Day 5: London (Saturday)

Day 5: London

Tech support staff trainees (and photo-hog service dog)

QOTD:

Please sir, can we walk on the sunny side of the street, please?

Weather:  Another chilly one, this time with the sun shining. Low 40s in shade, maybe even high 30s. Much better in the sun

View from 18 Cadogan: creative sheathing on construction project

Toast and coffee in the apartment for breakfast. We’re meeting the son and daughter-in-law and two grandchildren of MB and DB for brunch. Gail’s Bakery, the first choice, is a short Uber ride away (DBr, after helping DBl with his Uber, gets the app to work on her phone as well).

It's a small to-go only place

No toaster on the premises

Gail’s has only outdoor seating (and there are actually people sitting outdoors!), and can’t handle 8 of us (phew); in the meantime, THB goes in and buys some San Francisco sourdough and two hot cross buns (which heat up nicely tomorrow morning).

We end up around the corner at Le Pain Quotidien (DB and THB remember eating her the other time we came to Collect, years ago). It’s toasty inside (though they don’t toast the bread, which renders it substandard to THB’s taste at an eat-in bakery) with room for 8. Scrambled eggs and prosciutto for DB and THB, a variety of meals for the others. Most uniquely, granddaughter K has hot chocolate with a carafe of chocolate to pour in and a chocolate waffle with a carafe of chocolate to pour over the waffle. It’s a lot of chocolate….even for an 8 year old.

The others head off to the museums, the gents in one direction, the ladies in the other. DB and THB walk back (preferably on the sunny side of the street) to the apartment to rest and freshen up.

 

The original 

Mid-afternoon, Uber through a now much less congested downtown (it’s Saturday) to Vauxhall Station and catch a train to Raynes Park. GO is there to greet us and we motor the last bit to where KB and THB spent almost 3 weeks during the summer of 2012.

Huf (hoof) Haus (house)

Owners Manual?

Well….almost. GO and MO have moved next door. Sort of. They subdivided their lot and had a German-made “Huf Haus” installed on the smaller portion of the lot right next to the traditional Wimbledon house. Most of THB’s friends have resisted downsizing: The O’s have totally embraced it, along with moving into an eco-friendly house.

Air to heat power source

The haus is “powered” by an air to heat source pump * (see below for the marketing brochure version of how this works). Here's the "engine" room; the German manufacturer of the house knows something has gone wrong before the residents do.

And, they have just moved in and are figuring out how to live in the space: we’re the  first non-family entertaining they've done, and wouldn’t you know it that means THB is posting pics before they're all settled in (THB’s rough rule of thumb: it takes 2 years to get settled into any new residence).

Lots of drink, excellent food (MO is getting used to having company “in the kitchen” while prepping the meal), much conversation of life changes (you know, small stuff like grandchildren and multiple weddings of offspring in same year), what life in the times of Brexit and DJT feels like (more “small” stuff, right DJT?).

Uber all the way back to 18 Cadogan to revisit our day and theirs with MB and DB.

Shots from around town:

The ugliest building in London?

*How it actually works sounds more complicated than it is so hopefully this step by step guide will ease you through using an Air Source Heat Pump:

A fan simply forces air over a heat exchanger (a copper coil filled with refrigerant) in order to extract its heat.

The Air Source Heat Pump’s evaporator then uses the air source heat obtained by the exchanger to boil the refrigerant (boils at approximately -10˚C) and the act of boiling turns the refrigerant into vapour which is then transferred to the Compressor.

The Compressor then literally compresses the vapour and as its volume decreases, its temperature increases and the gas that is created by this is fed through to a heat exchanger within the heating pump.

Forcing this hot gas through the central heating system’s cold water condenses the refrigerant back into a liquid but as it does this its heat is passed into the heat exchanger which supplies your domestic hot water and powers the central heating system using the air source heat extracted originally.

To complete the Air Source Heat Pump’s closed circuit, the pressure of the condensed liquid is reduced via the expansion valve and ‘Voila’ – your heating requirements are provided!