Viewed London from Above

A few months ago, I was invited to a "Meet President Greene" Colby event at the Inns Of Court in London. I thought it sounded like a really interesting evening and a good opportunity to network, so I signed up!

The original plan was to work from the London office for the day and then head over after work, but I changed my mind about two weeks ago and just took the day off! I started in Southwark, where I dropped my beloved but neglected horn off at Paxman for a refurb. I apologise in advance for any unlovely noises made while getting back up to a tolerable level! (I think a Silent Brass might be in order...)

Anyway, I met up with a friend, and we had a rather stupendous Adventure Day, with perfectly glorious weather (mostly because I had brought not only a blazer but a wool scarf). Right.

We rode the London Eye, after a quick "oh yes, that's one of those things that I've been meaning to do!" "How about NOW?" "YES PLEASE!" conversation. 20 minute wait and away we went.

See? Perfect day. It was really clear and we could see for miles and miles.

Hi, MOD people!

Hello, Parliament!

We were in the capsule for about 45 minutes, I think, and the views were amazing. Apparently it's incredible at twilight...must go back (preferably not when sunset is at 10pm).

I suggested attempting lunch at Dishoom, as the last time I'd tried it there was over an hour wait. Apparently 2pm on a Tuesday is a suitable time to get a table (we still had to wait for a few minutes). Man, was it worth it. Everything was really fragrant and spicy without being too hot. I'll be back.

We then walked over to the Royal Academy, to check out the sculpture in their courtyard, which was part of the Summer Exhibition. I'd seen a documentary on this year's exhibition on iPlayer, so was really happy just to see the main sculpture and the crazy stripy stairs.

A ramble through the parks was last, where we saw the RAF Bomber Command memorial, at the western corner of Green Park. I'd been past it several times but never really stopped and looked. I found the combination of the skylight at the top and the statues of the airmen to be really haunting. A staggering number of them (over 55,000) died during the war.

Then it was off to the Colby event, where there was one other '03 and quite a few long-term Colby residents in London who I hadn't realised existed. I thought that President Greene had a lot of good ideas about where to take the school, and I'll be really interested to see how he does!