On Friday evening, after having spent the entire afternoon at The Barley Mow, I met up with Uns, Noel and Megan near to Oxford Circus and planned to get dinner somewhere along St Christopher's Place. After deciding against most of the places around there, we figured we'd head across to MEATliquor instead which always goes down well. After way too much to eat and drink there, as well as Noel and myself deciding we both deserved "engagement grills", we left MEATliquor and stopped in at the Cock & Lion for a quick one before they called last rounds. Brilliant night all round!

On Saturday morning I managed to get myself on the bike and pushed the body to do a 50km round trip from Beckenham out into Kent and back again. The last time I did that I started from home, but this time I figured I'd get the train to Beckenham and get out further into the country which was a fantastic, but draining cycle. Glad I pushed myself though, felt better for it.

That evening, once recovered and ready, Uns and myself headed out to Putney, and after a not-so-quick meal at Carluccio's down by the river, we headed over the bridge and down towards Craven Cottage where we met up with Noel and Megan (again), just in time for the Ireland vs Italy football friendly. We were sitting one row seat from Si, Lorenzo and Laura, so a good crowd of us. It turned into a really fun game, with Italy been disallowed their only goal to end in a goalless draw, but a good entertaining game to watch. After the game we stopped in at The Jolly Gardeners and managed one quick round before they stopped serving and then both Uns and myself caught the last train home, neither of us too keen for a taxi or the night bus.

Yesterday, after spending a bit of the morning in the garden while Uns met up with Sarah, we both made our way over to Greenwich for a tour and walk around the HMS Bulwark which I'd managed to get some tickets for. The HMS Bulwark is an assault ship and currently the flagship of the Royal Navy. She is one of the United Kingdom's two newest amphibious transport docks designed to put Royal Marines ashore by air and by sea. The ship is designed to send large numbers of troops and vehicles to shore as quickly as possible. The rear of the Bulwark opens and floods a compartment, allowing the boats inside to be launched. The 64 metre flight deck is able to take two medium-lift helicopters and stow a third. After the briefing, we were shown around by a guide and were on board there for just over an hour - both up on the flight deck and down in the hull, as well as being able to chat to various members of the crew about their job and the Bulwark. Very interesting indeed!

From there we got the boat back and decided on Nandos for lunch which has a great outside eating area on the upper level that looks out into the river and of course, a great view of the Bulwark. After eating there we chilled out and walked around Greenwich for a bit before heading home for the evening.