Friday.

After finishing our viewing of Bonham's sale on Tuesday morning, we grabbed a quick coffee at the little Greek restaurant in Knightsbridge, opposite Bonham's, then got on a 'bus and went out to Covent Garden -Ann's choice of relaxation and entertainment, and, as it turned out, a very good one.  In the very centre of Covent Garden you find yourself looking down into a courtyard, full of tables and chairs and served by a restaurant at one end of it. Various young musicians entertain the passers by. In the snapshot below is a young singer (the lady in the dark blue knitted hat) who had, I think, one of the most powerful voices I've heard. We eventually bought a video tape of her singing, which she very kindly signed for us. We then seated ourselves at one of the restaurant tables and listened to a  string quartet (music students I should think). We had lunch, and listened to another lady singer. Then, we had more coffee, and the string quartet returned and played Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld (the Can Can music), whilst, at the same time dancing a slightly toned down version of the Can Can. We  then did a little light (and rather daft) shopping round the market and decided it was time to be making our way back to Lizzie's. We took 'buses back to Hammersmith, and decided we'd try and find a walk along the Thames to Chiswick.

We achieved this eventually. It was a good step, but with conveniently placed benches every so often.

 Above shows your blogger 'leaning on a lampost..........'  with the Thames to the left of the photo.

Snapshot of a handsome, wisteria draped house, looking out over the Thames, and below, from the same spot, looking the opposite way, is a view of the Thames.

The below snapshot, of another very fine old house, is also looking south over the river, and I think we were  now in Chiswick.

And finally, just to the East of Chiswich High Street, is one of the most cheekily name 'restaurants' in London, I should think. Even more so as, although it calls itself the Ritz 'Restaurant', it appears to be what my grandchildren would call a  ' greasy spoon cafe' rather than a restaurant .  As Ann said "If we lived in Chiswick, we could afford to have tea at the Ritz every day". Quite agreed but pointed out that the drawback to this idea is that we can't afford to live in Chiswich.

On Wednesday we went to the auction and managed to purchase four lots. In the evening Beth produced a quite superb vegetable bake, together with some roast Cumberland sausages for supper; followed by ice cream.
On Thursday we packed our bags in the morning, and then took the children out to lunch at midday in a pub near the river called the Black Lion. I asked Matt where we could eat in the area and he recommended the Black Lion, adding 'But it's a bit expensive Pa'  (in fact it wasn't particularly expensive, and the food was very good ).  Following up this line of thought possibly, Matthew, who is now working, insisted on buying the drinks, and, as he was so obviously pleased to be able to, I let him.  The children really are growing up very nicely, thank The Lord.    Eventually took the underground back to Liverpool Street Station, and arrived home at just after five o'clock.   Been a thoroughly satisfying few days away.