Weekend Forecast

Well, if I have secretly wished for some "museum weather," I think I will get my wish this weekend! It has been gray and gloomy all day (this has definitely been the worst weather week I've experienced since being here...apparently it's been as cold this week as it gets most of the winter). However, I had a very fun mid-day break, which was lunch with someone that my friend Sandy suggested I meet. He had an absolutely delightful personality, and we had a great time swapping stories. Additionally, last night I went out for an after-work drink with an American girl I met through my friend Graham, and she and I may try to do something this weekend, depending on what the weather does. With only two weekends left, I have to finish checking off my "to do" touring list!

Evening Entertainment

Well, I was starting to feel that things were getting a bit samey, so I decided to spice it up last night. Instead of heading into my building when I walked home around 7:30, I crossed the driveway and went into the new Radisson Hotel that's opened right beside me. I'd checked it out online and noted that the rooms are £300 a night, so I figured it would pull in a pretty upscale business crowd, and I had on a good outfit!

A cute waiter with some kind of rather thick but charming Eastern European accent set me up on one of the sofas, in a seating area right beside the area where an apparently single guy in business attire, who was typing furiously on his laptop. "Oh, goodie," I thought. "I don't see a ring, and he is definitely the cutest guy in here. And he must be here on business and working on some kind of project. This seems promising!"

I figured even if I didn't talk to anyone, it was a very swanky, upscale atmosphere...just a better way to pass the time than my usual routine of watching Friends in my flat!

So, per the waiter's suggestion, I ordered a steak sandwich. Neighbor boy didn't seem to have noticed my existence. Oh, well, the sandwich was pretty tasty...until I got to a big ol' chunk of fat and gristle that just wouldn't give. Attempting to saw through it with my teeth, I looked around to see if anyone was watching this unsavory spectacle, and of course I noticed neighbor boy had finally decided to glance over me...right about the time some of the fat and onions started to drip out on my lap and a big hunk of meat finally gave way.

I later noticed that the important work he was doing on his laptop appeared to be some kind of online soccer game.

How's the weather?

The week started off with a 12-minute walk to work in the rain. I was literally watching the puddles on the side of the road the whole way, as I just knew I was going to get drenched by a passing bus! It was a good thing Leigh Ann called to request a Monday morning cab on Sunday night because in addition to the rain, it was pretty chilly.

I must say, though, it did seem notable that I was able to exist in London for three solid weeks before I had to pull out an umbrella. Clearly I am bringing this city some good luck in the weather department.

This morning, it was bright and shiny, and I took a minute to just enjoy the view of the sun sparkling on the Thames before I left.

Oh, my, the news just seems to have slowed down a bit doesn't it? We need to spice up this blog with some new characters! Well, I can report that I am having dinner with Adam (see posts from when Christy-Anne was here) on Saturday evening, so there will at least be some weekend socialization. A very nice Australian girl named Beth invited me to join her and some friends for dinner this evening, but I was looking forward to a quiet night at home. I'd discovered a new line of pasta at my store -- goat cheese and red pepper ravioli with a balsamic reduction.

I am becoming addicted to this pear yogurt that comes with hazelnuts...I like to mix in fresh pomegranate seeds, which you can buy in a little prepared package from the produce section.

Sisterly Sunday

This morning we slept in and headed out to St. Paul’s around 10. On the way, I made Leigh Ann take a picture of me with Canary Wharf and the Bank of America building in the background…(that would be the small one beside the enormous HSBC tower).

We decided to go with feeding our stomachs vs. feeding our souls, so we didn’t make it to service but did make it to brunch at my favorite bakery, Pauls. She had a cheese tart, and I had a chicken and pepper sandwich, and of course we shared. For dessert, I had a strawberry cream pastry, and she had a pain chocolate with almonds.

After that, we walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern (a bit of repetition from last weekend, but these are the best things to do on a nice day, in my opinion!).

We split up and toured the permanent exhibits, then headed to the Tower of London via the south bank of the Thames River. I must say I feel I have brought excellent weather with me to London. I have yet to experience a “museum day” (i.e., crummy weather) on a weekend, so I am not sure when I am going to experience the galleries I’ve missed so far.

