Last day in London

So today was my last official day of vacation (tomorrow really doesn't count since I fly out at 3pm, so I need to leave for the airport at 12pm at the latest (will likely leave at 11:30am to be safe).  

I had dinner at Dina's house last night and she made her famous Gruyere and caramelized onion tart which was delicious (I say "famous" since I've had this when she used to live in Toronto). This morning, one of her friends that she used to work with at BBC had started his own tour company based on famous murders in London, so we decided to go.  He focused this particular tour to a neighbourhood called Soho.  His tour is called Murder Mile and he has clearly done a lot of research on his subject, is an excellent writer and is quite passionate about his subject and a good actor.  It was extremely entertaining and given that my feet are about to quit me and doing another walking tour after my Trafalgar tour was a bit of a dangerous prospect, I found this guy's tour slogan to be right up my alley... "Less walking, MORE MURDERS!"  We definitely got at least a mile or two in, but we heard about a lot of serial killers and murderers just in this area.  Since this guy happened to be a friend of my friend, he chatted with us about the fact that he plans to write other tours about other areas of London and that there are no end to interesting serial killer and other murder stories in London.  I don't doubt it.  London is an endlessly fascinating city for many reasons.

Next we headed off to Piccadilly Circus to go to BAFTA for lunch and drinks.  We couldn't go when I first arrived since BAFTA closes every August for renovations, so that is why I ended up going to The Groucho Club and Café Royal at the beginning of my trip since BAFTA has an arrangement with some private clubs (for arts & culture types) for the month of August.  Not sure if I mentioned that back then but we did.  In any case, since the end of my trip put me into September, BAFTA re-opened to their members, so we went today for lunch.  It was very very good and while we didn't see anybody famous (which I very much doubted we would because why would a famous person go there unless they had some kind of business meeting that asked them to be there?), but there were loads of people by the time we left and they must have all been industry types since that is a requirement of BAFTA membership. In fact on the way out, Dina ran into a BBC producer that she knows who was on his way in.  In any case, it was fun to go somewhere that, as Dina likes to say, "HCP's" (Horrible Common People) can't go to.  Not to be snobby, but it's just nice to go to a place where the general public can't enter in the middle of one of the biggest tourist traps in London (Piccadilly Circus).

Lastly, we hit Waitrose and Marks & Spencers one last time so I could get groceries to bring back to Canada.  Then we went to Dina's for dinner and drinks.

Now I am back in the flat and it's midnight at the moment (I've spent about an hour writing this blog) and I don't want to go to sleep since I don't want my last night in London to end, even if I'm in a flat and I can't really go out.  In any case, I'm going to sign off so I can enjoy at least one hour in this flat and I'll write one last blog tomorrow when I arrive home.

Peace out!