Shoreditch is still the new Shoreditch

The weekend was a bit busy - or at least Friday and Saturday were. Sunday Paul wasn't feeling very well.

Friday night saw us out farewelling a colleague of Paul's - Caroline - she is good fun. I get along well with a couple of Paul's colleagues, who for some reason find me amusing (imagine!), so I enjoyed myself. I am sure that I am probably even more amusing after 4 pints of Guinness.

Saturday I managed to get down to the gym around 9, and saw a very hungover Vicki, the gym manager. Seeing her suffering made me forget my hangover. I admire such selflessness in others.

I met Paul in town after doing some birthday shopping for him. Paul finally ended up buying some very cool Armani sunglasses. So cool he seems to be a bit shy about wearing them. I really like them though, and that's what's important.

There was absolutely no-one in the west end either, everybody was out enjoying the unseasonally hot weather. We had some texts from a friend who was up at the Highgate ponds, but the water temperature was only 51F (10C!), so there was no way we were heading up for a swim. All this warm weather in April is quite disturbing, I find strange for people to be sunbaking and swimming when they should be planning summer holidays.

Saturday night we met Damien at Loungelover. We had been wanting to go for quite a while, but we are never over in Shoreditch. Anyway, Loungelover might be uber-cool and really difficult to get into, but it is a really good bar. My God, the drinks are expensive though! £11 for a margherita! And I didn't even bat an eyelid - I think I've been living in London too long. But it was for Paul's birthday, after all. Because it is so uber-cool (Madonna had her 48th birthday there, and they employ eastern-europeans who can speak english), we were only granted a table for an hour. After that we had to rub shoulders with the plebs up at the bar. We stood under the stuffed Hippo's head. As we reached the bar, everybody sang Happy Birthday. Paul was very touched, until he realised it was someone else's birthday.

The pleasant thing about Loungelover was that although it is difficult to get into, and you may not have a table for long, the staff were more than helpful and affable, which is unusual for London. We had read a couple of bad reviews about attitude, but we didn't experience any of that. Do yourself a favour, as Molly would say.

Afterwards we went around the corner to the Great Eastern Dining Room for too much to eat and yet more to drink. This was another official Summer of Food ^{tm reg} event. Bizarrely, there was a group there who had been in Lounge Lover. The food was very good, the duck in particular was one of the best ducks I've had. I can still taste it.

Shoreditch is pretty cool - Paul still wants to live there (I think) - it's probably more us than St John's Wood, so we'll see.

Oh Happy Day

This weekend my lovely boyfriend bought me a replacement Baby Gaggia coffee machine for my birthday! Look - it's beautiful!! And it's crema is beautiful.

Getting down with the kids (and up with the sparrows)

Sunday saw us getting up early and meeting Julie, Nicola and Jonathan at the ungodly hour of 10:30am in Covent Garden. Not even the nuns were up then. N + J were keen to come to London to spend their hard-earned birthday money on crack, and buy some clothes with the change.

After the shops had opened (most stores don't open until 12:00 on a Sunday in the UK, not sure why, it's not as if Anglicans are forced to go to church like Catholics are), we had a fun day. The kids are good value and even though for a while there it looked like they weren't finding what they wanted, soon the cash was flying out of their wallets.


Next stop were some surf shops which produced a couple of hits for Nic, but nothing for Jon, and we changed tack and hit shoe shops where N + J were lucky to find a buy one pair, get the other half price offer.


All this shopping was making us hungry, so pizza (and doughballs) were consumed at Pizza Express in Soho. Whilst there, Jonathan became embroiled in a sock crisis, as his (short) socks weren't short enough for his new shoes. Cue 10 minutes of sock folding to get them just right and then we were able to go on our way to everyone's favourite London Shopping Street, Oxford Street. It wasn't too crowded, there were probably only tens of thousands of people out shopping. Topshop and H + M were our destinations there, and they didn't disappoint.


Fashion news from repated viewings on Sunday:

1. Hoodies are still popular on the high street.
2. Skinny jeans are very popular - very punk rock (but no way would I wear them, once was enough!)
3. Vans are popular too.
4. Multiple body piercings and dreadlocks are no bar to a pleasant personality.


By complete coincidence, we called into Rupert Street for a beer on after Julie, Nic and Jonathan had jumped in a taxi to Liverpool St, and Augusto, Derrecks and Lee were there drinking. Augusto tried on my sunglasses. We ended staying for more than one beer because beer is my friend. It was nice.

Tired of waiting

He Shoots, He Scores

The Spanish team (and out 3rd) continue to conquer all in their path. Paul is particularly impressed by Torres.