Meira’s world

I have had the worst luck with weather on my Europe trip. During May in Italy, I had lots of overcast, rainy and often chilly weather. I come to London and for the first few days the weather is the best I’ve had for a while – sunny and warm. But since then the weather in London has been generally grey and wet. It’s July for goodness sake!!! They’re experiencing floods in the UK while in Rome and southern Italy they’ve been having a heat wave. Go figure. Thank goodness for my new Docs – I haven’t been able to wear my sandles for weeks.

Yesterday the weather forecast said partly sunny and relatively warm (20 degrees). With the rain pouring down at noon, I thought “Yeah right”. Tal and I decided to spend the afternoon at Regent’s Park, regardless of the weather. And it actually turned out very pleasant

Even though Britain has been put on highest alert after the suspected terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport on Saturday and the discovery of 2 cars loaded with explosives and nails near Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square on Friday, none of this was in evidence as Londoners enjoyed their sunny Sunday afternoon. I think Britons are more concerned with the smoking-in-all-public-places ban that went into effect yesterday. That’s right – no more smoking in pubs and clubs…

We first passed through St John’s Wood – there was some fair going on. I hadn’t been to St John’s Wood before. Not too shabby…

And casually parked in the street, with parking permit and all, was this stately Rolls Royce (behind it was a Bentley):

Walking along St Johns Wood high street, we popped into a charity shop. I figure that charity shops in upmarket areas must have good quality 2nd-hand clothing. And one thing I’ve been needing here is a jacket or coat. I did not expect my European summer trip to be so chilly! Tal, bless him, finds this gorgeous long burgundy leather (at least I think it’s leather) coat which fits me perfectly. It just needs a bit of sewing in places. But at £25 what a stunning bargain!

Regent’s Park was lovely. We got there late afternoon, after 5pm, but because of the long days, it felt like 3pm. And the sun obliged us by staying out most of the time.

We lay on a carpet of little flowers:

At 8 o’clock we went to see “Shrek the Third” at the O2 Centre in Finchley Road. For those of you in South Africa, NEVER complain about the price of movie tickets. Last night we paid £9.10 EACH! That’s something like R130! And a large (okay, it was big) popcorn depleted us of £4 (R56). First and last time I’m doing a movie in London . The movie was fun, it tried hard, but something was just not there. Animation as always was amazing.

The Simpsons movie is coming out here at the end of the month. The trailer was great! I’m really looking forward to seeing it. By the entrance to the cinema, they had this promotional “display”. I can’t really describe it – just look:

Don’t sulk, Tal. I’m sure Homer will give you the remote if you ask nicely…

Yup, we couldn’t resist.

For more photos from yesterday, click here.

Check ya later!