{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "The Platinum Experience", "description": "", "home_page_url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online", "feed_url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/feed.json", "user_comment": "", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "items": [ { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-5.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-5.html", "title": "Day 5", "summary": " Another touristy day with visits to ?.? at Science Museum ", "content_html": "

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Another touristy day with visits to ?.? at Science Museum

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\n", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-19T10:00:57+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-23T16:18:12+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-4.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-4.html", "title": "Day 4", "summary": " Today was mixed with typical touristy stuff and a cool London…", "content_html": "

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Today was mixed with typical touristy stuff and a cool London thing. We went to Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Westminster and Trafalgar Square. Given the time of year, we also managed to catch ongoing Remembrance Day commemoration marches. (Pics and video)

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Then we headed to our noon appointment of Brunch at The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town - a hidden speakeasy in London where one enters via the Breakfast Club, then once you provide the password, you enter the hidden speakeasy via a fridge, and head downstairs. The atmosphere and idea is cool. We ordered the Full Monty and Southern Greens and Potato Hash coupled with Vodka and strawberry. The food was great, although we’re not sure there was any vodka in the drinks.

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Rich then headed to Microsoft on Regent Street for a ?.? Event - blurb and pics from Rich.

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Again, jetlag hit and we headed home, wondering when our body clocks would click over to UK time

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\n", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-17T22:00:39+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-23T16:18:12+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-3.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-3.html", "title": "Day 3", "summary": " Woke up at 4 am (thank you jetlag) and went to…", "content_html": "

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Woke up at 4 am (thank you jetlag) and went to Duck & Waffle for breakfast, cocktails and fun

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Ordered the Duck and Waffle And the full Elvis and had Bloody Mary’s, Mimosas and coffee

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Miserable wet and cloudy morning but great experience at Duck & Waffle

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People in bar are, set away from dining area, we saw people who looked like they’d been there all night, finishing off a bottle of wine at 6am

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Then we wandered around Bishopsgate for a bit and then headed to Kings Cross St Pancras station

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We queued for quite a while to get the obligatory photo of Bren heading to Hogwarts at station 93/4, then had a quick look through HP store.

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Then walked around for a bit and took some pics

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Then headed to Covent Garden, which was in full Christmas mode

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Then headed to Carnaby Street via theatre district and SoHo

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Rich found a pair of Docs that he really liked so bought them, put em on and put them to the test

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Then headed to Oxford Circus and Regent street for a wander

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Then headed to Cittie of Yorke in Holborn for late lunch with my sister-in-law’s brother, who just so happened to be in London with his wife at the same time.

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Cittie of Yorke one of London’s oldest pubs - Okay, so the current building is a replica built in 1920, but a pub has been standing here for almost six hundred years, so it’s still one of the oldest pubs in London. (pics)

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We ordered pies coupled with cider and wine

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Then headed back home

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Crowds on Regent Strert and Oxford Circus over the weekend were insane - worste than anything I’ve experienced in Manhattan and Times Square. There are so many people that people spill over the huge footpaths/sidewalks onto the road. AMD the roads are full of traffic and people. It was absolute mayhem. Our plan was to tube it back to Pimlico but every tube was packed with squished people so we came back up to the surface and bussed it home. We figured it probably took the same amount of time on the bus dealing with traffic as it would have done via tube, given you can’t fit on a tube until at least 4 or 5 have arrived at the station

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We were exhausted when we got home and retired early due to fatigue and jetlag - in bed by 6pm!

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\n", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-17T10:00:38+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-23T16:18:12+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-2.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-2.html", "title": "Day 2", "summary": "Unsurprisingly, woke up fairly early - curse you, jet lag! Not such…", "content_html": "

Unsurprisingly, woke up fairly early - curse you, jet lag! Not such a bad thing, though, as it meant we could grab breakfast and have a bit of a wander around, and still try and get out of the hotel before they started doing their all-day fire alarm tests again. Didn’t quite make it, but our ears have stopped bleeding now.

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Of course, that meant that we were too early to check in to our apartment for the week. We left our luggage at reception, and jumped on the tube to head to Camden Market.

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The walk from Camden underground station to the market itself is a mix of the worst of Las Vegas (dodgy souvenir shops) and the best of Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (grunge-chic shoes interspersed with body piercing and tattoo artists).

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Cross the bridge over Camden Locks and you’ve arrived at the market.

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We looked through a variety of shops and stalls: jewellery, clothes, jewellery, art, jewellery, music and more (jewellery).

