Visits from friends in 2010

London is a major hub for people coming and going from the US to Europe and back again, so we've enjoyed the visits of many of our old friends over the last year.













It is always so great to see friends from back home.





Be sure to drop us a line if you will be in London, or even just passing through.

New Years and Ice Skating at the Somerset House

For New Years Eve, we got up and headed down to the Somerset House to do some Ice Skating. I bought tickets on-line, and since I could only get time at the 10am session, it pays to order them early.








The rink is setup in the courtyard of the estate, and has a coat check and a place to change your shoes to the skates.








It was very busy, and though there were a lot of kids, everyone kept moving, and it wasn't a huge obstacle course. They have a little section off to the side for the really little kids to skate using these assistive scooters that look like penguins.

Neither Tony nor I are really skilled skaters, so it was a challenge making our way around the rink. Eventually, we found our legs, and had a lot of fun for the hour we'd booked.

I would definitely recommend this as something to do in London for the holidays.




For New Years Eve Dinner, we made a Pork Roast complete with Crackling using Gordon Ramsey's recipe. It cooked for almost 5 hours and came out perfectly delicious. We served it with Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts.

For Dessert, we served a Christmas Pudding that we'd saved from Christmas. Mark who joined us for dinner, had never had Christmas Pudding, so it was essential to have it even though Christmas was already a week behind us now. We served it with a small glass of Bombardino liqueur that we had picked up when we went skiing in Italy. Delicious!