Weekend Roundup - 9th/10th Nov - '13

On Saturday, it was the Lord Mayor's Show. It happens each year when the new Lord Mayor of the City of London is officially welcomed in to their new year long post, and this year was the turn of Fiona Wolfe, only the second female Mayor in the history of the City of London ... the first being in 1983. When considering this fact, you should also bear in mind that last Saturday was the 798th Lord Mayor's Show. The City of London closes down for much of the day, and the streets are lined with thousands of people watching the parade go by, so I therefore decided to change the usual itinerary and instead, we stayed around Westminster.

Unfortunately for us (and everyone involved with the Lord Mayor's celebrations) it rained non stop for the entire morning. Despite the dismal weather I was joined by a hardy group, all from England, who weren't going to let the rain dampen their spirits. There were 7 in all; Carole from Blackpool, Dermot and Theresa from the Midlands and Glen, Norma, Judy and Ken all from London. 

Covent Garden

Quite early on, Ken made the excellent suggestion that I should furnish them with information under cover and out of the rain, so for the rest of the walk we darted from one bit of shelter to the next, under umbrellas, doorways, arches, markets and wot not. We ended up taking in a bit of Whitehall, including Banqueting House, Horse Guards and St James's Park.

Sunday, although a bit cold, was a lovely day for a walk around east London and I was joined by 10 people, or 10.5 if you include Lara who was just 18 months old. At about midnight on Saturday night / Sunday morning I had an email from a guy saying that him and his son were sitting in an airport in New York, (en route) from New Zealand and realised it was late notice, but could they come on the walk the next morning at 11am. I replied, giving him the meeting point details, and sure enough, they there were, Ryno and Francois, just arrived from the States. It's quite incredible really.

It was a pretty South African heavy group, sprinkled with a couple of Americans, a Canadian, an Australian and even Alex from Wolverhampton. Here they all are on Leonard Street, just near Old Street with Ian Stevenson's 'JUST LOOK AT THIS' mural behind them.

'JUST LOOK AT THIS' by Ian Stevenson - Leonard Street

Some Awards
Least waterproof waterproof - Judy
Second least waterproof waterproof - Ken
Youngest - Lara
Best moustache - No winners
Most American - Kaidi & Wendy
Name most likely to conjure an image of a large, horned, odd toed ungulate - Ryno