London January

We welcomed in the New Year with the best fireworks we had ever seen in front of Big Ben. We were so impressed with them, as well as the feeling of the crowd and how surprisingly uncrowded it was. After a great start to the year, many people had warned us that January was the dullest, most miserable month of the year in London. They were not wrong.

Although the snow stayed away, the weather was cold and gray with only 2 days of sunshine in the whole month. After indulging during the festive season, now was the time for being sensible and alcohol free (in preparation for the NZ summer that we were going to hit), which didn't help the mood of misery.

Nonetheless, the Bandits refused to let London win. Hamish got out and about with a new rugby team; Louise focused on her new job and got stuck into some healthy recipes and into the gym.

We also ventured out every now and then. First up we visited the Churchill War Rooms, which are situated in the bunker where Churchill directed British troops in World War 2. The rooms were kept in really good condition, and they had done a great job at putting together an exhibition on Churchill’s life. You could really see why and how he won the support of so many Britons during the war. We leaned some amazing facts, like he was 65 when he was made Prime Minister during the war, and although he lost the election immediately following the war, he was re elected back into Prime Minister when he was 75. I find this amazing; I am already finding that I am loosing the plot a little at 26! (And Hamish definitely is).

This solider didn't move one bit....

Not too happy about this one

Recreation of what it was like 60 years ago

Outside 10 Downing St (the fake one)

We also had a nice afternoon of scones and jam in one of the bunker rooms, which was cool.
Another excursion we had was to Covent Garden Markets. To be honest we weren't that impressed, there were a load of overpriced stalls and very expensive shops with thousands of tourists running around. And we got really sick of the buskers, get a new trick will ya?

The highlight of January (for me anyway) was the long awaited High Tea at the 5 star Claridge's hotel. I booked this in October, which shows how full it gets. We booked the 5pm sitting, which meant we were quite hungry when we turned up (done on purpose).

It looks like Hamish is taking a photo of me, but its actually the car behind me

We got dressed up to the nines, and Hamish didn’t even complain too much about wearing a suit on the weekend. The hotel itself is amazing, the chandeliers and the paintings were incredible and they had open fires and huge vases of flowers everywhere. It was so so classy.

We had a lovely spot in the corner so we could people watch without looking too obvious. We each had to choose the flavour of tea we wanted, Hamish went for traditional Earl Grey and I went for French Vanilla. It actually tasted like melted French Vanilla ice cream, amazing. 

Next came the sandwich course, all on different breads with their crusts cut off, there were salmon, chicken, ham, and cucumber. All YUM. We polished off those pretty quickly, and then the waiter came round and asked if we wanted another plate.  

We said yes.
Next was the scone course, there were raisin scones and apple scones with tea infused jam and clotted cream. My favourite course for sure. Clotted cream needs to make an appearance in Australasia.

Then was the desert course, this was incredible. The attention to detail was out of this world; there was lemon and lavender cake, this weird banana chocolate raspberry tart, this strawberry jelly custard thing and this chocolate brownie. And then the waiter came round and asked if we wanted another plate.

We said yes.

After the second helping of all three courses (and 2 and a half hours later), we felt that we had got our moneys worth. We got a nice gift of Claridge's blend of English Breakfast Tea to take home.  

So, we spent $150 on a cup of tea, but we felt it was well worth it.

It is also worth noting that Louise felt sick with the amount of food we had, but Hamish still felt like dinner when we got home 40 mins later…

HIghlight: Claridge's was high point of January, mainly as it as warm and yummy.

Lowlight: Two days of sunshine in about 40.

Interesting fact #1: You can pay extra at Claridge's for this tea that is hand picked at dawn in some random country. Bet that tastes good.

Interesting fact #2: When you drink about 8 cups of tea at night, you can't sleep that night. At all.