After a thorough photo op with Tower Bridge, we rested our feet for a while and did the Tower of London. I realized I could cash in my ticket from last week and get a year’s membership to 5 palaces (including Kensington…too bad I didn’t have this yesterday!) for just a little bit more than another Tower ticket.

After that, we decided to call it a day and head for an early dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s new gastropub in the Limehouse area. It’s called The Narrow…we’d tried to get a reservation earlier in the week, but this had turned into quite an ordeal. So, we just got there around 5:30 and hoped we’d have luck. Indeed we did, when we promised to be gone by 7. It’s actually pretty much a traditional pub, albeit much cleaner and airier…Gordon Ramsay is apparently trying to remake a lot of the classic British dishes into something more palatable. For a starter, I had sardines and tomatoes on toast (yum! The sardines were especially tasty), and Leigh Ann had a salad with artichokes and mushrooms. She had the Sunday roast, which is a very quintessentially Sunday thing to eat (with Yorkshire pudding and potatoes), and I had a fantastic pan-seared halibut with chive mashed potatoes (just “mash” for the natives), peas and tiny shrimp. For dessert, I had the lemon posset with cherries, which turned out to be kind of a lemon curd over cherry gelatin, and she had an apple gooseberry crisp with ice cream. It was pretty tart but had a fantastically crunchy top.

And there went the weekend!

Leigh Ann's visit

Wow, this has been a busy week! I had three work-related field trips, including one on Thursday night at the London Zoo. It was a celebration related to our corporate foundation…the zoo is near Regent’s Park, and this outing should have gotten its own entry, but I was busy on Friday because my sister arrived! I decided to take Friday afternoon off work and spend it with her. Leigh Ann was a little peeved upon arrival because she didn’t realize her Verizon BlackBerry would not work over here (Verizon is for some reason totally useless in the UK…AT&T is your friend).

I met her at the flat around 2 p.m., and we walked around Canary Wharf then headed to Marylebone High Street to have tea at Patisserie Valerie. (We walked by Madame Tussaud’s and briefly considered doing it, but I think it would have been like $30 each or something ridiculous.) This was one of my favourite streets so far in London.

It is a pretty high-end neighborhood, plus it was in the middle of the afternoon on Friday, so it was fairly quiet. Tea was actually not that great (it came with two scones – split and toasted, with lots of clotted cream and a choice of honey and preserves). We should have gotten a few of the pastries for a little variety. Anyway, from there we walked down Oxford Street and all the way to Leicester Square, where we were meeting Leigh Ann’s friend Susan, Susan’s husband Jeff, and another girl named Laura for sushi. LA and I stopped at a pub for a pint because we were early, and some ladies from New Zealand took this sub-par photo of us.

We had a really yummy meal at the sushi place (even Leigh Ann, who doesn’t do the “raw fish” kind of sushi, enjoyed it), and Jeff treated, so that was extra nice.

This morning, we were up in order to leave a little before 9 for our 10 o’clock Buckingham Palace tour. The ticket pickup point was a bit of a hike from the palace, which was also a bit of a hike from the Westminster tube station, so we were really hustling and almost missed our ticket time. This would have been a shame!!

(We made a brief stop to take this photo with Big Ben)

Buckingham Palace was honestly not really on my radar, but Leigh Ann read that it’s only open about 2 months a year, during the summer when the queen is away. So, this was one of the very last weeks, but she got us tickets online, and it was completely worthwhile. First of all, just the architecture of the place is interesting, because it went through all of these evolutions.

But the state rooms were really something to see. We also had individual audio guides, which added a lot of commentary. The only thing we couldn’t quite figure out was that the thrones themselves were somewhat shabby…the upholstery was incredibly worn.

(Can't see the worn parts from here, but trust me.)

This is clearly intentional, so I’d be curious to know what the history is.

(That big mirror on the left is a secret door that comes from the queen's private apartments.)

One special thing was that they were having a special exhibit to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, so we got to see her wedding gown, etc.

They had some cool black and white film clips, and the audio tour talked about what a bright spot the wedding was during all of the war rationing, etc. (In fact, they got several “practical” wedding presents, including one that was the ingredients for their wedding cake!)

