Shadow Park Stud (2025)

24/07/2025

Last drinks!
Or rather last meals! (Going back a couple of weeks due to my forgetting to photo them - but here are the highlights of last weeks)
1 Roast Dinner - couldn’t leave ‘Ol Blighty without having a traditional Sunday roast. I had the pork and Peter had roast beef, with excellent side servings of cheesy cauliflower and apricot stuffing (for the pork obv)
2 possibly the best meal I had overseas - a Bangladeshi curry from Brick Lane - so good!
3 V&A Cake - scores highly due to surroundings - cakes were pretty average
4 Brownie with a chocolate crown - this was at Kensington Palace but all the Royal Palace cafes had cute decorations on their cakes, brownie was a bit dry sadly
5 Pub lunch beside the Thames - Peter was desperate for some salad! Food average
6 Fish and chips on Brighton Beach. Delicious. Mollie really enjoyed the giant pickle, and Peter enjoyed the pickled onion but my choice of pickled egg was just a bit 🤮
7,8 Breakfast at Brighton Beach - brekky by the sea, amazing views but average food. I asked for ‘well done’ Eggs Benedict (told you I’m a heathen) - so brekky took ages, then I ended up with one hard boiled and one really soft (barely coooked) egg - maybe the chef was making a point! 🤣 Also Mollie is apparently a grown up but she still loves Nutella!
9 Pancakes at Brighton nice and fluffy, but Peter’s curly bacon looked weird
10 Savoy tea - mango cake (good but strange texture in middle), raspberry tart (boring, little flavour), chocolate tart (OMG delish), and lemon and basil???? Drizzle cake (really weird flavour combo). Still who doesn’t love a full silver tea service, with the pianist playing in the background? Oh the scones and jam and cream were awesome (didn’t finish mine), and the sandwiches good too (I liked the salmon best, the others preferred the cucumber!)

So that’s it! Back to normal, though thank God that includes decent coffee!!!!

24/07/2025

Last day in London 😔
And we went out in style!
Breakfast at St Katharine’s Docks then
High Tea at The Savoy
Beautiful old traditional hotel in the heart of London - the country bumpkins were a little out of place! But we enjoyed the high tea (yes this heathen had coffee instead)
London also out on a brilliant last sunset, tho very cold on Mollies balcony
After High Tea time to board the long flights home
Got back to Sydney to see the sunrise, and of course the Bathurst fog!
A quick pick of Angus enjoying some of his pressies (I think he’s reading the MCC Laws of Cricket here 🤣) and part of the huge stash!
In the end I posted 20kg of clothes home separately- and we were a little under baggage allowance (only about 2kg 😂)
An absolutely fabulous trip with so many amazing experiences and wonderful time with our girl. Will miss her!!!
Now back to (freezing cold) reality

*posted late due to family stuff since we returned but back to normal soon 😏

16/07/2025

Brighton
Last weekend in London and we headed South to escape the heat - along with everyone else (standing room only on the train 😂)
We stayed at a REALLY OLD and a bit dodgy Hotel, but there weren’t a lot of options available with one days notice! But the location! Right opposite the main beach, a short walk to the shops especially The Lanes - with loads of jewellery shops! Sadly unable to purchase anything- just about 30,000 POUNDS short for the things I really liked
Sorry no photos of the jewellery, I was too busy looking!
We also went cycling, and despite the critics, I did not fall off once! Only had one side scrape and a couple of dodgy dismounts - but no falls (and no more broken bones). Video also shows me helping the bike up the hill - it needed a rest!
Went to the beach with Mollie and got my ankles wet
It was 24 degrees with a chill wind that was the air, water was way too cold for me!
And the beach! Gosh we take ours for granted - it was steep and ALL rocky - had to buy thongs to walk on it - but lying on the rocks in the sun was like a free hot stone massage!
We also did drinks at the beach bar, and the obligatory ice cream
Lucky we got our “swim” in on Saturday cos Sunday was choppy and cold - English Summer
Walked past the Brighton Pavilion but didn’t go inside - seen enough royal palaces for now! Also loads of road works and construction made it hard to see the parks, plus they’re setting up for the huge Pride Festival next weekend - with some big Acts like Beyoncé going (Mollies coming back)
Overall it was a good choice to get out of London for the weekend and get some sea air.
Homeward bound now! (Writing this in Singapore mid-transit)

14/07/2025

London and Tate Modern
We haven’t had the best weather, always seem to be chasing it, but the last week in London has finally been very summery
Friday was very hot so we had a quieter day, didn’t travel too far. Had a lovely lunch at The Anchor at London Bridge, visited Borough Market for some more fudge - I honestly don’t know where it all went 🤷🏼‍♀️- then headed to the Tate Modern for some air conditioning and culture
Saw Dali, Degas, Lichtenstein, and several others
Some of the newer stuff, like the fruit and veges on rocks I just didn’t get! But the sculptures of ancient Mesopotamian plants was good
Also the giant spider -9m tall! It was wonderful
The Tate is housed in the old Wind Turbine Hall - a beautifully restored huge old building
Good to see an Australian artist featured too - hopefully someone we know may be here one day (you know who you are)

