Thames, it was used by King William III for intimate parties).

Then we visited the actual Palace, which was mainly in a Tudor style and visited the Fountain Court, Tudor Kitchens, Chapel Royal (where Henry VIII was married to his last wife Catherine Parr), Queen's State Apartments, King Apartments, Henry VIII's State Apartments, Georgian Rooms, Wolsey Rooms, Clock Court.

The Palace was huge so our visit actually took longer than anticipated and we only finished just as the Palace was closing.

Unfortunately, the Hampton Court Flower Show was also finishing at this time so the traffic was horrendous as we headed to Richmond. Almost an hour later, we finally arrived and sat ourselves down on the terrace of the Pitcher and Piano for a well deserved drink by the river. Then after Ryan met us, we had dinner at Bar Estilo, a nearby tapas restaurant. The food was good, much better than La Tasca or Barcelona Tapas (the tapas chains in London).

We said our goodbyes to Linus and Tammy who drove back to West Hampstead (THANKS Linus for driving us around the whole day!) and then Ryan, Yang and I caught the overland train to Waterloo and made our way home. What a full-on weekend...I'm not sure how I am going to survive work this week!