A day in London.

Sophie and I were off down to London again today, and she had an appointment with Dr Bawa at the Phi clinic in Harley Street at 11am. We decided on the 9.05 train from Northampton and arrived in time to enjoy a coffee and croissant at a quirky little cafe on the station's ground floor. For some reason, it was Harry Potter-themed, but the coffee was delicious and much better than the Starbucks upstairs!

We managed to get two seats on the train and it started to fill up. I'd had a feeling it would be busy, as it's the school holidays, so I was glad we had somewhere to sit. A woman sat next to me, across the aisle, and her personal hygiene left a lot to be desired... not really what I wanted first thing in the morning, and I was heartily glad I'd finished my croissant!

As we neared London and stopped at a lot of stations, the train filled up even more. It was hot and stuffy and quite uncomfortable. We couldn't wait to get off at Euston! We took an Uber straight to Harley Street and sat in the cool, quiet waiting room. Heaven!

Dr Bawa was very welcoming and he took Sophie to another room to take some photographs. When they came back he said she didn't need any treatment today as her face still looked good from the last time he'd seen her. I was surprised but very glad that he hadn't done any necessary work. It saved her quite a bit of money! We made an appointment for four weeks' time and went outside to find an Uber.

I had booked a table for lunch at the British Museum, in their Great Court restaurant for 1.30pm, so we had two hours to kill. We decided to go straight to the museum and have a look at the Elgin Marbles before eating.

We found an Uber straightaway, and very soon we were queuing up outside the museum. Once inside, we had a quick look at the Waddesdon Bequests from the Rothchilds (well, we had to, seeing as we love their home in Buckinghamshire). There were some beautiful objects on display in a dimly-lit part of the museum but it felt very warm indeed. 

We found our way to the Ancient Greek section and joined the throngs of people looking at the sculptures, taken from the Parthenon in Greece back in the 19th century by agents of the Earl of Elgin, who argued they were being damaged. In the museum, they were described as the Parthenon Marbles and I personally think they should go back to Greece where they belong. Lots of the sculptures are missing and are in a state of disrepair, the friezes of horses and people missing heads and other parts of the body.

The marbles are truly ancient, having been sculpted by Phidias and his assistants in the 5th century BC, and tell stories of the Greek Gods and Goddesses.

The men were rather good-looking in ancient Greece and er...fit!

More headless bodies

A body-less horse

It was amazing to think of how old these marble sculptures were, but we both felt they should be on display in Athens where they belong. I can't see the British Museum giving them up any time soon, though. 

We wandered about a bit more looking at some very old objects of beauty.

Aphrodite

I think Sophie has found a new beau...

Then it was off to ancient Egypt for a while:

By now we were hot and a bit weary, so we used the facilities (crowded) and sat in the main atrium for a few minutes. The place was packed with people and I was surprised to see several very young children in pushchairs. I would hesitate to bring youngsters to the museum as I wouldn't have thought it would be of interest to them. We never brought Sophie and Mike here, preferring the Science Museum or the Natural History one instead.

The gorgeous roof (I would have liked to have visited the exhibition).

At just before 1.30pm we made our way up the long flight of stairs to the Great Court Restaurant for our booking. There was a queue of people, and a couple in front of us hadn't booked at all and were shown to a table, which surprised me.

We were taken to a table outside of the main seating area and given menus. We had already looked at the dishes on offer and I chose the broad bean Scotch egg to start followed by fish and chips. Sophie opted for the black truffle and burrata tortelloni followed by sea bass. We decided on a bottle of Pinot Grigio Blush from Italy, and a large sparkling water as we were both thirsty.

It took ages for anyone to actually take our order, and then they brought just one glass of wine, instead of a bottle. They had no large bottles of fizzy water so we received two smaller ones instead (working out to be more expensive). There was no ice bucket for our wine so it warmed up in the sultry conditions!

We waited almost an hour for our starters and then another age for our main courses. What made it worse was that we could see people in the main seating area getting much speedier service than us! The staff were rushed and unfriendly, and we were very disappointed indeed, as we had been looking forward to going there so much.

I have to say that the food was good and from my seat, I could see the chefs working away in the open kitchen. There seemed to be a lot of staff, and quite a few of them were more interested in chatting to each other rather than concentrating on the diners.

After our main courses were cleared away we asked for the dessert menu but we waited, and waited... and waited. In the end, we both were so fed up with the service we decided to get the bill. Sophie visited the loo and when the waiter brought the bill over I told him that there was no way I was paying the service charge of 10% as the service was appalling, so he'd better take it off. He apologised (too late, mate) and went back to recalculate the amount, which came to £80. If we'd had good service, and desserts, the bill would have come to over £100, so they lost out!

We made our way through the still-crowded museum and hailed a black cab outside. Sophie's data on her phone had been used up (probably because of our broadband being down at home a couple of weeks ago) so she couldn't summon up an Uber. The black cab was great, though, and cost the same amount to get us back to Euston! We were very lucky to get seats on the 15:49 from Euston, a fast train getting us to Northampton before 5pm. 

Keith met us and drove us home, and when we arrived back, he suggested a drink for an hour. Sophie was hot and sticky so she went for a shower, while Keith and I decided to try the newly-opened White Horse to see what it was like.

We went inside to find a couple of men hogging the bar, and I asked for a large glass of Rosé, seeing as that's what I'd been enjoying in London. I went to sit at the bar stools in the window, and when Keith came over with the drinks he asked me to guess how much they were. I said £12 but he said higher, and I eventually discovered he'd paid £15.30 for just a glass of wine and a pint of lager... I was shocked and we worked out that my glass of Rosé was £10! £10!!!! I could have bought a good bottle for that! 

We really are starting to think it's not worth going out anymore. Along with mediocre food, bad service and sky-high prices, what's the point? Keith had another lager (he didn't fancy any of the ales on offer) and we had a good chat, watching the comings and goings outside the pub. We saw several huge farm vehicles trundling through the village so I suppose the hot, dry weather is enabling them to do the hay-making without fear of getting wet!

Back home, I had a cold shower and Sophie and I enjoyed the remains of a salad, couscous and some fried potatoes. We then relaxed before bed - it had been a long, but enjoyable day, despite the disappointment in the restaurant!