M & O arrived safely into London on Wednesday morning and were in the flat at around 8:30am. After a quick shower, H, M & O headed out for breakfast at Abuelo (https://www.abuelocafe.co.uk/) which seems to be Helen’s new favourite breakfast spot in London. After breakfast they headed to Westfield Shopping Mall (which is probably London’s biggest mall – I haven’t fact checked that but I would be surprised if it wasn’t). While they were doing that I was heading to Heathrow to catch my Air Canada flight to Montreal which left at 2pm.

I arrived in Montreal at 4pm (Canadian time) which was 9pm UK time and the first thing I did was check the cricket score to find out we had now definitely been knocked out of the World Cup. I wasn’t hopeful before I climbed on the plane after seeing how slowly we were batting but I was still praying for a miracle that unfortunately never occurred. On an entirely different note, I do love Canadian immigration. You scan your own passport, answer a few questions, it prints a slip of paper and you walk over to customs who look at it, ask where you come from and off you go. From landing to being in the taxi took me only 30 minutes. I’m staying at Fairmont Queen Elizabeth (https://www.fairmont.com/queen-elizabeth-montreal/) which is in downtown Montreal. Nothing special, just like any other hotel in a downtown area. The picture is the view from my room. And yes the weather is that lousy – 16 degrees and raining.

Thanks to jetlag (and very little attempt for me to get into the Canadian time zone), I went to sleep at around 7:30pm and woke up at 3am. Same thing last night. I am hoping that (because I fly back to London tonight) I will avoid jetlag entirely as I will be back in London for the weekend. It does also mean I can answer emails and do some work before the conference starts each day. Canadians seem to love starting their conferences early. 7:45am start for the first session each day – definitely the earliest I have started a conference anywhere in the world.

While I was conferencing yesterday, the other 4 (H, C, M & O) went to Regent’s Park and then up Primrose Hill. H & C then went to Taste of London which is happening this week until Sunday in Regent’s Park. Not sure why it is called Taste of London though because from the looks of what Helen and Chloe ate there it should be called Taste of the World.

One more day of conferencing awaits me and then back to London tonight for me. S & K also leave tonight for London and if all goes well we will meet up at Heathrow tomorrow morning!

Until Saturday …

P, H, C, M & O