We were informed that the queen checks the table settings for dinners herself, and all the palace menus are in French, the "language of fine cuisine."

Photos were prohibited inside (naturally, all the ones above are clipped from the Web), so we got this one outside. Several of the state rooms in the back overlook the garden, and the sun was shining in, with a gentle breeze blowing through the open windows, and it was just a lovely morning.

After Buckingham Palace, we made our way to Notting Hill, in order to check out Portobello Market.

This was not one of my better plans, as I should have realized we’d be getting tired and somewhat cranky…the market was of course packed, and we had a specific destination in mind of a restaurant called the Electric Brasseire, which is a “Fodor’s Choice” as as “the best people-watching.” A girl at work had also suggested it. It was full, but after about 10-15 minutes at the bar, we got some smoothies (with a little vodka to take the edge off), and then we got a really great table outside on the sidewalk. I had some really yummy eggs Benedict with salmon and spinach, and LA had scrambled eggs with salmon. The people-watching was indeed fantastic. Revived from our brunch, we hit the market again so I could buy yet another scarf. Then, we spent about an hour walking by Kensington Palace and through Kensington and Hyde Parks. That took us to Harrod’s, where we joined every other American tourist in the “section to buy your things with Harrod’s name on them to take back to your American relatives.”

(Oh, wait, I forgot to mention earlier that it was like being in Spain today...somehow, Portobello Road and Harrod's seem to be THE PLACES for Spanish tourists. Even the fur protestors outside of Harrod's were broadcasting in Spanish. I literally just checked online to see if there was a Spanish holiday this weekend...)

Leigh Ann thought we needed to refresh the lunch bags Mom had gotten us a few years ago, as ours were a little worn out. Then, we sat in the food hall and had something to drink – we were worn out by all of our walking! At that point, we called it a day and headed back to Canary Wharf, where we ate dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant outside. (Not particularly notable food, but it was still enjoyable…I had spaghetti with clams, and Leigh Ann had a salad, and we split some tiramisu.)

Hasta manana!

Photos from the weekend

Christy-Anne and Adam on a Thames river cruise Friday afternoon

In front of the London Eye

Tower Bridge (note...everybody thinks this is London Bridge, but it's not)

At the Tower of London on Saturday

I make Adam pretend like he knows me

On the Millenium Bridge between the Tate Modern and St. Paul's late Saturday afternoon

At Spitalfields Market on Sunday (where I bought yet another scarf)


Tea at the Savoy Hotel

Love's Labours Lost at the Globe Theatre on Sunday night

Field Trips!

Today my colleague Amanda and I took a day trip to the bank's office in Bromley, which is about 40/50 minutes from Canary Wharf. We really amused ourselves (and the boss!) by hitching a ride in the mail van. We'd giggled about whether we'd have to hold packages on our laps, but it was actually just a regular ride. It was really helpful to get out of London and see the perspective of some of the associates who work in a more suburban environment. (Sharon Hawkins says hello, Mona!) I feel like this job is a great opportunity to use some of what I learned in my prior role about how certain parts of the bank work, while also getting a much broader perspective about communications overall.

Tomorrow we actually have another field trip to meet with a marketing agency, and it's in a really nice part of town that I haven't been to yet. So, I'm pretty excited about that.

Last night, Christy-Anne and I had what I thought was a fabulous dinner at a place called Plateau:
http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaurants/london/view/82798/Plateau

I had a goat cheese potato terrine to start; it came with a small green salad. It was super goat cheesy and really just quite delish. My entree was a grilled pork chop, which was perfectly thick and flavorful and seemed like it came out really fresh off the grill and just piping hot. It was served on a bed of orzo with spinach, some kind of nuts and green olives...you know when you have something you just remember fondly for several days? This was one of those.

Oh, I am trying to get the act together for Leigh Ann's visit this weekend and am hoping we'll get to try Patisserie Valerie for tea (http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/, should be WAY cheaper than the $70 Savoy experience). We have a reservation to eat at Gordon Ramsay's new gastropub on Sunday evening:
http://www.gordonramsay.com/thenarrow/