A Date With London.

Firstly apologies for the lack of post the past 3 days have been completely jam packed that time for blogging has been scarce, but on the plus side it means I have loads of exciting things to blog about! Friday I spent most of the day at the park with the kids and completely forgot my camera, but on saturday I had a date with just me the Mr and good old London.

For valentines day Greig had bought us tickets to go see a show called Once at the Phoenix Theatre, so we left the boys with their grandparents and headed out for a day in London. We try and have a date night once a month where we get a babysitter and go to a restaurant for some dinner or go to the cinema, so Saturday was our March date.

We grabbed the high speed to St Pancras and seeing as though it was still early our first port of call was breakfast. We stumbled across a place called The Fine Burger Co inside the station which was serving breakfast baps so we couldn't resist.

I went for a sausage bacon and egg triple bap and a mocha, the food was good and definitely gave us the energy for a morning of exploring....the coffee was so so but being an ex barista and maestro (trainer of making good coffee) I tend to be pretty picky.  

It was a beautiful spring day which made wandering the streets that bit more enjoyable, there was no need for coats and I wish I had bought my sunglasses. Our first stop off was Fortnum and Mason, after many a trip to London over the years for some reason I have never been there! I have got to say it has become one of my favourite shops purely because of all the beautiful chocolates/cakes/tea/biscuits you can buy, I could have easily spent a fortune on food!

 

 

 

 

I spent what seemed like hours admiring the loose teas beautifully displayed in glass tea pots.... darjeeling and oolong being some of my favourites and making a decision that we really need to invest in a teapot! It being easter soon the displays where filled with the most stunning ornate easter eggs and chocolate bunnies, for a while I was tempted to treat Eli to one but knowing he will be bought plenty of chocolate I resisted. My heart genuinely skipped a beat when I entered the patisserie and saw a glass counter filled with the most colourful and dainty macaroons, being my most favourite treat i really did have to drag myself away even though they were cheaper then the ones I had bought last week in stratford. The chocolatier was just as tempting as well as the biscuits and jams and preserves...it was like being in the most poshest most expensive supermarket. The other thing that caught my eye when we were there was the decanters full of perfume which you could buy by the quart but I was a little disappointed after scouring the perfume department to find that my beloved Jo Malone was not there.

After exiting Fortnum and Mason we briefly visited a small market along Piccadilly which was situated under the most beautiful Magnolia tree in full blossom. Several stalls filled with photography and art really caught our eye and we ended up leaving with a painting which reminded us of a romantic trip to Paris we took almost 5 years ago. I cant wait to have the painting framed and hung in the bedroom....trust us to go to London and come home with a painting of Paris!

 

We stopped off at Soho Square Gardens and sat for a while in the sunshine before heading off to find somewhere to have lunch. I knew I wanted to try a place I had heard about on Shaftsbury Avenue called Pure which serves fresh seasonal produce and have the most delicious array of salads, flatbreads and noodle soups. 

I really wish we had one of these at home, I would certainly eat there all the time! The food was to fresh, healthy and full of goodness yet so filling and tasty. I went for a salad called 'The Casablanca' which consisted of fired chicken, roasted vegetables and couscous salad, we also shared a side of lentils mixed with bacon and herbs topped with feta cheese and walnuts. It was the perfect lunch, I was so full I couldn't even finish all the salad and the side. I was also really interested to try the 'Go Green' smoothie after hearing so much about green smoothies recently and being extremely unsure if Id like it. This one in particular had kale, spinach, avocado, apple and mint and it tasted so fresh and extremely tasty I would like to try and recreate this at home, what an amazing way of ingesting so much goodness into your diet. 

After lunch it was time for our matinee performance of Once, a show which was created from the 2006 indie cult film with the same name which won an oscar for best original song and praised for its soundtrack. Set in Dublin the plot features an Irish singer songwriter who meets a European girl who persuades and inspires him not to give up on his music after he struggles with the trials and tribulations of street performing and getting no where. The folksy Irish music that accompanies the story with its many guitars and violins is absolutely breathtaking and I would thoroughly recommend this show to anyone with whom that kind of music appeals. 

Once the show ended being in Soho we were going to find an nice little Thai restaurant but everywhere was so busy and we were still pretty full from lunch we ended up grabbing a cheeky Mc Donald's at the station on the way home. It was great to spend some quality time with the Mr and do something cultural at the same time. Our aim now is to make every months date just as interesting!

Thank you for reading!

Loulou.