When the sun shines, London transforms into an entirely different city. Shirts come off, BBQs emerge and most green spots in London are covered by a swarm of people. Moods are happier and it’s a great time to be around. We have had a good round of weather, and had a couple of friends organise an awesome BBQ in their backyard. The most recent of these was at Toni’s place south of the river.

We were really fortunately for a sunny day, and even though it became much colder when the shadows draped themselves around the neighbouring houses, we definitely took advantage as much as possible, moving chairs around the garden until there was no more space.

Toni was the graceful host, and we were even present to watch the flaming of the coal (as well as just as tiny bit of smoke!) Strangely his neighbours next door didn’t seem to complain about the BBQ even though the wind picked up a bit of smoke and carried it over the fence on a number of times.

Whilst we waited, we feasted on a gorgeous scotch egg made even more special with chorizo from the local farmer’s markets. Still perfectly yellow yolk inside as well as “carbing” it up with some home made bread. Yummo.

We drank some beer and wine, catching up on what’s being going on. Pretty much a perfect lazy Saturday.

We had a good feast with a number of cuts on the grill. Toni had a fantastic set of BBQ tools including a grill rack that you simply loaded up, closed and needed to flip once instead of taking care of individual bits. We had some roast lamb, pork ribs and some chicken skewers I had marinated Filipino style with soy, tomato and garlic. Of course there was some salad, and some roasted corn on the cob to go along.

Here’s Toni relaxing in the sun.

We finished off the extended meal with a chocolate cake and ice cream, a pretty much perfect way to finish off the BBQ.

Now if only summer would last.