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By an amazing piece of lucky timing we arrived pretty much bang on lunch time. By an another amazing piece of luck, there are about a million food stalls. The hardest part was choosing where to eat! I think every type of food imaginable was represented. After walking in circles we ended up back at Honest Burgers for a tasty burger and cocktail combo.

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Refreshed, we kept exploring. We spent some time in the massive Dr Marten’s store, checking out their history and discovering that the only boots not in stock were the ones Rich wanted. Go figure.

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Note for Australians: most public toilets in the UK are not free. It’s where the phrase “spend a penny” comes from. Like all things, inflation has hit, and it now costs 40p to have a pee. Thankfully, for those who don’t carry cash, the restrooms at the market now take contactless credit card payments!

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We kept wandering through the twisty alleys and laneways, until the cold got the better of us and we decided to head back to the apartment, check in and get settled.

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Our apartment is ever so slightly bigger than our room from the first night! A huge lounge leading to a spacious bedroom. The kitchen is tiny, but it’s not like we’re planning on cooking anything.

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Then wandered around a bit more and severe jetlag started to hit so went back to get into our new apartment and shower and change

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Then went for dinner at local pub for bangers and mash and a drink each then to bed

", "image": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/media/posts/4/cf87b7dc-ebd2-4822-b549-3560ad25c317.jpg", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-16T10:00:02+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-26T10:42:34+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-1.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/day-1.html", "title": "Day 1", "summary": "We arrived! After all those gruelling hours in a big, comfy first…", "content_html": "

We arrived! After all those gruelling hours in a big, comfy first class seat, we touched down at Heathrow. Once again thanks to Emirates, we used our immigration express cards and were through in minutes. Bag retrieval was also quick, and in what seemed like no time at all, we were out of arrivals and heading to our waiting car.

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As previously reported we had to travel a day early, thanks to our original flights being cancelled (shout out to the Qantas maintenance folks who ripped the door off an A380!), so we’d had to scramble to find an extra night of accommodation. The apartments we had booked for the week were full, so we ended up at the Marriott Residence Inn in Kensington.

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The room was typically English - and by that we mean tiny! If you lie on the bed and throw your arm out to the side, you’d break your wrist on the wall. Thankfully, we were only there to sleep for a night.

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What we couldn’t deal with was the fire alarm testing. I’m not sure what was going on, but the alarm was being tested - constantly - between 10am and 6pm. So, we dropped our bags in the room and got the hell out of there!

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During the trip over, Rich had discovered that the little info screen on his 360 degree camera wasn’t working, which made it ever so difficult to tell what mode it was in. He needed an Apple store to get it replaced, so that little mission seemed like a good way to fill in some time. We jumped on the C1 bus and headed out to Westfield White City.

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\"Christmas

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White City is huge! Neither of us were really keeping track of the time (other than making sure we weren’t back at the hotel before 6!), but we wandered around for hours.

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In our meandering, we noticed there were big sections of crowd control ropes, and security folks managing a queue. “What’s going on?” we wondered, thinking maybe an appearance by someone famous. The truth shocked us: it was people queueing up to buy merch at the Pokémon store!!! The queue looked to be a few hundred metres long. We spoke to a security guard there who advised us that today was a quiet day!

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That left us so shaken we had to stop for coffee and cake to recover our composure before finding the Apple Store and getting the camera sorted out. Mission accomplished, we headed for home.

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It was at this point - walking back outside in mid afternoon - we were struck by the realities of the UK in mid-November: it was so dark it felt like it was about 9pm, but it was only 4pm. That was okay with us, though, what with jet lag and all, so we figured an early dinner and bed was the plan.

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Where better for dinner than the local pub, the Warwick Arms Kensington? And what better than the traditional English fare of a nice curry?

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We were exhausted so headed back to our tiny room for some much-needed sleep.

", "image": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/media/posts/9/img_0630.jpg", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-15T20:21:00+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-26T10:42:02+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/the-platinum-experience-our-20th-wedding-anniversary.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/the-platinum-experience-our-20th-wedding-anniversary.html", "title": "The Platinum Experience - our 20th wedding anniversary", "summary": " We’re calling this our Platinum Experience because our research tells us…", "content_html": "

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We’re calling this our Platinum Experience because our research tells us the modern gift for 20 years of marriage is Platinum (we understand an older tradition considers China the appropriate gift but we felt we couldn’t call it a China experience when we’re going to the UK, and we might have felt compelled to post pics of Royal Albert, Royal Doulton and Waterford offerings 😜, and we don’t want to do that).

