Last week saw the last of our recent visitors leave town. Danica had been in town for a week, following her tour de force of Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula. A week earlier Aidan and Janelle had been in town. It was great to see them. We headed to a Rollerdisco on the Friday that Danica was here, which was fantastic. It was my 5th Rollerdisco, and the first time I'd ever put on rollerskates (the other four were all Solid Gold ones at Uni). On the Sunday we headed to the Gipsy Moth in Greenwich for a roast and a few drinks in the beer garden, followed by some drinks on a river cruise up to Westminster, followed by a few drinks on the Tattershall, a boat permanently moored on the Thames as a pub. Lovely!

On the left is a pic of Aido, Janelle, Danica, myself and a couple of others on Dan's first night here. Check out Noodles' dad on the left - he's "32."

Anyway all this selfless entertaining got me wondering how much we tend to do over here when we have friends in town, and how little we do the rest of the time.

Chastened by my lack of touristy activity when visitors are not about, I headed to Battle last Monday. Battle is the actual site of the Battle of Hastings, at which the Normans conquered Anglo Saxon England in 1066. Some of you will know that I have visited Normandy in France before mostly for the same reason - I saw the famous Bayeux Tapestry there (see the Fantasmagorical Trip blog entry for details).

Battle was bliss for a nerd like me - I look back on my photos and its just a series of pictures of a hillside. No people. No fun being had (it was miserable and about 9 degrees that day). Just the same hill from different angles. And a few of the abbey constructed after the battle.

I guess after a few months not doing much touristy stuff in the UK I need to get back on the horse again. I've done quite a bit, but some of the omissions (Imperial War Museum, Tower Bridge Tour, Tate Modern, V&A, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Jack the Ripper Walking Tour) are pretty embarrassing.

Worse still, I haven't been to a West End show yet. Shame!