24 hours of FAB!
Wow, everyone should have birthdays. Proper birthdays, not just a day for sending cards and buying doughnuts.
It started yesterday evening when I met up with the Ladies for an impromptu dinner and drinks session. We started off on the Hispaniola restaurant boat, drinking Vina Sol and gossiping to excellent levels. The food was either non-veggie tapas (with v. expensive cheese) or overpriced pasta and fish in the main restaurant, accompanied by non-talking couples and a pianist, so we buggered off to Southbank and tasty pizza and pasta. More wine and a failed attempt to get a busker to sing to us accompanied conversations of the lowest levels before we wandered off for dessert and the sand sculptures down by the river.
Oh man, these guys are good: www.dirtybeach.tv
Somehow we ended up not just looking at the sand sculptures, but sitting on them - a sand sofa for 5 specifically. Then the sand guys lead the Southbank crowds in a chorus of Happy Birthday, all for me. It was wonderful, mere words can't describe how happy it made me.
I left the Ladies at Le Pain Quotidien for dessert, preferring the lure of the Metropolitan Line to cake. Hmm.
Had the day off today and the sun shone good. Shopped for the weekend and accidentally bought a new fireplace for the winter. Got lots of birthday wishes, cards, texts etc, plus a totally unexpected bunch of gorgeous flowers (You know who you are! Thank you so much).
drpete took me for a very fine dinner at Papillon (www.papillonchelsea.co.uk), complete with delicious Gosset rosé and an absolutely top Maitre d'. The food was superb but the service and ambience were absolutely top notch and I want to go back now! We had:
Seared tuna with raw veg and tapenade
Crab in many ways (mousse, in a spring roll thing, bits etc)
Chateaubriand with rosti and pureed spinach
Halibut with foamy stuff, swiss chard and smoky-tasting whelks on a rosemary stick
Mash, green beans and mixed veg
Chocolate fondant with ice cream
Floating island (soft meringue in creme anglais and crunchy bits) with a birthday candle in a chocolate truffle and Happy Birthday written in chocolate round the plate
Gavi de Gavi wine
Gosset rosé
We've been to some good restaurants but this one absolutely takes the sugar biscuit in terms of ambience and service. Go, it's so worth it, and ask for table 16 - it's the one to See and Be Seen, especially when swigging Gosset rosé...
More birthday fun tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. Who'd have thought 35 could be so good?
It started yesterday evening when I met up with the Ladies for an impromptu dinner and drinks session. We started off on the Hispaniola restaurant boat, drinking Vina Sol and gossiping to excellent levels. The food was either non-veggie tapas (with v. expensive cheese) or overpriced pasta and fish in the main restaurant, accompanied by non-talking couples and a pianist, so we buggered off to Southbank and tasty pizza and pasta. More wine and a failed attempt to get a busker to sing to us accompanied conversations of the lowest levels before we wandered off for dessert and the sand sculptures down by the river.
Oh man, these guys are good: www.dirtybeach.tv
Somehow we ended up not just looking at the sand sculptures, but sitting on them - a sand sofa for 5 specifically. Then the sand guys lead the Southbank crowds in a chorus of Happy Birthday, all for me. It was wonderful, mere words can't describe how happy it made me.
I left the Ladies at Le Pain Quotidien for dessert, preferring the lure of the Metropolitan Line to cake. Hmm.
Had the day off today and the sun shone good. Shopped for the weekend and accidentally bought a new fireplace for the winter. Got lots of birthday wishes, cards, texts etc, plus a totally unexpected bunch of gorgeous flowers (You know who you are! Thank you so much).
drpete took me for a very fine dinner at Papillon (www.papillonchelsea.co.uk), complete with delicious Gosset rosé and an absolutely top Maitre d'. The food was superb but the service and ambience were absolutely top notch and I want to go back now! We had:
Seared tuna with raw veg and tapenade
Crab in many ways (mousse, in a spring roll thing, bits etc)
Chateaubriand with rosti and pureed spinach
Halibut with foamy stuff, swiss chard and smoky-tasting whelks on a rosemary stick
Mash, green beans and mixed veg
Chocolate fondant with ice cream
Floating island (soft meringue in creme anglais and crunchy bits) with a birthday candle in a chocolate truffle and Happy Birthday written in chocolate round the plate
Gavi de Gavi wine
Gosset rosé
We've been to some good restaurants but this one absolutely takes the sugar biscuit in terms of ambience and service. Go, it's so worth it, and ask for table 16 - it's the one to See and Be Seen, especially when swigging Gosset rosé...
More birthday fun tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. Who'd have thought 35 could be so good?