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Our Platinum Experience commenced in the best way possible - flying First Class! For our 10th wedding anniversary, we flew to the US and Mexico in Business Class, so felt it more than appropriate to fly to the UK in First Class (thanks to saving years and years worth of frequent flyer points from both of us). A wise decision, it would seem.

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We were originally booked to fly on Thursday 14 Nov on Qantas Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney to Singapore, then Singapore to London (not our choice of routing but one takes what one can get when one is using FF points). Due to cancellation of our flights out on Thursday, we were most fortunate to be offered Emirates First Class Melbourne to Dubai then onto London Heathrow.

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We commenced our experience in the Qantas First Lounge in Melbourne. We have been here a number of times due to Richard’s frequent flyer status and have always enjoyed the quality of food and service in the lounge. But this time, it was different. We were able to enjoy a beautiful meal, washed down with Mumm champagne.

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Then we both enjoyed a massage to relax and de-stress before boarding our flight.

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We boarded and turned LEFT (for a change) and were escorted to our seats - 2E and 2F. Our first offer? Dom Perignon champagne, thank you very much. The Emirates First Class suites are huge and include personal hanging space for jackets, plenty of storage space for belongings. Personal mini bar stocked with Evian still water and Perrier sparkling and 3 different soft drinks, a basket of snacks including chocolates, popcorn, chips, mints, muesli bars, etc., and the a la carte menu and drinks list (including cappuccino, a vast array of wines and spirits) which can be ordered at any time. The Emirates First Class suites include doors that can provide some privacy.

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We chose Dom Perignon (which we subsequently found duty free at Dubai airport to be US$402 per bottle!!!), Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, and bourbon for our drinks.

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Our amenities bag included pyjamas, slippers, eye mask, toothpaste and toothbrush, and Bulgari and Voya products.

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Our food choices included the following:

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All the food was delicious.

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We were asked if we would like to shower at some stage during the flight. Did you say, SHOWER??? OMG! YES!

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\"\"So, an hour before landing in Dubai, we both went to separate bathrooms, and showered at 11,500 Metres in the air! The array of quality products seemed endless - shampoo, conditioner, hair brush, body scourer, face cream, body lotion, toothbrush and toothpaste, etc. The showers are timed but neither of us used the entire time and shut off the shower earlier. It was pretty surreal to be able to shower in a plane at 11km above the ground.

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We landed in Dubai clean and refreshed, and made our way through an enormous airport to one of the few Emirates First Class lounges. This lounge seemed to run the entire length of the airport. Fresh sushi, local baklava and ma’amoul (sweet pistachio sweets), and coffee.

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Then we boarded our next flight to London. Seats 1E and 1F this time. Again, more Dom Perignon, Bloody Mary and Mojito. We also had Arabic coffee and dates with orange peel.

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Food delights we indulged in on this flight included:

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And, of course, we HAD to do it again. Another glorious shower way up high an hour prior to landing in London.

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Our thoughts on the Emirates First Class experience? Um, WOW!!! We are unbelievably grateful to be able to have had such a quality experience. Everything about Emirates First Class was amazing.

", "image": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/media/posts/8/4ea4a2ac-5283-468e-8471-3fce658885f2.jpg", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-15T18:40:50+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-25T16:54:24+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/in-seat-drinks.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/in-seat-drinks.html", "title": "In-seat drinks", "summary": " ", "content_html": "

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", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-15T02:15:30+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-25T12:14:25+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/welcome-on-board.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/welcome-on-board.html", "title": "Welcome on board", "summary": " ", "content_html": "

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Why yes, I will have a champagne!
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", "image": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/media/posts/7/img_0634.jpg", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-13T22:15:29+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-25T16:52:15+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/the-journey-begins.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/the-journey-begins.html", "title": "The journey begins", "summary": "A little later than planned (thanks, Melbourne traffic!), but we're on our…", "content_html": "

A little later than planned (thanks, Melbourne traffic!), but we're on our way to the airport.

", "image": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/media/posts/6/img_0547.jpg", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-13T18:31:26+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-25T14:56:36+10:00" }, { "id": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/ready-to-go.html", "url": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/ready-to-go.html", "title": "Ready to go!", "summary": "We're packed, and ready to go!", "content_html": "

We're packed, and ready to go!

", "image": "https://platinum.stocksfamily.online/media/posts/5/img_0546.jpg", "author": { "name": "Richard Stocks" }, "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2019-11-13T18:29:15+11:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-25T14:56:29+10:00" } ] }