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!