london, redux
Writing about our half-term trip to London made me realise that I didn't write about that other trip to London, the one I did last month. Basically, a 48-hour-long whirlwind in the city with my friend C. She was in town for some work and I hadn't seen her since August in Singapore and this was too good an opportunity to miss. J agreed to take the reins at home so off I went.
48 hours doesn't sound like much but I think I managed to make the most of it. I took a morning flight, and after I met up with C at her hotel, we went off for lunch at Burger and Lobster where we talked non-stop for basically the entire meal. We followed this with an afternoon of shopping along Oxford Street, before popping back into the hotel room to dump our stuff so that we could head off to Canary Wharf to check out the Winter Lights festival for C's work. It was freezing cold and the light installations weren't very well signposted so we did quite a lot of aimless walking in the dark, but we managed to catch at least 85% of all the works. We also happened upon Ippudo at Canary Wharf, and seriously, there is nothing better than a piping hot bowl of ramen when you're cold and hungry.
bit.fall by Julius Popp.
C crashed shortly after we got back to the hotel - jet lag - but I stayed awake till the wee hours, reading happily in the knowledge that there wouldn't be any small children waking me just after dawn.
The next day, C and I had a late breakfast at Peyton and Byrne, a nice little cafe just off the Covent Garden market. Breakfast is one of my favourite meals and it's a lovely indulgence for me to eat a leisurely breakfast with a nice cup of coffee or tea. We parted ways after - me to my haircut appointment down the road, and C to have lunch with her cousins somewhere. I got my hair chopped into a chin-length bob and chatted with my stylist, who was Korean and who knew another Korean hairstylist who lived and worked in Annecy, but was currently shacking up in Paris with her boyfriend. I gave her my contact and said that if her friend ever returned to work in Annecy, I would love to visit her. It's only a forty-minute drive from Geneva and the town is lovely with surprisingly good shopping for its size. In the meantime, I'll just content myself with haircuts whenever I'm in London. The Swiss and French salons I've visited in the past were expensive and they didn't have a clue how to handle Asian hair.
After my haircut, I wandered towards Holborn and ended up having udon for lunch at Ichiryu. Then it was a quick round of more shopping and a browse through a bookstore before I met up with C again. We hopped on the Tube and went to Borough Market. Pity we were still full from lunch because all the food stalls had such tempting offerings. We did buy some sweet treats before heading off to the Tate Modern because C had never been there before. Unfortunately the ticketing line was immensely long for the exhibition she wanted to see, so we just looked through the galleries, spent a fair amount of time in the gift shops (haha), and then walked across the Millennium Bridge towards St. Paul's.
Sweets at Borough Market.
The Tube into Piccadilly was mad; we had to wait for two trains to pass us by before we could even squeeze on. We may have been better off walking, especially since we were going to watch The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and had to pick up our tickets at the door. The show was great, much better than I had expected, and even though I thought the acting wasn't memorable, the set and lights were. It's also been a while since I've seen a show which had storytelling at its core, plain and simple, without any post-modernist posturing or political agendas to push, and that was very refreshing.
We exited the theatre just in time to see the last of the light installations along Piccadilly Circus before they shut for the night. It was raining quite heavily at this point but there were still tons of people out to see the lights, which were pretty spectacular. By the time we got round to a late dinner it was nearly 11pm, and we settled on Wong Kei ('the rudest restaurant in London') in Chinatown because it was one of the few places still open where we could get a quick meal. According to news reports, they have supposedly revamped the place and more notably, their attitude, and when we asked our server something he rolled his eyes at us, but in a sort of good-natured way, the way a long-suffering older brother might do to his youngest sister. With all the food and excitement of the night I only went to bed around 2am (3am in Geneva), decompressing by watching some TV and doing more reading after C had gone to bed.
195 Piccadilly, by NOVAK.
On Sunday morning I had made breakfast reservations at Dishoom because C had been talking about trying British-Indian food. I like Dishoom because they serve these delicious spicy chicken livers, and also because I'm fascinated by the way they have fetishised colonial India (there's a good article here which describes what I'm reaching for in far more elegant terms) in their decor and menu. The food's quite good at any rate, which is why I keep going back.
There was nothing much to do after breakfast since all the shops were still closed till noon, so C and I just walked the streets and talked. Eventually I popped into Hamley's for a couple of quick last-minute guilt-induced presents for the kids. Unfortunately I had a flight to catch and not enough time for lunch with C, so after big big hugs on the kerbside I got into the cab and headed for the airport, and home.
