He's back!

After all that culture in the Long Night of the Museums, what better way to get back down to earth than by buying kitchen tap fixtures at the Auer Dult market the following day? I sure know how to live! Not for me the fancy pottery, the antiques, or even the delectable local specialities. Instead, it was a shower head that caught our eye as Christian & I wandered through the thronging masses of people in search of a typical Bavarian bargain.

And what better way to get over the stress of buying a shower head than to dive headlong into yet more culture? Lisa was hungry for art, and I was more than willing to share her indulgent day of Kandinsky viewing. A major retrospective of his art is being held in Munich, where he worked for a number of years almost a century ago. Pity the audioguide voices - at least the English ones - are so dire! I've never heard such bored commentary.

I found a new (well, new to me) fantastic Italian restaurant just down the hill from my flat! They're so Italian, they even have Italian pop music TV in the corner! None of your MTV there! And the pizza was wow too. Must go again.

The weekend was once again a busy one. Christian & I flew over to London on Thursday night. We grabbed a car from Heathrow and drove down to Guildford, to catch up with Chris, Kate & the girls. It was Sophie's birthday recently, and I was carrying a monster parcel of clothes that Michaela & I had bought for her. She duly tried them all on - and they were ALL great!! When Chris got home later Kate cooked chorizo & scallops, which worked really well. Oh and - fancy that! - we then proceeded to demolish a series of wines.

On Friday, Kate & the girls had no plans, so they joined us on a day-trip to Windsor Castle. It was a glorious sunny day, and the drive across the country to get there was delightfully English. I haven't been to Windsor since I was at primary school, so it was really rather exciting. In particular, I was interested to see how they'd done with the restoration work after the big fire a few years ago. The answer is, WOW! Stunning, sumptuous, simply overwhelming. Lucky lucky Queen!

Christian & I headed on to Maidenhead that evening, where we caught up with Justin, Stephen & Becky in the Holiday Inn. Because the next day was Justin's wedding!! And I had the pleasure of being one of the ushers (Stevo had the excitement of being best man), so we got stuck in to organising things that evening. Including the pumpkin heads that were to decorate the tables for the dinner. Justin brought armfuls of pumpkins cut to have all sorts of expressions: tipsiness; ennui; geekiness; suspicion (that one cunningly carved out of a watermelon).

Saturday was the big day. It started with an urgent phone call from Steve: could I possibly drive to Justin & Sam's house with an important package? Of course, Justin couldn't possibly see the bride before the service, and I had a car. It turns out that, to provide the "bride" pumpkin with a veil, Justin had grabbed one of Sam's bras. Only, he hadn't realised it was the ONLY one that went with her bridal gown!! As Sam said to me when I handed it over to her half an hour later, it's lucky she doesn't get riled easily...

I was getting unexpectedly nervous as the day wore on. I had a reading to do; perhaps it was that. But in the end it all went swimmingly - and I'm not referring to the lashings of rain & wind either! The bride was beautiful, the barn festive, the registrar witty, the dinner delicious, the speeches amusing, the music a little loud for my old-man ears, and the company at our table delightful. Christian & I were seated with Andrew & Kath (whose wedding I shall be intimately involved with early next year, seeing as I'm best man!) and Pat, who flew in especially from Sweden. Nick & Meena were also supposed to sit with us, but their new baby Oscar changed their plans somewhat, so they just stayed for the service.

After the end of the service those left standing headed back to the hotel for a few cheeky ones in the bar. It was great to catch up with Hugh, Jezza & Tanya, as well as have a little more time with Andrew & Kath and Stephen & Becky - and of course with Justin & Sam and their gorgeous daughters Grace & Maisie. There will be photos on my site soon to show what fun we had...

Sunday was a big dash round lots of people's houses. After a farewell breakfast at the hotel, Christian & I brought Jezza & Tanya home. After a cup of tea & a natter there, we drove into town to visit Nick & Meena. After more tea there, we drove right across town to Hackney to catch up with Julie (who was putting us up that night). Julie took us to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant, and then we headed to her favourite local pub, where we sank a few pints. Back at hers, we drank inordinate amounts of red wine, and I finally made it into bed at five o'clock.

Which was a GREAT start to my last full day in London! I somehow managed to drive the hire car back to the Sixt office behind King's Cross station without incident. Then Christian & I lucked out with the nearest café, which served us the best coffee we got all weekend in London. Duly strengthened, we headed into town and followed the Thames footpath along the north bank to the Tower of London. There we were lucky again, this time by getting a very amusing Beefeater on our guided tour. He was full bons mots and had lots of banter with the audience, which was most refreshing after my recent Kandinsky experience.

The weather was perfect for the Tower: grey, dank, with mist shrouding the tops of nearby buildings (including the Gherkin). Sounds were muted and people walked as if in a dream. It all felt slightly unreal. Especially when we left the grounds of the castle and saw next to the proud architecture of Tower Bridge the brand new shininess of the GLA building & neighbouring office blocks on the south bank of the Thames.

After staring in wonder at the crown jewels and enjoying the architecture & history of this castle, we headed over to Baker Street to an Arab bookshop recommended by Hugh. (Thanks to the usual crapness of Londond Underground, we at one point had to jump in a black cab. Still, it meant we got a taxi ride as well as trains, tubes and cars.) Hugh met us there, as did Julie, and we had a quick drink nearby before heading to Westbourne Park to meet Jezza & Tanya at their local (and my absolute favourite) Eritrean restaurant. We ate like princes and, sated, headed back to Julie's, catching the last train from Liverpool Street.

Tuesday was supposed to be an easy journey day. Instead, it turned into an all-day slog. We reached City airport, having popped to a supermarket to buy some decent cheddar, only to discover that our flight had been cancelled owing to fog! So we had to head across town to Heathrow, which took an hour & a half in itself. Then lots of hanging around there, a slight delay to that flight too, and finally we reached Munich some six hours later than planned. Ah well, the slightly crap nature of the last day of our long weekend only served to highlight the fabness that had preceded it!