After my lovely two weeks with the girls I bid them a fond farewell and headed into West London and Notting Hill to meet up with Tom. He moved to London last September and I was itching to see him and where he lived and to spend a few days with him showing me HIS places and me showing him where I lived and worked over 40 years ago! It was perfect as we both knew a few places that the other would enjoy so our road trip came together easily. Firstly though – Notting Hill! I LOVED it right from the first moment. It was a beautiful sunny day and the famous coloured houses just popped against a bright blue sky. Portobello Road was setting up its stalls for the coming weekend and there was a pleasant buzz of people enjoying the summer weather and eating alfresco in the many eateries that lined the local streets. The rows of high end white elegant Victorian townhouses were pleasing to the eye (many with their EV vehicles charging in the street or front garden – they were literally everywhere!) and the whole suburb was thriving. It became famous after the 1999 film but even when I was a teenager I remember catching a coach up to London to go to the Portobello Road markets to buy a leather coat which was a big fashion statement in 1976 and thinking how cosmopolitan it was even back then. Fast forward 50 years and you can imagine how the mix of cultures, music and food has made it one of the most enjoyable places to live. Needless to say it comes with a price tag but you can live the dream in an (expensive) rental at least! Tom loves it – with its proximity to Kensington Gardens for a bit of green space and a direct tube ride into the City of London where he works. I stayed at The Premier Inn, about a ten minute walk from Tom and I spent the afternoon wandering around exploring, I felt at home there within hours and when we met up at 5pm he took me on a mini pub crawl of all his favourite places. Of course they all knew him by name which I hope is due as much to his friendly nature as his drinking habits! The weather was gorgeous and as it is so temperamental in the UK most of the time, when it IS nice everyone really makes the most of it and we were all vying for a coveted outdoor table! To top off our night we ate at a superb Japanese restaurant and caught up on the last 10 months since he left Sydney. One happy Mummy.

After a rather fraught start to the day when the car rental place didn’t accept Tom’s digital license and I had to do it all instead, we finally set off for our first destination – Bath. I have spent quite a bit of time here over the years and have always loved it. What’s not to love? The Georgian architecture and the town built around the River Avon is very picturesque and on a 32 degree day we were happy to arrive at 3pm and enjoy Aperol’s on the banks of the river in the shade of Pulteney Bridge after a 3 hour drive. Our little hotel room was 300 years old and on the top floor of a pub with the NARROWEST set of stairs I’ve ever seen, we could barely fit on them and had to carry our cases ahead or behind! No lifts of course!

It was in a great position though with a short walk to just about everything and we enjoyed exploring the town before dinner in a bustling square full of happy weekend people! Bath Rugby had won the Premiership just two weeks before our visit and Tom is thinking of coming again next year with some mates on the train to enjoy the footy as well as the town. It is famous of course for its Roman Baths which are a disturbing shade of green but nowadays you can also enjoy the same warm mineral rich waters up on the roof overlooking the city. It wasn’t what we fancied doing on such a hot day but my sister did it in winter overlooking a city laden with snow and said it was quite magical.

After a morning coffee in the Square we set off for our second night’s destination – Bourton on the Water. We have been watching Jeremy Clarkson’s Farm on TV and as his new pub was en route we thought we’d play tourist and stop off for a look. Apparently several hundred other people had had the same idea (it was a Saturday) so we felt more like we were attending a festival than a country pub as we were directed into an adjoining field with parking attendants complete with orange batons overseeing our parking to squeeze in as many people as possible. I felt like a lemming about to follow the others off a cliff as we wound our way through the field and across the road to the Farmer’s Dog where there were several more queues of various lengths depending on if you had a reservation or not. Blow-ins like Tom and I had no chance of getting into the pub so we made do with the adjoining paddock surrounding the Farm Shop. The queue for the shop itself was insane but the bar serving beer and cider was ok so we enjoyed a couple of those whilst people watching. They had it very well set up with tables, chairs and brollies as well as country games like toss the horseshoe etc and some piped music giving it a nice ambience. Again we were lucky with the weather as if it had been bad we would have had no chance getting into the pub. Nice work Jeremy….

Tom knew about Daylesford Organic because he had visited with his friends when he spent Christmas in The Cotswolds. It was like a beacon of loveliness in the middle of nowhere and well worth the stop. We had a delicious lunch, lusted after homewares and gorgeous food products – tomatoes from the Isle of Wight, local asparagus and flowers, small goods from local providores, amazing cheeses, wines and more to choose from if you had the money and the ability to store it all! Locals must be thankful to have something like this nearby and it was worth negotiating the odd tractor in the narrow roads to visit!

