London reunion

Knowing we had a treat in store later in the day we couldn't feel too sad savouring the delights of our last morning (Wednesday 20th) at London Fields in London. After such a hectic 13 days in London it was kind of nice to just chill out in "our" little village, having a coffee with the local bohemians and sorting out our packing ready for travelling tomorrow.

We were excited about meeting up with Joel and Imogen, only arrived in London the day before, and staying at the groovy Hoxton Hotel on Great Eastern Street in Hoxton (Cath's recommendation). We arranged to meet up with them at 4.00 o'clock at the Cargo Bar in Rivington St, which we found after a half hour walk from London Fields down Columbia Road.

It was amazing to see each other again in LONDON, great to catch up on their New York travel tales and to hear good news on the job front for both of them. They were both feeling slightly below par after catching colds in New York, probably brought on by their time at the the top of the Rockefeller Centre, in the freezing cold, waiting for the light to be right for Joel's amazing photo of the New York skyline at dusk.

We had a date to meet Davey and Cath too so after the first round of our catch up we walked up City Road towards The Angel where we took this photo late on this sunny London afternoon near the City Road Basin of Regent's Canal.

We were running early for our date so it was a good excuse to stop for another drink along the way at this Camden Passage Pub near the old antique shops we'd explored with Cath & Eddie the week before. We had lots of travel stories to swap and it was great to catch up on family news too. Joel amazed us all with reports of his exploits in Macy's Department Store in New York!

But we were meeting up with Cath and Davey for a night out together at the famous Ottolenghi in Upper Street Islington. The casual, classy vibe of the place and the charming wait staff made this an ideal place for us to have our chatty, happy family reunion fuelled by that wonderful Ottolenghi food and our red wine from the Languedoc.

In this picture you can see the remains of my stuffed zucchini flowers and other delicious first course dishes. You can also see how happy Cath is looking as she gets regular updates via her iPhone about Eddie who happens to be sleeping (mostly) through his night at home with Stu and Cam.

In this picture you can see several of the Ottolenghi signature desserts, including the chocolate cake and one of the chocolate meringues that fill his front window displays. I can't believe we ate most of it too - it will be salads only for the next few days!

It's been such a happy night. Joel and Imogen and Cath get to meet each other for the first time and Davey gets to meet Imogen; Rob and I are the only ones to already know all of them (and think they are all wonderful!).

We all love Ottolenghi's, and an extra special thrill tonight was having Yotam Ottolenghi himself, there eating at the restaurant along side us (along with a special friend(?)). I decided I had too much class to make extreme adjustments to my photo compositions to get him into one. However I'm glad we got this shot below - only person missing is the the photographer, unfortunately.

Rob and I had to say our goodbyes then to Joel and Imogen who will be off in a few days for amazing adventures in other countries.