Monday, November 29, 2010

Brought to you by the Letter B and the numbers 3 & 0

I have now been in my 30's for over 2 months now (and its taken me that long to comprise this blog entry as well) I have to say it hasn't been all that bad, it was a little stressful on the day but I managed to cope. I also managed to spread my birthday celebrations over 3 weeks. First I had 3 days in the Isle of Wight, which was very nice but emotional as the main reason we were there was to scatter Nan's ashes, it was a really nice evening but very sad, to celebrate we spent the next day visiting all the places on the isle that she loved.

On the Sunday I got dropped off at heathrow and got my tube to Covent Garden where I was meeting my husband for 3 days in London. It is here where the real birthday celebrations were to begin, starting off with my first present, a visit to the Radley store for my bag, then to Russell and Bromley for the protector spray for the bag. Spraying a bag in the confines of your hotel room, where the window only opens a tiny bit isn't the best plan, having nearly gassed hubby with the spray we went out for tea to Garfunkles where I had a yummy pizza. We like Garfunkles very much their burgers and pizzas are very nice, it's a bit like Frankie and Bennys but down south.

The next day we did a lot of walking, which helped to burn the calories of the previous nights pizza, we started off at Covent Garden the walked the entire length of Oxford St to Marble Arch stopping in shops along the way especially Selfridges to have lunch in the Square Pie Co stand, their mash is amazing and the pies are better than Pukka. Our next journey was going down park lane where all the really nice car dealerships are, unfortunately they are mega expensive but nice to look at. Hubby enjoyed the car window shopping but decided that if we ever won the lottery then he would enjoy taking a trip to the Austin Martin dealership.

We followed the road then along Piccadilly to Waterstones where we stopped for a drink in the swanky lounge area on the top floor, the conversations at this bar are usually quite interesting. Not that I condone listening to other people's conversations, but it does make wonderful entertainment and you can gain a little insight as to what their lives are like. We decided that a Subway was on the cards for tea, but not before stumbling across Foyles book store. I had forgot there were one of these in London, we are Borders fans but since they went into administration we haven't found a good enough book shop for hubby to get really obscure computing books from. That is until now omg Foyles is massive the whole computing section is about as big as Waterstones in m'hall, hubby was in heaven and the staff were really nice too, a bit eccentric but friendly.

The next day we spent on another walking trip, again starting off in Covent Garden but calling in on the new addition to the shops, yes I'm talking about the new Apple store that has opened there. I sort of like it, but prefer the one on Regent St as they have a cinema like bit where you can listen and watch demonstrations on how to use stuff, and pinch their WiFi. After the Apple store we walked down to Jubilee bridge and crossed over the Thames. We walked along passed Blackfriars bridge to the Tate Modern. There wasn't much that took our eye their apart from an exhibition on Surveillance photography so we asked one of the information people where it was and she gave us free entry tickets (worth £10 each) I'm glad we got them free because it wasn't as good as I was expecting.

We then decided that we'd had enough culture and carried on walking back across over the Thames via Millennium bridge and headed towards St Pauls. We stopped for a cup of tea in Cafe Rouge then proceeded to walk along Fleet St and the Strand, back through Theatre Land to Leicester Sq where for tea I decided to treat my husband to an Häagen Dazs ice cream. Now this restaurant is amazing the flavours of ice cream are so nice, I had a Belgian Waffle Dream which comprises of a scoop of Pralines and Cream, a scoop of Dulce De Leche, a warm Belgian Waffle, Sweet Maple Syrup and freshly Whipped Cream. Hubby had his own creation. It was time to go back to the hotel after the ice cream. The next day was home time, but the celebrations didn't stop there. Tune in to my next entry to find out what I did in my actual birthday and my trip to Cadbury World.