Such a difference when I'm in London on my own, and with the kids. Happily though, when D comes to Geneva next month we'll be able to spend some time in London as well. Knowing D, it will be another mad whirlwind of eating and shopping.
48 hours doesn't sound like much but I think I managed to make the most of it. I took a morning flight, and after I met up with C at her hotel, we went off for lunch at Burger and Lobster where we talked non-stop for basically the entire meal. We followed this with an afternoon of shopping along Oxford Street, before popping back into the hotel room to dump our stuff so that we could head off to Canary Wharf to check out the Winter Lights festival for C's work. It was freezing cold and the light installations weren't very well signposted so we did quite a lot of aimless walking in the dark, but we managed to catch at least 85% of all the works. We also happened upon Ippudo at Canary Wharf, and seriously, there is nothing better than a piping hot bowl of ramen when you're cold and hungry.
bit.fall by Julius Popp.
C crashed shortly after we got back to the hotel - jet lag - but I stayed awake till the wee hours, reading happily in the knowledge that there wouldn't be any small children waking me just after dawn.
The next day, C and I had a late breakfast at Peyton and Byrne, a nice little cafe just off the Covent Garden market. Breakfast is one of my favourite meals and it's a lovely indulgence for me to eat a leisurely breakfast with a nice cup of coffee or tea. We parted ways after - me to my haircut appointment down the road, and C to have lunch with her cousins somewhere. I got my hair chopped into a chin-length bob and chatted with my stylist, who was Korean and who knew another Korean hairstylist who lived and worked in Annecy, but was currently shacking up in Paris with her boyfriend. I gave her my contact and said that if her friend ever returned to work in Annecy, I would love to visit her. It's only a forty-minute drive from Geneva and the town is lovely with surprisingly good shopping for its size. In the meantime, I'll just content myself with haircuts whenever I'm in London. The Swiss and French salons I've visited in the past were expensive and they didn't have a clue how to handle Asian hair.
After my haircut, I wandered towards Holborn and ended up having udon for lunch at Ichiryu. Then it was a quick round of more shopping and a browse through a bookstore before I met up with C again. We hopped on the Tube and went to Borough Market. Pity we were still full from lunch because all the food stalls had such tempting offerings. We did buy some sweet treats before heading off to the Tate Modern because C had never been there before. Unfortunately the ticketing line was immensely long for the exhibition she wanted to see, so we just looked through the galleries, spent a fair amount of time in the gift shops (haha), and then walked across the Millennium Bridge towards St. Paul's.
Sweets at Borough Market.
The Tube into Piccadilly was mad; we had to wait for two trains to pass us by before we could even squeeze on. We may have been better off walking, especially since we were going to watch The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and had to pick up our tickets at the door. The show was great, much better than I had expected, and even though I thought the acting wasn't memorable, the set and lights were. It's also been a while since I've seen a show which had storytelling at its core, plain and simple, without any post-modernist posturing or political agendas to push, and that was very refreshing.
We exited the theatre just in time to see the last of the light installations along Piccadilly Circus before they shut for the night. It was raining quite heavily at this point but there were still tons of people out to see the lights, which were pretty spectacular. By the time we got round to a late dinner it was nearly 11pm, and we settled on Wong Kei ('the rudest restaurant in London') in Chinatown because it was one of the few places still open where we could get a quick meal. According to news reports, they have supposedly revamped the place and more notably, their attitude, and when we asked our server something he rolled his eyes at us, but in a sort of good-natured way, the way a long-suffering older brother might do to his youngest sister. With all the food and excitement of the night I only went to bed around 2am (3am in Geneva), decompressing by watching some TV and doing more reading after C had gone to bed.
195 Piccadilly, by NOVAK.
On Sunday morning I had made breakfast reservations at Dishoom because C had been talking about trying British-Indian food. I like Dishoom because they serve these delicious spicy chicken livers, and also because I'm fascinated by the way they have fetishised colonial India (there's a good article here which describes what I'm reaching for in far more elegant terms) in their decor and menu. The food's quite good at any rate, which is why I keep going back.
There was nothing much to do after breakfast since all the shops were still closed till noon, so C and I just walked the streets and talked. Eventually I popped into Hamley's for a couple of quick last-minute guilt-induced presents for the kids. Unfortunately I had a flight to catch and not enough time for lunch with C, so after big big hugs on the kerbside I got into the cab and headed for the airport, and home.
Such a difference when I'm in London on my own, and with the kids. Happily though, when D comes to Geneva next month we'll be able to spend some time in London as well. Knowing D, it will be another mad whirlwind of eating and shopping.