and so to business…
…and more specifically back to That London, the difference being that I only actually left the place on Saturday afternoon after a slightly surreal birthday break which involved something I have virtually no experience of; that is, staying in a London hotel but leaving the room early in the morning only to come back late at night, brush my teeth and go to bed.
No planning the entire day around appointments and housekeeping times or idly wondering if the Do Not Disturb sign has fallen off, and no lounging around in my usual stockings-and-suspenders-under-nightie-and-cardigan ensemble ready to pick up the last minute-ers. In fact no lounging of any kind unless you count the two hours spent over afternoon tea at the Wolseley or the three spent shortly afterwards watching my new film-of-the-decade Django Unchained at the Odeon on Tottenham Court Road, but since I sat up nicely throughout both they cannot really be allowed. It would certainly be fair to say I was wriggling a bit by the end of the second due to the ungodly amount of Darjeeling consumed at the first; that’ll teach me to check the bloody running times properly.
I have strolled around St James’s Park, pottered up Piccadilly (by way of Fortnum & Mason just for a look) and breakfasted at Borough Market (£1.60 for a single Red Delicious apple, anybody?) and even managed – thanks to the Leicester Square TKTs booth – a budget trip to see Jersey Boys which to my amazement I thoroughly enjoyed despite the lack of carnage, and Django made up for that admirably anyway. I have also fallen gloriously off the WeightWatchers wagon thanks to the 3-for-£5 brownie-heaven offer (with honourable mentions for the almond St Clements cake and the vanilla cheesecake) at Konditor and Cook – oops. And now having been fabulously forty for an entire week, I’m packing up my suitcase and heading back first thing on Thursday – yay!
Availability is going surprisingly fast, not only for the trip itself but also the remainder of the week after; I will be around until Tuesday lunchtime and looking forward to catching up with the Victoria folk as well as a special Posh Dinner out for a birthday treat before heading Sarf of the river for the rest of my stay, and with fingers crossed that a: the weather warms up a bit and b: they’ve finished pillocksing about with the inordinately handy Northern Line for the time being (which looks to be the case although by way of a payback, both the Circle and the relevant bits of the District lines are shut all weekend, so anybody wanting to book for Saturday would maybe do well to rethink their route if needs be). Another outing to the pictures may be in the offing in the event that everybody gets completely pissed off and leaves me to it…
As ever, the best way to book is by email – the bags are (halfway) packed, the fridge, flat and fishes are tidied and I’ll definitely remember to bring an extra layer this time. For now, Utopia awaits. On Channel 4, that is.
More soon.
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