The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown We fly out from Heathrow heading home to New Zealand at 9.20 tonight. We deliberately didn't organize anything for the day as there would be bit of packing etc. - although Jeanette pretty much had that done the night before.

We started our day with our unusual wander down to Paddington and our favourite breakfast place Mimo's Cafe. The food is very good and way less greasy than most and the coffee is excellent - I'm not really a coffee expert but so many people have commented on the quality of the coffee in the last 3 weeks it must be quality - it certainly tasted great to me. The family that run the cafe are from Kosovo and two of their staff are Albanian. The obviously get on very well and their interactions with each other and the customers ensure a happy start to each day.

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel to check out. We have had a Go Pro for ages but had never really used it, because we had plenty of time, we decided we would give it a go and put together a bit of a 'collage' on Paddington as we see it and the reason, we think it's such an awesome area to stay in. It was actually quite good fun, hopefully when we get back, we'll be able to string it together into something that's not too terrible and put it up on YouTube. Jury's out and we'll see how we go with that one.

We visited many of the places we would have covered in the blogs and also touched on some from previous visits. Along the way we stopped off at the Victoria Pub

to film and have a relaxed pint. There was an unexpected 'summer shower' so we had to extend our stay a bit - the things you do in pursuit of creative excellence! We also had a walk up and around Little Venice, there's a cafe there, Cafe Laville which is situated across the canal giving excellent views both ways. We'd been keen to have a coffee there each visit, but it has always been packed, we got lucky this time (and even managed to get front row seats) so we got to enjoy our drink in a very awesome and unique location.

We finished our filming expedition at the Mitre - our local - where we had a late lunch after which we returned to The Westbourne Hotel, picked up our bags and trundled down to Paddington station. Then it was the Heathrow Express direct train out to the airport. Everything went like breeze through customs, baggage check in etc. Certainly, the British Airways staff on the ground were very helpful.

We did have a slight hiccup in customs when they swabbed our carry-on luggage for drugs, but it was a very small glitch in an otherwise seamless process.

We've had a great 3 weeks. While the fact Masoun didn't quite make the cut for Ascot, we absolutely love London to have the time to do everything in a relaxed way with no pressures was really cool. Royal Ascot was still a very big highlight for us and seeing the 'big day' when South Africa fought so hard to achieve a dominant position. It was a magic day and being at Lords, the home of cricket made it even more special.

It was also awesome to get out to Oxford, catch up with Shaun and Mya and attend the University dinner. They are such great company, and we always really enjoy our time with them. It was also a lot of fun catching up with Andy and his builder buddies for a few afterwork drinks definitely provided the most humour. Far more than the Book of Mormon show in the West End which would go down as the biggest failure!

Halfway home now nice shower, meal and relaxing in Singapore Airlines lounge. Thanks for following our little adventure - we hope that you enjoyed the ride.