Westminster Hog Roast

A fun relaxed evening spent in one of the gardens in the grounds of Westminster Abbey for a bbq with people from the Home Office, Foreign Office and friends. One friend was visiting from Hong Kong (who I stayed with when I was stranded due to the volcanic ash last year) and a doctor from Shanghai. Of course I had to try out a little sentence in mandarin. I was kind of understood - but at least I tried.... Finding the word order difficult to get right. We talked about China (in English) and I heard about the biggest bridge in the world - near Shanghai of course, where else? It is 26 miles across.  Can that be true? Apparently it has a hotel in the middle so you have the sensation of being in the middle of the sea.

Sometimes I get vertigo just hearing these things about China.

To reach the hog roast, we walked through the cloisters, past private gardens and off the usual tourist track to arrive in this secluded part of the Abbey, so it felt really special.





We had umbrellas up occasionally. Great British BBQ weather: but the fine mizzle, which is all it really was, didn't dampen the mood. In the twilight with Parliament towering behind us, the Abbey on the other side and live music, including plenty of Irish and Scottish ballads, it was atmospheric.