London

Happy Birthday Princess Shiny Bright!
I did my rendition of 'Happy Birthday dear Ja....an!' when we were both barely awake and that set the tone for the day.
Good night's sleep and no early morning alarm so that is a bonus.  Had a bit of steady rain overnight but nothing this morning. Took our time getting ourselves up and moving and then headed out onto the Strand where we ended up at Starbucks for a late breakfast. Then back to our room to plan our day.  Down to the Concierge to check out a couple of shows we were both interested in seeing.  Would have liked to see 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' tonight but it is booked out and no more shows until Tuesday night when we leave so that won't work for us.  However we have been able to book a show for tomorrow afternoon.  it is new on here and is a comedy, 'The Play That Went Wrong'.  Hopefully it is as good as we have been told. Then on the underground and a bus to Battersby to see Jan's uncle Frank.  He is 90 years old and an absolute gentleman.  He is so sprightly and 'with it'. Some of you may remember previous mention of him some time ago, due to his involvement in the 'Beltie conspiracy' at the London end.
Anyhow, I hadn't been in his apartment 2 minutes (hadn't even made it to the lounge room to sit down) when he insisted on giving me some lovely linen serviettes. They will certainly get some use at future high teas and Princess events. We got on famously and he is so interesting to hear all his stories from the old days.  Just to give you some idea of what he has packed into his life, his stories were laced with involvement in some way or another with such identities as the Krey brothers, Sir Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton. In fact we had lunch at a pub that the latter was very keen on! Here's a photo of 'The 'Fox on the Hill'.

 and here's a photos of the 3 amigos.

We had  a lovely lunch and all too soon it was time for our taxi back to Frank's place. We've had a lovely afternoon.  Weather was fine and we'll certainly catch up with him again before we have to head home.  Bus and train back to our hotel. Did a little bit of tourist souvenir shopping in a little store near the hotel.  Then back to our room for a re-group, back to the Concierge to confirm shuttle pick ups to the airport for Tuesday and made a plan for our day tomorrow.  As we have decided that we need to have high tea in London during our stay, we were planning on going to the Savoy, however the delightful fellow in the Concierge office suggested an alternative venue that is a 2 minute walk away.  We headed off to the place and have now booked our Viennese afternoon tea for Monday.  Then as it was still so pleasant outside we took a wander along the Thames.  Were thinking of having dinner at one of the restaurants on the Thames but the the birthday girl decided she really wanted pasta, and as she is still a 'kept' woman we wandered back towards our hotel to 'Salieri' where we had a really lovely pasta dinner. 

When we placed the drink order I told our lovely waitress that the champagne was for Jan as it was her birthday. So when we had finished our meal she gave us both a complimentary cocktail - Limoncello on ice, to celebrate Jan's birthday.  How nice was that? Jan initially said 'no' to the drink, saying that she doesn't normally like cocktails but gave in and then as you would guess, loved it! The old fellow eating dinner on his own at the table next to us started laughing at Jan and so we struck up a conversation with him.  He is from Queensland. Had a chat with him for a while and then back to our hotel where we finally got the tv working (with the aid of a maintenance fellow) which made Jan happy and then a very leisurely evening and thankfully an early night (well at least early for us so far.
It really has been a very pleasant day and Jan is a very satisfied birthday girl!