This year’s Christmas Tea was at The Swan, a restaurant and bar next to The Globe Theatre. Many of the Firebirds seemed to be familiar with it, but for some it was a bit out of the comfort zone to go across the River Thames.

We often go to the Globe or the Tate Modern and to get there, we usually take the Central Line to St Paul’s. From there we walk through the gardens of St Paul’s towards and across the Millennium Bridge (I still think of it as the Wibbly Wobbly Bridge). The views from the Bridge along the Thames and London are magnificent, especially on a lovely sunny day and also at night with all the lights twinkling like Christmas decorations.

The Swan is indeed a lovely location. It has a big restaurant/bar downstairs and a charming restaurant overlooking the Thames upstairs.

The staff were very nice, but it took a little while to get our sparkling wine, and we had to wait for our Afternoon Tea. Once it arrived, the Tea was excellent and the Firebirds are a forgiving lot. The delay did nothing to spoil the joy of spending time together.

We were thinking of the Firebirds who were not able to come, but hope to see them next year.
A big thank you to El Moss, for keeping up our traditions and organizing everything. We really appreciate it.

Erika Gloyn