I'm sitting with the warm sunshine on my back feeling somewhat exhausted after a weekend getting my fix of London life.
Rounding off a fortnight of celebrations for my husband's birthday, we took the short (ish) hop on the train down to London. Having moved slightly further north recently, we are actually, in terms of time it takes on the train, nearer to London than we were before! I'd like to say that was planned........so I will! It was!
Living in the country means by the end of the weekend, we crave open space again, but whilst we are there we love the buzz of the city, the rich diversity of life and the access to everything that London has to offer.
The only slight disappointment was we left London not having spied a single famous person! Boo.
My husband (not in the slightest bit interested in star spotting of that kind) takes great sport in disbelieving my excited tales of having previously bumped in to Nellie Boswell (Jean Boht) buying smalls in M&S on the King's Road, talking pointed boots with boxer Chris Eubank (very friendly he was too) in Selfridges, standing next to Merlin's Morgana on the tube and spotting one of my fantasy husbands, Louis Theroux, as I waltzed around on a white horse carousel outside the NHM.....not to mention seeing DJ Mike Read as I was about to board the train home. Some years back I stood behind Neil Morrissey (during his Men Behaving Badly years) and his then girlfriend Rachel Weisz, now Mrs Craig, in the queue somewhere. I think Mum had the best haul (in terms of celebrity points) ever when she spotted Elton John (loading box after box) of shoes into the back of his Bentley at Patrick Cox and Prince Charles in one afternoon!
Maybe I take my husband's point. It sounds a little sad when I read it back!
Our stay culminated in a gathering for a birthday meal at The Dairy on Clapham Common. Wow. What a treat that was! The food was exquisite. As we were a largish party, we had the tasting menu and every single dish was small but perfectly formed and served on the most beautiful, but heavy (the waiting staff must have muscles like rocks!) rivened stoneware plates/dishes. The Head Chef and Owner, Robin Gill, has quite a CV and it shows.
We began the evening at W & C (Wine and Charcuterie) on Clapham Common, the converted loos now a funky, busy bar underneath Clapham Common tube station. Very little has been done to the building....I guess apart from removing the urinals and giving it a darn good clean!! Our conversations on arrival centred around the rather unsavoury stories those walls could probably tell....disgraced MP's and the rest!
To list every shop we went in and every item I could have purchased would take another few pages, so I will pick my one favourite visit of the day....and one I've mentioned previously. If you want somewhere that has every little bit of kitchen gadgetry (husband satisfied) and all things decorative and functional for the kitchen/dining table then Divertimenti is definitely the shop to head to.
My exciting purchase of the visit......electric scales in the exact raspberry red of our Alessi Alessandro M corkscrew. I had to stop there. It was all getting too Rock and Roll......!!
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