Sun shines on London

Chance encounters amid the roses of Hyde Park

It's funny how the weather can alter your perception of the city you live in and all those people around you. As great as London is, poor weather is enough to get anyone down after a while - especially when it coincides with the supposed height of summer.

This year, however, has seen record lows of rainfall and, recently, some lovely warm days in the capital. For once, you can read our LondonTown feature on outdoor swimming while actually harbouring the intention of going for a dip.

Having missed out on Open Gardens this year - I was away in north Wales - I've tried to make up for it since.

The Thames path has been both run (the Barnes-Chiswick-Hammersmith loop) and walked (Fulham to Kew, culminating with cricket on the Green and some sun-drenched riverside drinks in the City Barge pub).

The breathtaking early summer roses have been viewed (Hyde Park just pipping Regent's Park, although both really should be visited - and smelled - before it's too late).

The South Bank has been strolled; the Theatre attended (an amusing Bedroom Farce at the Duke of Yorke); beers drunk (on a deck chair overlooking the Serpentine); BBQ's devoured; cakes consumed (from a cute Primrose Hill patisserie on Regent's Park Road); new delicatessens in Mayfair sampled (hello, Nigella!); my roof terrace re-planted and stocked up with lavender, three tomato vines and a courgette plant.

Oddly enough - for it seems a bit of a cliché - the place which has delighted me most so far is Hyde Park. When I lived in Zone 1 I used to run around London's most central park on spring weekends but the only occasions I seem to visit now are for the annual winter Christmas fair (where last year it rained continuously).

This June, however, I've reacquainted myself with the joys of Hyde Park: the people watching as groups gather for picnics or games of football/Frisbee; the families out for a stroll; the lovers holding hands; the flowers and roses in bloom on the south east corner; the shaded walkways by Kensington Gore; the grand tree-lined promenades towards the central statue north of the Victoria Memorial; the waterfalls of the Italian Gardens; the upside-down curiosity that is the Weeping Beech. The list could go on.

A funny thing happened on a visit last Sunday when I was out running: at one of the small south entrances I bumped into an old university friend in one of those uncanny coincidences that London seems to throw up every now and then.

A lot of these have occurred to me through the ages. Waiting for a Wimbledon-bound train on the platform at Earls Court often provides a chance encounter or two - as does sandwich hunting in Prêt à Manger - although given the irregularity of tubes (and ubiquity of Prêt), this could be viewed as unavoidable. That said, I once went on a series of dates with someone I had come across - haphazardly - on a regular basis on the Piccadilly Line.

What's more, last week I was in the gym when I recognised one of the actors I had seen from the second row just days earlier at Bedroom Farce, the Alan Ayckbourn play mentioned above. We got talking and it emerged we both went to the same university, studied the same course, shared the same tutor, share a common love for all things French and have both lived in Paris. Oh, and he's in a band which play regularly at the Troubadour, the Old Brompton Road venue where I have, in the past, bumped into Orlando Bloom and Chris Martin (who, incidentally, went to my school too - but that's another story).

You see - chance encounters abound. They're everywhere you look - and they hang on the slimmest of threads. The likelihood that I am running past a small entrance of London's biggest park at exactly the same time that an acquaintance of mine is passing really is minute. What if my pace had been slightly faster or he had stopped moments earlier to tie his shoelace? Maybe he did - hence the encounter.

It makes you think how many times a chance meeting was on the cards until something small - the change of a traffic light, the dropping of a coin, the misplacement of a bunch of keys - allowed for a different trajectory. They should make a film about it - hang on, they already have: Sliding Doors, Match Point, Serendipity... you name it.

As it is, I'll simply continue enjoying London and all it has to offer while the sun stays out. Now if only the Icelandic volcano struck again so we had some peace and quiet from those noisy planes.

Olympics remain well oiled

BP says it has no intention of withdrawing its sponsorship of the London Olympics despite its on-going problems in the Gulf of Mexico. The cash-strapped London 2012 organising committee is crossing its fingers that the deal, which is valued at about $58 million, remains intact. "Their track record is one of the best," said chairman Sebastian Coe in an admirable play of words which nevertheless fails to address the ills (and spills) of the past two months. Still, as long as BP keeps well away from the pool and sailing events then things should go swimmingly.

It's coming home?

It may not be as exciting as previous tournaments and England may have been predictably bland so far out in South Africa, but football's biggest competition is taking multicultural London by storm. Our Nation by Nation guide for viewing the games in town has proved a real hit with LondonTown readers - and even the Evening Standard newspaper couldn't resist copying most of it verbatim. But spare a thought for football fans in South West London, whose viewing of England's crunch group match against Slovenia was brought to a halt by an ill-timed power cut in the Twickenham and Kew area. It may have not felt like it at the time, but given the dire nature of England's performance EDF Energy were probably doing all those involved a massive favour!

Changes at LondonTown

The coming month should see the editorial team shake things up a little here at LondonTown. Firstly, we're going to introduce an exciting rolling blog of news, views, observations, anecdotes, openings and much more. It's about time we moved into the 21st century and the ability for readers to post comments should make it a more interactive read. But fret ye not - Nelson's Column will still continue! That said, there will be a shake up with LondonMonthly, while we're constantly working on new possibilities such as a daily London photo blog. So watch this space... things are about to get interesting.

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