The moment I had been anticipating for weeks! I got up at 5am and caught the Tube to Heathrow. I managed to arrive with enough time to buy a bottle of soft drink and accidentally spray it all over myself before Luke messaged me to say he was on his way out of immigration. It’s times like these I am glad I keep all my unused napkins from restaurants and I managed to remove the worst of it before Luke appeared and we reenacted all those cheesy airport reunion scenes that you see in movies. Big hugs and smiles and kisses. Revolting!

We caught the Tube back to Camden and Luke worked out that he had actually had a decent amount of sleep on the second flight but he remained a zombie for the rest of the day.

We spent two nights in London, on the second day we managed to walk 17 kilometres around the city, mostly along the Thames.

The sun was shining and it seemed everyone was out enjoying it. We found the River Cottage Botanical Bar quite by accident and stopped for a drink.

We walked through the Tate Modern and had go on the multi-person swings. We also did a short Facebook Live video from the viewing platform and then ended up at the Borough Markets for lunch.

Then we headed back to Camden for a quick nap before returning to the city to meet Luke’s uncle Mark for a couple of drinks at the beautiful Leadenhall Market.

Luke handed over a bag of Tim Tams, Mint Slice and Cheezels that he had brought from Australia and we also had a look at Mark’s office – he works for an architectural firm – and admired the pencils that decorated one wall. Why pencils and why orange was not revealed [they’re an architect firm and their corporate colours are white and orange – Luke] but it was very attractive and if I worked there I would be sorely tempted to remove one every so often so as to annoy any OCD people.

After Mark left we had dinner at The Ship, a charming pub that was fairly empty inside because it was such a nice evening that everyone was out standing in a huge crowd outside. Or maybe people stand outside in all weather here? There are so many smokers in the UK I wouldn’t be surprised.

Next was my little surprise for Luke – a reservation for drinks at the Sky Garden. The building, officially called ’20 Fenchurch’ is generally referred to as ‘The Walkie Talkie’, a much catchier name and very appropriate.

I’d booked us a table at 8:45 so we could watch the sun set, and I was very glad I’d made a booking because it was quite busy and people swooped on any unoccupied tables. We ordered a cheese platter and a couple of cocktails and enjoyed the view over the city. There was a band playing and we stayed for about an hour and a half before feeling very tired and heading home on the steaming hot Tube.

That was the end of our little London adventure, next stop: Cambridge! (yes again)