London July 2012 - start of the day

We started the day at 5.30am with an alarm to get up; the train from East Midlands parkway was at 7.39 and we arrived in plenty of time for that and sat reading the Saturday Guardian before the train arrived.

We skipped having First Class this time around and it was fine - but I'd have preferred my seat to not have been broken as it made for a somewhat slumped and uncomfy journey down.

Anyway, once arrived we kicked off with a wander through St Pancras to get the Piccadilly line tube to Leicester Square - the square is now finished but doesn't look THAT different.  Nice railings, a curvy boundary, Shakespeare is still in the middle, but nowt that special and they haven't even weeded the outer edge yet.

We headed past Notre Dame de France (visited many moons ago on Open House Day) and then around to pick up Wardour Street and on to Bar Bruno where we were greeted with joyful enthusiasm by the ever-lovely Bruno.  He may be semi-retired now, but the place is such a lovely way to start a day in London.   A great welcome - we may only go about 3-5 occasions over a year but you feel like you've come back home when they greet you.  My mum would have LOVED this place.

After breakfast it was on to the NPG for the BP Portrait Awards 2012.  Always enjoy seeing the images here, and though I preferred a different image to the winner (bold and impressive though the winner was), it was a pleasure to see portraiture continuing.

Once we'd done the exhibition we started to head to Mayfair, but then Neil offered the idea of getting some Tim Tams from the Australia Shop in Covent Garden so we headed there first!  Yum....