My husband and I had the great privilege of going to London over President's weekend-a marvelous but frustratingly short trip. The flight there was completely full (in trips past we had 3-ish seats to ourselves which lets you lay down, after a small bottle of champagne I can then actually sleep for 2-3 hours, then I'm fine for the rest of the trip). My husband can sleep no matter where we are and I am jealous of that. We were stuck in the window and middle and really uncomfortable. The flight was uneventful after that and I did get to watch "Bringing Up Baby" one of my absolute favorite movies, certainly my favorite Katherine Hepburn. I was also able to watch "Bright Star", a movie about the 19th Century poet, John Keats. Visually,spectacular-bringing the costumes to life for me in a very special way-my mom and I often read historical romance novels about the Regency Period of English history (a la Jane Austen) so seeing the costumes "alive" was exciting for me. It was a time of salons and witty repartee-the art of conversation and of letters so I was really looking forward to hearing it. Alas I was disappointed-the acoustics of the plane were so dreadful, I could barely hear a word! When next my husband goes to Blockbuster I will ask him to rent it or buy it for me.
Landing without incident we went to the Heathrow Express, a train that goes from Heathrow to Paddington Station and one we have taken before with much success, however Friday that was not to be the case. In trips past, we happen to stay near Paddington so it was easy to get on the one train and go, walk three blocks and we were done. This time, we had to take a train from one terminal to the Heathrow Express Terminal, then wait another 12 minutes for the actual Heathrow Express then to Paddington then in a taxi to my company's office where we were meeting my friend and leaving the luggage until the end of the day. Nor do I remember the previously easier train being quite so expensive-it was 18 pounds a person (about $28). We took a (pre-ordered) taxi back to the airport which was much much nicer, heavenly, in comparison, much cheaper and is what we will continue to do in the future.
We arrived in the office and met my friend and lots of new ones! Also meeting a woman that I talk to and work with all the time and she was as incredibly fabulous in person as she is over the phone!!!! We toured the office, had a coffee, talked, then wandered around the office neighborhood. The last time we went to London we discovered Caffe Nero, a chain of Italian coffee bars established before the coffee revolution and now there are at least 6 other coffee bar chains, not even including Satrbucks. But Caffe Nero, we were very happy to see survived the years because it has the most divine hot chocolate in the UK and better than any I have had in France (shocking, I know).
If we lived in London, I wouldn't go near the place! How many calories do we think are in that 10 oz cup of whole milk and chocolate!?!?!?!?! (please don't answer that)
The only good shops in the area were Habitat (Conran's in the US) and Heal's (not in the US, tragically) and we had a blast in both. In Habitat, I fell in love with black coupe champagne glasses on VERY long stems, we bought a few everyday kitchen things in fuscia which always makes me smile!
There is a gorgeous fixture at Heals that I am still thinking about for my living room.
Aside from the cool, urban, fun pieces at both shops-nothing is terribly expensive, which makes acquiring that much more fun. My fashion friend reminds me over the years that good design does not have to be expensive and I am happy to agree with him.
We had lunch at a Japanese fast food joint and my husband's grilled teriyaki chicken over rice was much better than my prawns and Udon noodles, unfortunately, I noticed they had sushi only after I ordered the noodles. Oh well. We went back to the office to collect our things and had a marvelous time, fantasizing with the "girls" what to use my new stemware for at my next dinner party as I would never serve champagne in them-only flutes.
We got back to my friend's apartment and it is gorgeous! Huge! Very impressive! I wanted to wrest it from her and move my own things in immediately! :). We relaxed a bit and began the trek to the gastro pub we planned on for dinner, called the Washington but they don't take reservations, so when we got there around 8:30 there was not a table to be found. We stood around with eagle eyes for a little while but nothing seemed in danger of opening up. We were all getting a little sick of wandering and waiting so we went to a Greek place which was ok but I learned a new way of making grilled cheese. Just stick the cheese on the grill and serve with toasted pita-delicious. I can't wait to do this at home! The Haloumi was firm and salty with a much less grainy texture than feta and I loved it! And the warm fresh pita was a perfect foil for it. The rest of the meal was mediocre-their burgers were too thin and the fries were under cooked, my prawns on toast were too smothered in pink mayonnaise and the toast, while it looked perfect (golden and buttery) was wet and soggy from the water running out of the lettuce next to it. Oh well, again.
The next morning we slept in because my husband and I had been awake for about 24 hours the day before so it seemed wise. My friend and I finally got up and made a noisy breakfast in order to wake my husband. Roasted eggs on that glorious European bread (plain supermarket bread there is dense and flavorful rather than the fluffy useless Wonder bread we have here). We left the apartment and set out for parts unknown...! Oxford Circus. Upon exiting the train station we first caught sight of H&M, and then Top Shop-with one of the largest men's department I have ever seen. 2 full floors! My husband was in raptures and we all had fun picking things out for him though may I say, no one in the group is as fashion forward as I? He bought a very cute navy jacket and a terrible sweatshirt (remember how dressed up I am? I hate sweatshirts). We had lunch at a pretend pub but the food was good-I had a smoked haddock fishcake which was really interesting but breaded and deep fried so I ordered only 1. Dessert was full of chocolate and luscious. Then we finally arrived at Zara Home!! I had been dying to go there since we set foot on the plane! Did you know there was Zara Home???? We found it accidentally in Barcelona 3 years ago and I have been in love ever since. I write to them constantly asking for a NY store. We make sure to plan it into our Paris trips and now London! There are some in Mexico for anyone who goes there. We bought some gorgeous things including some old-fashions with silver skulls (cool urban things not gross scary ones) printed on them as my husband just adores cool urban skeletons! I bought the paisley dessert plates from the collection pictures below and they actually look quite interesting under the skeleton glasses if I wanted to serve dessert in the glasses. And I bought the largest of the towels you see below for my bathroom guest towel arrangement (the bottom of the pile, for a bit of pizazz in a tan, gold and black bathroom). I never leave Zara home without a towel-they are the most silky glorious things you have ever touched!
Sadly by then it was time to go back to the apartment to deal with dinner, at Roast, a modern British uber-stylish place-with cocktails (FINALLY!) and recommended by a British friend. More about that tomorrow.
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