Nothing really prepared us for our arrival in Bourton though. The entire place was teeming with people and our overnight lodgings was bang smack in the middle of it all! Tom dropped me and went off to discover a park on the outskirts of town (thank goodness for overnight parking rates!) and I discovered that the hotel had allocated us a double room instead of a twin! The poor girl on duty nearly had a heart attack when I told her but she was brilliant and unzipped the adjoining beds and remade them in a jiffy despite the heat and the huge queue of people downstairs wanting to eat in their restaurant. The overtourism was so apparent and quite overwhelming for all concerned. It wasn’t until after 8pm that the hordes departed and the little town became what I remembered from the early 80s! Obviously we are tourists too but I am concerned about the huge families that visited but brought their own food and drinks and did little to contribute to the town’s income – just literally swamped it until it was time to take the kids home…very sad ….

Luckily once everyone went home we had a delightful walk around the town and equally the next day really enjoyed it’s true colours until the coaches started to arrive circa 10am….then it was time to move on! En route we swung by what used to be Barnsley House when I lived there, a National Trust House and Garden which I drove past daily but never went in to. Tom had heard it was now owned by the Pig Hotel Group and came highly recommended. As it was Sunday lunchtime we weren’t hopeful of lunch without a reservation but we got lucky! A table for two outside overlooking those beautiful gardens and we timed it perfectly as a light shower started just as we finished our meal. Armed with the hotel’s brollies we explored the gardens and the humungous veggie patch, gleaning ideas for The Meadow as we went! A wonderful few hours indeed….

Today’s destination was Bibury – a very small village that has become incredibly popular with visitors. However our reason for visiting was that I had lived and worked there in 1978 as a receptionist at The Swan Hotel. I absolutely loved both the place and the job and back then it was a popular destination but pre social media it was just literally a word of mouth thing and apart from having a booked out restaurant for Sunday Lunch each week it had a laid back feel and a gentility that I felt was lacking this time around. Our beautiful restaurant that used to be full of well dressed people laughing and the tinkling of glasses and cutlery on beautiful crockery is now only used for coach tours which made me really sad. The hotel restaurant is now more of a bistro and although we enjoyed a well cooked meal there it wasn’t what I had wanted to show Tom. Times move on unfortunately. Our room was gorgeous and comfortable with a huge bathroom with wall panels and beautiful toiletries, a piece of the past that they have kept thankfully. I’m glad I got to share it with him but I think that maybe that was the last time I will visit. I enjoyed an early morning walk before the tourists arrived and saw Arlington Row, a tiny higgly piggly line of houses built in the 14th century and renovated in the 17th century and still lived in today. Tom was flabbergasted at the amount of people taking photos of what he deemed to be nothing special! Apparently William Morris declared it the most beautiful village in England back in the day and people still come in droves to see it. Again we were lucky to see it outside of the regular coach/tourist hours. I do feel really sorry for those people that live there all year round, parking is a nightmare in such a tiny town and people are very intrusive taking photos of literally everything!

So back to London we went, stopping off in Oxford for a couple of hours to look around. Tom’s flatmate studied at Oxford Uni and Tom was keen to see where Connor had spent his time. It is the oldest university in the English speaking world and the sense of history and knowledge just emanates from these gorgeous buildings as you would imagine. They are beautiful golden stone, built around a quadrangle 9 times out of ten and the town is built around the different colleges with loads of pubs and cafes, and people riding bicycles everywhere – students of all ages enjoying all that this beautiful city has to offer.

Back in London we dropped the car off and separated to pack/organise ourselves after our week away. I finally got to see Tom’s flat and meet Connor and now I can fully imagine him in his everyday life which is comforting. Our last evening was terrific with a pre dinner drink (prink!) at The Pelican before joining the queue at Canteen – a no bookings, flavour driven Italian restaurant run by two ex River Cafe chefs on Portobello Road. The menu changes daily and is full of delicious, well executed dishes. We snagged some stools at the kitchen bar and it was great to see the chefs in action. The hype of this place means queues are often down the road but it’s definitely worth it – one of the nicest Italian meals in recent history for me!

We had a last walk back to my hotel together before we said goodbye and Tom hopped onto a lime bike to get home. Six months before we are reunited at Christmas in The Meadow but a week of memories we wont forget….

My last day in London was a long one as I didn’t fly until 9pm so I literally walked EVERYWHERE! 27000 steps as it turned out! First was Kensington Gardens for a coffee and croissant before exploring the park, then a long walk to Holland Park and millionaires’ row to check out where David and Victoria Beckham live (very nice indeed) and a trip to the ‘supermarket of dreams’ (real name) in the main strip of Holland Park – you can just imagine the delicious produce they sell and the calibre of the locals that buy them! Back to Notting Hill for a lunch on the pavement watching the world go by before winding my way back to the hotel to change for the long journey home. Thankfully Tom had given me a lounge pass so the last few hours were spent in relative comfort with free food and wine at Heathrow which meant I pretty much could go straight to sleep once the plane took off. No horrible delays on the way home and before I knew it I was freezing on a train platform at 6am in Wolli Creek!!!! Back to reality I go folks…..

Goodbye England….until next year!!