A Snowstorm in London

I've been a little sporadic in my posting lately, mostly due to being sick and just not going out and experiencing worth sharing, and because I've been traveling mucho lately.  To my faithful readers, I will try and keep it up more regularly, and I'm exploring some new fun options for my blog, so stay tuned.

I've been in London this past week and MES joined me Wednesday for a little holiday while I spend my hours whiling away at the office.  Typically I'd find weather way too boring to blog about, but it's SNOWING here in London today.  It's so weird being in a city that typically doesn't get snow and just shuts down at the site of it.  Heathrow has already cancelled some flights; it's absolutely bizarre.

We're off to catch up with C&P tonight at The Sherlock Holmes Pub which I'm super psyched about since I've been remiss in embracing my "inner Brit" although my excuse is I've been working like crazy on the trot  ;)

The Randomness of London

If you've been keeping up with my shenanigans, you'll know that I've been pond hopping to London quite a bit this summer and into the fall.  side note:  Hopefully I won't have to come back until March. And amazingly enough it's starting to feel like my home away from home, at least the Hoxton is and even feeling fairly confident about the underground.

But I digress.  The randomness is how many people happen to be over here at the same time as me, completely coincidentally or just bypassing me in the sky coming here as I'm leaving.  Last night I had the pleasure of having dinner with a longtime friend of mine who I haven't seen in years, and by years I mean towards the early stages of MES's and my relationship and she happened to be in NYC.  She currently lives in Shanghai and we amazingly enough are here in London at the same time this week so we made plans to meet up.

I love this pic we took last night as we reminisced about our days as active Kappas and how much things have changed.  It made me want to drag out an old jacket with Fall '01 on it and rock it around the UMass campus when I visit in a few weeks.  We'll see....

Natty Noshers UK Style

With my 4th trip to London since the end of June underway, I'm feeling like a veteran Brit.  I'm lucky enough to have C&P as my tour guides and live Google for anything GB.

We made plans to hit up The Modern Pantry, just a hop, skip and a jump from Farringdon Underground.  This was such a cute place and I had a real hard time choosing between a main and what is the Brit version of brunch.  Disappointed after realizing tea isn't served on Sundays, I did opt for the more traditional British Sunday and went for a "roast", ie panko crusted pork belly in red cabbage.  Quite delish I have to say.  I never would've thought to coat pork belly in panko, but it did add for a nice textural difference.

And of course, since a main with a 2nd dish was only 20 quid, I had to order dessert.  Bread pudding always has my name on it, so off I went with chocolate gelato on top.  Yum yum!  Not my favorite bread pudding in the world, still think The Red Inn takes the cake on that one, but it definitely held up.

Next time?  Go during a day they have tea.  I have a feeling it'll be Ah mazing!

Catching up with Chan

I can't even get over the fact that today was the first day I had a chance to catch up on my google reader; over 1,000 posts by blogs I follow that I had to catch up on!

What have I been up to since the end of August?

Spent a week in Cape Cod on "vacation" doing a lot of wedding things like gift bags, finalizing florist layout, picking our welcome dinner spot and menu

From Cape Cod I went to London for 5 nights, worked about 70+ hours which was good times, but at least I got to see C&P for a hot second before I flew on back and had the opportunity to try out Spice Market in London.  While it's not really tapas, it's not really individual either.  The 5 of us ordered 3 orders of pork belly sliders, amazing, but way too much for us considering how much other yummy food we tried.

Wedding wise?  Matt and I took our first dance class, ordered our rings, have finalized and ordered our favors, wrapping up our table decorations and I found a new hair and makeup artist.

Next up?  Leaving for London on Saturday again.  Keeping my fingers crossed that this is the last international trip until next quarter.

Obsessed with Lulu

On my last trip to London, Christina introduced me to Lulu Guinness.  Frankly I'm surprised at myself, shocked really, that I hadn't stumbled across her fabulous items in any of my numerous shopping sprees.  However, while introducing my shopaholic self to Burlington Arcade, they had the cutest little boutique there where I fell in love with this. 

Lulu Guinness - similar found here.

I walked away because it was my first day in the city and who knew what other fabulous items I'd find, plus if I could buy it in the US why buy it in London?  Oh how wrong I was!  By the end of the week, I couldn't stop thinking about it and thought to go back and purchase, where to my dismay it had sold out of all the London locations!  Quickly I checked online for the US and it had sold out there too, because who wouldn't want a cross-body, super soft black leather, with gold studded bow bag?!  Luckily I have a great future-sister-in-law who let me buy it on the UK site and ship it to her.  Woohoo!  Although I had to wait until my current trip to get it, a mere 5 weeks, I'm SO excited that it's finally in hand.  

To further my addiction, and not to spoil myself, I picked up this for the future mother-in-law

Found here

I did get one for Christina too, as a thank you for putting up with my crazy touristy self, but unfortunately it's no longer on the site.  

Outfit a la London

So what did I do last week in London besides work?  SHOPPED of course!  From Harvey Nichols, to Selfridges, I went to the big department stores to the really tiny shopping arcades.  I even hit up Spitalfields which is just riddles with outdoor vendors and tiny boutiques.  I was so psyched about all of my great purchases, that I pulled together a few of my new additions and threw together this outfit.  What do you think??

 

Skirt:  Enienay; Shoes:  Christian Louboutin Sunglasses:  Gucci

London in Instagrams

I went crazy last week with pictures, both of the mobile variety and with my D200.  I haven't quite had the chance yet to look at my camera pictures, but here's a quick preview:

 

Farewell London

 

 After almost 9 full days, I must bid you ado!  You've been more than fabulous, with your surprisingly sunny weather, lack of rain, and beautiful, if strangely laid out, streets.  VAT tax is my best friend, and I have one more touristy excursion to Spitalfield's before I jet off to the airport, hit up duty free, and jettison back to the states.

I don't know when I'll be back yet, although it does look like at least once more before the summer is out, and I'm looking forward to it almost as much as I'm looking forward to San Francisco in September.    So farewell for now, and I'll be back soon.