Chinese Water Torture

I slipped in that we'd been to China.  And so had, for a week.  Hardly the grand tour, but Shanghai and Hangzhou were our two ports of call.  I'd say we saw a teeny, tiny, tiny slivver of the country and its culture, but it was absolutely entrancing.  And exhausting.  And it rained a bit.  And its a long way.  It was a fabulous week, entertaining and educational in equal measure.  I took a record-breaking 2000 pictures, which is ridiculous.  So here's a few, without a word of explanation:

Bike ride

In preparation for a cycle ride to Amsterdam, after my ride to Paris last year, I went on a long ride.  It's called London Revolutions, and is literally that... a ride around London.  200 miles in two days with a night spent in a tent at Ascot Racecourse.

I wasn't particularly fit after a week in Shanghai and not doing as much cycling as I ought before that...but hey ho, it made for a better challenge.  I discovered that Surrey has many hills, some of them steep, but it also has some very pretty villages.  The latter was nice, the former were a real challenge...for the first time ever I actually got off and pushed for a hundred yards.  That depressed me until the next day when I saw many people get off and push up most of the hills, whilst I stayed on.

I didn't enjoy the first day all that much, but loved the second, and certainly came into my own when finishing through the London traffic.

I also discovered my sports tracker doesn't work with my new phone which was disappointing as I like to record these things.

Not many photos either

Slip sliding away

We continue with our eclectic social life.  Last week we went to The Chambers of Flavour... a pop-up dining experience.  It was created under the arches in near Hoxton Station as a series of 'experience' rooms. You entered sitting in a low-slung wooden trolley which was hauled through a short tunnel to an elaborately decorated room...and after each course you shuffled into a new experience...we started in a forest, moved to the home of a crash test dummy, the dining hall of a mad aristocrat and finally to the interior of an aircraft.  I may have missed one course.  The food by the Art of Dining was fabulous, the entertainment by a series of actors, fabulous.  A great night which ended by exiting the 'machine' down a 20' slide...not done that for a few decades! Sadly photography of the experience was banned, so here's a picture of the toilets instead!

We headed down to Plymouth to see The Cat's production which was being put on at the Theatre Royal...she was assistant Director, and this part of a competition created by the National.  There are 500 entrants given one of eight plays to put on...the top twelve get to perform at the National itself.  The Cat's play was all about the traumas of adolescence, and there was a lot of paint being thrown around.  Stunningly performed by a bunch of teenagers, we have our fingers crossed.  We stayed in a grand place called Boringden Hall, which has the honour of playing host to Elizabeth 1st as well as Drake, Raleigh, and all those dubious sea-dogs that helped create our sea-faring reputation.  We got to sleep in a four-poster

The next day we visited some of my oldest and dearest friends who moved south-west many years ago.  They will soon be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary...it hardly seems possible.

We spent Sunday at the London Marathon watching another of our friends wear themselves out...she did incredibly well with a time of 4.28 hours.  It's become an annual ritual, and its great fun amongst the crowds chasing our runners around

The 23rd was spent at the cinema watching the live broadcast of the 400th birthday party of our greatest bard.  More a focus on how he has influenced future generations of song, dance and writing than the great man's works, it was fun, but perhaps wouldn't get five stars from me...