The 21st was Dasha’s birthday - so while her visa is still active we flew off for a romantic weekend at the Hempel Hotel in London. The Hempel is renowned for its “zen” style and we weren’t disappointed..... much.

Check out the room above, and the photo’s in the album - it was pretty cool looking, but we managed to break most things when we used them... nevermind, I would go back - if only to have cocktails with the barman.

We arrived on Thursday night and what better way to kick off a london trip than with a good curry - we weren’t disappointed. A cheeky little indian around the corner from the hotel proved a gem. Dasha had only ever had a poor fake curry in Kiev so she was blown away with everything from the samosa’s to the tikka masala. Of course, we ate too much but we were off to a good start.

The weather turned on a blinder and we spent Friday wandering the parks and shopping area’s - Harrods was pretty cool, no tourists (crisis maybe?) so we stopped for some dim sum and a Tsing Tao later in the day. We ended up Friday in the bar at the Hempel knocking back pretty decent cocktails - nice.

Saturday, we were up early, Dasha’s birthday so the day was stunning - we checked out the London Eye. We couldn’t have got betters views - the photo’s tell the story. Amazing.

Saturday night we met up with Pete and met Lou for the first time - he’s a lucky boy. We hit China Town and managed to gorge ourselves again - but we weren’t complaining. A few drinks in Convent Garden afterwards and we were forced home as London started to shutdown at midnight - I have to say it wasn’t a bad move considering the number of cocktails we had the night before.

The final treat of this weekend was Sunday brunch at Providores on Marylebone. A kiwi cafe with amazing coffee and eggs. We snuck in on the first table of the day (luckily because they were queuing outside) and relaxed into a couple of flat whites, egg’s and corn fritters - nice.

We spent the rest of Sunday with Anna and Mike - fixing his apple (I should be on commission to Apple Store) network and printer before sitting down to another top dinner - a Mike special tandorri lamb roast....