The best way - may be the only way - to enjoy London, is to see it through the eyes of a tourist. I took a dear friend from California across the heart of this wonderful piece of creative chaos that's been my home for coming along three decades, and it was if I'd also seen it for the first time.

Polychromatic skies, amazing street lighting, wandering street musicians, ravishing displays of flowers, descent into the voluptuary that's Harrods. Late evening sitting on a bench by the Thames watching London illuminate itself. Arabesques of light from the Wheel to a St Paul's bathed in moon light, and a solid slab of blue bulbs lighting up one side of the Heron Building. It just needed a soundtrack and it could have been Woody Allen's Manhattan.

A perfect day and a great friend to spend it with.