Spring in Regent's Park

Regent's Park is my favourite London park. From our place it's a good run over to Primrose Hill (complete with Jude Law and Sadie Frost!), then down and around Regent's Park. It's quite a formal park (away from the playing fields anyway) and very beautiful. And most times, the rest of the running scenery is pretty fit as well!

We're off out to deepest, darkest Essex today for Chris's 18th birthday dinner tonight, then back into town for Paul's and my glamourous birthday drinks Sunday night. Monday is a holiday here, so a group of us will head out to DTPM for a bit of a dance after drinks. Paul is declaring it his clubbing swansong, but he does say that every time we go out......

Happy Birthday to me

The lovely Kirsten and Sharna , accompanied by Damien, took Paul and I out for our birthdays last night. We washed down some very good Chinese with some beer, and then were taken to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of ‘The Crucible’. It was excellent (8.8/10), with some great performances. It has to be a pretty good play to still be relevant some 50(?) years after it was written. Danforth’s line "a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it" resonated in particular.

In other Birthday news – my day got off to a great start with a special birthday breakfast from Paul and my ipod treated me to a very good selection of tunes:

Sorry (Petshop Boys remix)- Madonna
Girls on Film – Duran Duran
Careless – Paul Kelly
What You Need – INXS
I go to Rio – Peter Allen
Da Hype – Junior Jack with Robert Smith
L’il Love – Little Love
Dare – Gorillaz
Love Action – Human League

My day was going so well I expected to see the headline on page 23 of the Guardian 'Aussie PM resigns in animal-sex scandal', but alas it was not to be.

Happy Dragon Slaying

Happy St George's Day! The Cappadocian Patron Saint of England's (and Palestine and Georgia) feast day is today. It's not really celebrated in England (which I think is a pity), as in the recent past it's been associated with the far right.

We arrived back from Valencia yesterday - we had a great time. Valencia offered just what we like - good food, beach, a gay scene, and interesting history and architecture. It's not quite in the same league as Madrid and Barcelona, but still a good place to visit. Pictures and details to follow. (I stupidly left my cable for the camera at work, and am offsite this week). Sometimes I am so vague....

Highlights included:

The hotel - the staff were lovely.

Meeting Paul's ex-ex-ex-girlfriend Isa - she is lovely and so were her friends.

Attractive waiters.

Decent food at decent prices.

Spending a whole week alone with Paul.

Hasta Luego

We're off to Valencia - to celebrate the pony's birthday, and to get some sun!

Mmmmm, Spain....

See you in a week....

Why would you?

This is hilarious

Blenheim Botox

• We were out at Rosmarino in St John's Wood on Saturday night,
  with the pony's mum, Julie and Stuie. The food was excellent,
  if pricey, but the real entertainment was the old dear (complete with diamond the size of a doorknob!) on the table next to us. She was at least 80 and the skin on her face was tighter than mine.
  
  
• Friday night we went to the Victoria Palace to see ‘Billy Elliot’. It was very
  entertaining, but I still think there were probably only two memorable songs in it. I'd still recommend it though (8.2/10), one of the best musicals I've seen (nowhere near as good as 'Guys and Dolls' with Euan Mcgregor (swoon!) though, possibly a (9.4/10) (the show, not Euan)).
  
  
• I bought a bike! (or the pony did - for my fast-approaching birthday – Thankyou!) It’s only 3 years old, but pretty solid. Now we'll be able to spend summer cycling everywhere, instead of having to rely on buses.

Out in Soho

• We were out in London’s down-at-heel Soho last night, for the pony’s work’s Gay and Lesbian group’s drinks. There was the usual divide between the MBA students and those not studying. We’d arranged a couple of our more glamorous friends to come along, in order to bail us out after a suitable interval. Does that make us bad?
  
  The drinks were in a separate room in the bar and when D + S arrived we weren’t in that room. In order that the others could see we were leaving with glamorous friends, we went back into the room, so D + S could make an entrance and we could be seen to be leaving with friends. Does that make us bad?
• 
  While waiting in line at Busaba Eatthai, the blonde one from Girls Aloud (complete with handsome boyfriend!) was walking down Wardour St, chased by paparazzi. I can reveal that she went into Oddbins, and according to the girls next to me was ‘too thin, too orange and her head was too big’. Catty.