14/07/2025

Kensington Palace
We split up - Peter headed to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and I went to KP
A good display of royal clothes at the Dress Codes exhibition including 2 of Diana’s outfits - didn’t really love either of them! The green embroidered ball gown was Margaret’s and the enormous black bodice was Queen Vics
The exhibition was partially curated by kids 12-17 with some of them creating their own dress outfits to match their ‘dress code’
I loved the green satin with gold cowrie shell print, and the funky stitching on the punk jacket
The palace includes a walk through the actual rooms where Queen Victoria spent her childhood / so much history- and the bedroom she was born in! You can also see some of her toys and art work
I didn’t walk around the gardens too much (it was VERY hot), but did see the sunken garden with the statue of Diana.
And for once didn’t spend too much at the shop! 🤣

12/07/2025

Thames Cruise
The Thames Barrier has featured in many films and is one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world. Up close it’s really incredible to see. Hot tip - we did a do-it-yourself river cruise. Got an all day hop on/off pass for the Uber Ferry (25£ each) and caught it all the way down river to Barking then back up to Battersea power Station. It was air conditioned, and we got front row seats for the second and third trips. There’s also a little cafe on board - we got hot drinks but they also sell alcohol! You don’t get the tour guide commentary but it was really comfy and easy, and you can get on or off wherever. Battersea power Station is huge, full of shops, a bit like the Barangaroo redevelopment, very pretty.
So after setting out (2nd time) to see Westminster Cathedral and failing (need to pre book tickets), we ended up having a much nicer and cooler day out on the river!

11/07/2025

For those of you worried about the lack of food photos, rest assured we are eating!
Breakfast at Stamford was described by Peter as excellent - full English (again) 🤣
I had the sweet and sour pancakes with crispy bacon and walnuts and maple syrup - right combination of flavours and enough syrup but the bacon and walnuts were just a little too well cooked (yep even for me) 3/5
Next we have Lebanese breakfast at Amber in Whitechapel
OMG so good
I had aubergine fritters with poached eggs, Mollie had Shashuka, and Peter had full English 🤦‍♀️
5/5
And finally dinner with a view (Mollies balcony view) - Can’t remember if this was a Tesco or Sainsbury special - pretty good actually, we’ve had a few of these and they’re much better than you get in Aus 3.5/5

10/07/2025

Places of Peace and War
St Paul’s Cathedral
Magnificent and moving
Beautifully decorated recocco style by Christopher Wren, rebuilt after the Great Fire
The dome was completed in 1710 and it was the tallest building in London til 1963
It still dominates the skyline - you can see it from almost everywhere in London
We climbed the 287 steps up to the Whispering Gallery at the base of the dome, but didn’t do the next lot of steps on the outside!
The crypt is full of tombs to mainly rich old men and many famous seafarers
I was a bit overwhelmed by the male domination - apparently very few women did anything gallant! Exceptions were Florence Nightingale and the first female Ethiopian Nurse
Also Christopher Wrens sister, who appears to have been a very well respected healer in late 1600’s
Imperial War Museum
Sorry I didn’t take a lot of photos cos didn’t see much of it, not all my thing (Peter has photos on FB)
Also I got in trouble for taking photos in the VC/medal room! Didn’t see a sign saying you couldn’t …. Also again women were really under-represented in medals
Sadly women were over-represented in the ‘Sexual Violence in Conflict’ exhibition- this was really moving and very tastefully and thoughtfully curated, though also very sad
Finally, the art and photography exhibition was very good- though unsure that’s the right word for the images conveyed!
Peter reported being underwhelmed by IWM when compared to Australian War Memorial, I just found it quite sad
*Note there’s been lots around for the 80 year since end of WW2 anniversary, with lots of focus on that….

10/07/2025

All the icons! 🤣

10/07/2025

V & A
Victoria and Albert Museum
Here for the dresses! Though there weren’t that many to see sadly
But huge and wonderful exhibits still
Mollie showed me around the Casting Courts - in the 1800s to get art shared with the world many collectors made plaster casts and other copies of famous sculptures and objects - such as the Statue of David
These casts are now themselves antiques and highly prized collections
Even the V&A roof had to be specially designed to house some of the objects due to their enormous size
We weren’t able to get tickets to the Chanel exhibition but there was still plenty of jewellery to see including a magnificent silver and diamond chatelaine
Yes I spent more $ in the shop - but not as much as I wanted to!

07/07/2025

London
Spitalfields Market
Saturday back to town
Spitalfields has these TWENTY adorable elephant sculptures based on real The Sheldrick Trust rescued elephants
Also a random goat statue?
Then the fabulous Brick Lane where I found my happy place - a very old fabric shop. The lovely gentleman had poor English (he’s had the shop since 1982 🤣) and had to call his wife but she soon helped
Love love love my purchases - 3m mauve/green dupion silk, 2m gold dupion and 2m of the softest apricot silk satin - total cost around $210!!!! (This is very cheap) Think I need to go back there!
Also Efe’s Turkish restaurants in Brick Lane - apparently around for a long time - must be making some money as this car had Efe on the number plate!

07/07/2025

Crying….

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