London Day 3
July 18, 2018

Sunday was S’s 22nd birthday but as it was Sunday we planned to go to Church first and have a birthday dinner celebration only in the evening.  In between there was time to watch the Wimbledon final and World Cup final. What much more could you ask for a birthday than that!

As some of you may know, C is planning to start studying in London in September.  She has actually been accepted (provisionally) to two universities in London.  Before we went to Portugal she spent the weekend in London and one purpose was to write an English competency exam (which encouraging she passed quite comfortably – not surprising as her one A-level is in English literature). The other purpose was to try find a Church to attend and she did manage to do that too – Christ Church Mayfair (http://www.christchurchmayfair.org/). Our plan was to take the bus there (only 20 minutes) but it turned out that when we got to the bus stop we had just missed the previous bus and the next one was 11 minutes away.  It meant that if we wanted to arrive in time that we had to walk.  It is a nice walk though passed Buckingham Palace and through Green Park. We arrived with 5 minutes to spare.

The Church seats about 250 people and is in a traditional old building with stain glass windows that are quite impressive. The service was led by the Assistant Pastor and was quite informal. They sang similar songs to what we would at TCC. The singing did sound particularly good though as the acoustics in the building were excellent. One of their previous members who is now studying at Oakhill College preached and for a young guy in training he preached very well. The guy clearly has the gift of preaching. A reasonable number of people introduced themselves to us (including the assistant minister) and made us feel welcome.  I reckon Chloe has found the right place for her to attend when she is studying in London. We walked back again to the flat and picked up some lunch at Itsu (sushi/Asian place) on way back.

The afternoon was spent watching the Wimbledon final and then the end of the World Cup Football final. Unfortunately neither of the underdogs won those events. We had a reservation at Gaucho’s (Argentinian steakhouse) at Piccadilly Circus for S’s celebratory dinner. The taxi dropped us off just short of the Circus because the roads around were closed off as they had been screening the football final. The French supporters seemed to be everywhere and were celebrating non-stop. They had climbed up the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and had covered it with people. By the time we left from dinner (at 9:30pm), they were still on the fountain celebrating.

The steaks at Gaucho’s are very good (some might even say phenomenal).  Accompanied by a good Argentinian Malbec. It was a lovely dinner and evening with good company as well.  At the end of the evening the restaurant brought Stephen a ‘Happy Birthday’ plate of truffles which was a nice touch to end the evening. 5 of us walked back to the flat with the two boys taking the tube. It was a lovely evening for a walk (probably still around 25 degrees at that point). We even managed to walk park two places H is currently reading about. London is filled with historical places and they have ‘Blue plates’ on the walls of homes where famous people lived.

P, S (because it is his birthday), H, C, K, M & O (because I still can’t believe that she supported Djokovic over Anderson)

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