Dana's Trip to London

[Sundae]

As Dana is currently being wined and dined in the Houses of Parliament, and I am stuck here at work because we're too busy for me to take a day off, I am jumping in first with my version of the evening.

I'm sure Dana will update you on today when she gets back home, but I'll tell you about last night.

Dana travelled down from Halifax to London mid-afternoon and made her own way to Greenwich. She stopped into my workplace and picked up the key to my house, so when I got home at about 17.15 she was there on the sofa, hurray! We both freshened up and were ready to go out and start the night by about 18.00.

First we went to the Pelton - my pub. We sat in the garden with a pint and had a quick chat with some of the locals. Then inside for another because D was feeling the cold. She liked the pub, which I was pleased about. It's a traditional "locals" pub - all dark wood and relaxed atmosphere. I'd told the guys that I had a friend coming to visit, so they were all interested in meeting her. Success.

Then we walked down by the Thames to HM's pub. I won't name it, as we got staff discount on the drinks It's more of a tourist pub, larger and quite impersonal in some ways, but it has a gorgeous view over the river and an outside seating area. So we had our pints and decided to push on into Greenwich. I think both of us felt the effects of 3 strong pints on an empty stomach and didn't want things to get too messy.

So onto the Greenwich Wheel. It's nowhere near as big as the London Eye of course - just a temporary structure in front of the Maritime Museum. It gives people something extra to visit with the Cutty Sark under wraps. We walked up and bought our tickets, then waited for the wheel to stop. In less than 5 minutes we were on it, and they kindly let the 6 customers waiting into 3 separate carriages, rather than packing us into one. This meant we paid £14 for a £30 ride effectively. Inside there are just two grey padded bench style seats facing eachother. It didn't feel small because of the see-through top.

This is us. I don't really need to say anything else because you can see how much we are enjoying it. I think it's well worth it for £7.


Then off for pizza! I had a Buy One Get One Free voucher, which made it well worth a visit to Pizza Express - a place I hardly need dragging into anyway. Dana made the sensible choice to have a soft drink with her meal, so I followed suit. We were served quickly despite the fact the place was rammed. We started with dough balls (quickly dispatched, nom nom nom) then Dana had
Parmense:
A classic combination of flavours, asparagus, Parma ham and grana padano, then finished with a free range egg
and I had
Diavolo:
Devilishly hot with spicy beef, pepperoni, onions and Tabasco, plus extra fire with hot green peppers or jalapenos