Thursday and Friday just gone by was our yearly work summer party and this year was up in Sheffield. So Thursday morning we headed into the office as usual and left around mid-morning over to Kings Cross to get our train up north. After meeting up at the Sheffield offices, we were then picked up by coach and all taken over to Kenwood Hall where we were based for the afternoon. They'd organised "It's a Knockout" for everyone followed by a BBQ and beers a bit later on.

After a good part of the evening there, we were taken by coach to our hotel were we checked in, dropped our bags and then met up downstairs to plan for the night. Myself, Shannon and Jason decided on a bite to eat first, with the closest eating establishment being a dodgy chicken & kebab bar, so we settled on that without much discussion. Most of the others decided to try the club opposite, but the three of us headed down to Genting Club Casino instead for a couple of drinks, but no Blackjack this time.

We all got a fairly early train back to London on the Friday and the afternoon was spent back in the office, all feeling a bit fragile. That evening was spent at home, just chilling out. And like Friday evening, the rest of the weekend was very quiet indeed, the first one Uns and I have had at home in ages. So after a bit of time around the house on Saturday morning, we made our way to the gym, followed by a visit to the Blackbird Bakery which had just opened up under the arches by Queens Road station. They'd just opened up on the Friday, so figured we'd have to try them out. Then that evening we sat outside having a raclette grill for dinner.

After dinner we decided to head into town and stop by the Tower of London and see the progress of the ceramic poppies installation titled "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" which was underway. It was probably a bit dark to see it properly so figured we'd carry on our walk over to Victoria Tower Gardens next to the Houses of Parliament to go have a properly look at ArtAngel's Spectra which is a twenty-metre grid containing forty-nine searchlights installed at by artist Ryoji Ikeda. Unannounced, it appeared in the sky at dusk last Monday and for seven nights only it was visible across the city between sunset and sunrise, with it being switched off this morning. People could walk within the grid of lights, experiencing a specially composed soundtrack by Ikeda. Walking through these sinewaves, a personal musical score was created for each visitor at the source of this architectural intervention in the sky. We spent some time there admiring and appreciating the installation, before heading over Westminster Bridge and then home.

Yesterday turned out to a miserable windy rainy day outside which meant a lazy, indoors day doing nothing but watch TV and chill out on the couch. Neither of us felt like doing anything, which was handy considering the miserable weather outside. But after such a lazy day, we figured last night we'd head out up to Telegraph Hill to go check out the supermoon as well as the Spectra from a distance.

It was fairly chilly up on the hill, I guess half expected after raining all day, but good to see the light beam from a few miles away. After a bit of time up on Telegraph Hill, we headed back home to end off a much needed relaxing weekend!