Roof Top Tipple

I must admit I am lucky to receive invitations to many unique events as part of my role here at FOCUS. However, when faced with my third night out this week I was thinking how nice it would be to kick back at home with my two teens and husband and savour a nice family meal. This of course is a bit of an exaggeration, did I mention teens? And a husband home in time for dinner? Okay, you know what I mean.

While even the real picture seemed tempting, I was reminded of the advice from Adrian  Cassidy's Resilience seminar on Monday evening 

that everyone should have at least five networks
and, more importantly, that meeting new people is a key factor to being a resilient individual. With this in mind I put on my party shoes, some much needed cover up and I headed down the block from the FOCUS office.

Now prepped and ready for a sociable evening, I arrived at The Roof Gardens, a hidden treasure not visible from Kensington High Street, which has an amazing garden spanning 1.5 acres with majestic views of London.

The building originally housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then Biba until 1975. The Gardens were listed as a Grade II site by the English Heritage in 1978. There are in fact three roof gardens including a Spanish garden, a Tudor style garden and an English woodland garden complete with four flamingos named Bill, Ben, Splosh and Pecks! If the spectacular gardens are not enough of an attraction, the 6th floor houses a glamorous private members club and on the 7th floor inside the gardens is the elegant Babylon restaurant.

Having greeted our FOCUS members we headed up the express lift to the 7th floor and were graciously escorted to the beautiful garden terrace where the most divine warm cocktails adorned with a stem of currents awaited us. Taking in the view towards the London Eye I had to stop for a moment and reflect on just how fabulous a city London is and all the unexpected and unique experiences I continue to have even after 18 years of living here. Having paused for reflection and having been warmed by the first sip of my cocktail I was then consumed by the lively conversation amongst our 25 guests.

While there were several conversations in Greek, Spanish, Italian and French that I was not able to participate in, I am quite sure from their animated faces and volume of chatter that everyone was sharing experiences, their stories of what brought them to London, favourite discoveries and more. What was crystal clear is that bonds were being formed and friendships were in the making.

Just when we all thought things couldn’t get better out came inviting plates of baked cheese accompanied by a selection of artisan breads. Making our way to the various offerings gave us another excuse to move around and meet those we had not already. The evening continued with wine, adorable wire baskets of gourmet chips and continuous conversation!

Occasionally I stepped back to again take in the spectacular view of the skyline and listen to the happy chatter of the members around me and realised that even the serene family dinner of my dreams was no comparison to the fabulous evening at the Roof Gardens with an amazing group of talented expats all happy to be experiencing London!

Written by Nancy Dickinson.  Nancy is Deputy Executive Director at FOCUS.

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Should you wish to share your expat experiences in the UK, please contact us: office@focus-info.org