Back after the hiatus!

Sorry folks...it's been more than ten days that the blog was updated...and certainly not for a lack of intent. Will certainly try to be a lot more disciplined about it now!

Week one saw the admin and the settling in procedures taking up some time, apart from a series of seminars on the UK ( politics, economy, sociology etc). Come Friday and we find ourselves on an interesting part of the understanding UK module - a walkabout London!

But this would only be after the "working lunch" at the CDR - the Chairman's Dining Room, in the old building of the LSE. A nice spread, all vegetarian awaited us. Lots of salads, and other exotic looking and sounding stuff - the menu card pix shall help set the perspective. A cold lunch which some of us found upsetting...but some found interesting. Defined a s a working lunch, it was till then the most sumptuos lunch that we'd had all of that week - and a welcome relief from Wright's Cafe sandwiches!

The weather put paid to the best of intent, and we had to jump onto a bus for a short ride down to the St Paul's Cathedral, City of London. Probably the first use of our Oyster passes too! Now for a bit of London that we'd not been to: a walk across the pedestrian Millenium Bridge across the Thames, with the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern on the other side. We were escorted across the Tate Modern, and while the enthu guide did try to enthuse a lot of passion, there is only so much of modern art that I can follow! But the Tate itself is grand, a converted powerhouse beautifully restored into one of the best galleries in the world now. The famous Turbine room was under some renovation, so we missed that part.

Spirits high, we strolled along the South Bank of the Thames, holding onto our umbrellas in the gusty winds will we reached the London Eye ( worth looking up on the web) - possibly London's best new landmark. Looks awesome and is superbly located......