Tuesday 1 July 2008

Life in Paddo










Well, it was




It was not quiet. At all. Ever. Some bits were less noisy than others. But we were almost under the Westway, under a pedestrian bridge, by a road which went to Notting Hill and were watching the Bridge behind Paddington Station. This does not count overhead aircraft, trains and all sorts of people taking advantage of the clubs and restaurants. Or the people trailing wheely cases over the bridge (corrugated steel) which went over our roof. Or the people using the two hire boats (Prince Regent and Larkwing) moored opposite us. Or the guy on the first night who decided to put the speakers of his music system on the ROOF of his boat for all to hear. Oh peaceful bliss. Not.

But we had fun. Two friends joined us for dinner on the Friday, we trailed around Covent Garden on the Saturday (finding guitar strings), wandered through Notting Hill on the Sunday and went to the theatre on Monday night (Pygmalion at the Old Vic) after Elizabeth came back from an Oxford meeting. On the Tuesday, Elizabeth welcomed colleagues from the URC on to Bella and then out for coffee, and Pete hosted a regional Community Development Foundation meeting for a number of hours. Elizabeth went to Heathrow to collect James and then took a very surprised James to Bella – just a hop out of Paddington Station. What a hoot! Dinner at Zizzi’a opposite meant James could have pizza with cheese (no cheese in Kenya!).