Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Awesome things discovered over my long weekend in London:
-Richard Coyle (aka Jeff from Coupling) is currently appearing in a play in the West End. This discovery was all the more awesome because I didn't find it out until I was walking into the theater for said play, which we'd already purchased tickets for.
-The menu at the West End Kitchen (which was serendipitously located right next to the theater) appeared to have changed very little since the last time I ate there--including the amazingly cheap prices.
-Speaking of amazing prices, the bookstores on Charing Cross Road still sell used books for a couple pounds each...although I don't remember quite so many of them having sex shops in their basements.
-Other than my favorite cafe and my favorite bar, pretty much everything else in the old neighborhood was comfortingly the same.
-Although said favorite cafe (Cafe La Cigale) and said favorite bar (Cafe Society) have since changed hands (now called The Tomato Cafe and The Longford, respectively), they are at least still a cafe and a bar with similar offerings. (Although The Longford does not have 2-for-1 nights, as apparently that's what did Cafe Society in.)
-Helen Mirren loves to watch America's Next Top Model, a fact that I came across on the flight home while reading one of the many British magazines I picked up. I really hope that watching America's Next Top Model is Helen Mirren's secret to looking so fabulous, because I not-so-secretly aspire to look that great at her age, and God knows I already watch plenty of America's Next Top Model.
Not-so-awesome things discovered over my long weekend in London:
-The £2 to $1 exchange rate is even more painful than I thought it would be.
-The landscape on Oxford Street has changed dramatically since I last shopped there. Most of the high street stores have moved toward Bond Street, leaving the stretch toward Tottenham Court Road with little more than junky tourist shops and totally messing up my standard shopping path.
-Speaking of shopping, Topshop now offers a 10-percent student discount. Where the heck was that when I was a student?
-Other things that would have been nice when I was a student: 24-hour buses. There are tons of them in London now, instead of just the infrequent night buses. Oh, the all-night-clubbing and bus-stop-ditching incidents that could have been avoided if only London had implemented this idea sooner...
-It seems that for me, international travel is destined to go hand in hand with neck pain. Although the soreness this morning is much less painful than the $300 neck injury I sustained when I got back from Bangkok, it still is annoying. I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm going to blame the guy sitting behind me on the flight back, who seemed unable to understand that each time he yanked on my seat back to get up out of his seat, I could actually feel it.
-Richard Coyle (aka Jeff from Coupling) is currently appearing in a play in the West End. This discovery was all the more awesome because I didn't find it out until I was walking into the theater for said play, which we'd already purchased tickets for.
-The menu at the West End Kitchen (which was serendipitously located right next to the theater) appeared to have changed very little since the last time I ate there--including the amazingly cheap prices.
-Speaking of amazing prices, the bookstores on Charing Cross Road still sell used books for a couple pounds each...although I don't remember quite so many of them having sex shops in their basements.
-Other than my favorite cafe and my favorite bar, pretty much everything else in the old neighborhood was comfortingly the same.
-Although said favorite cafe (Cafe La Cigale) and said favorite bar (Cafe Society) have since changed hands (now called The Tomato Cafe and The Longford, respectively), they are at least still a cafe and a bar with similar offerings. (Although The Longford does not have 2-for-1 nights, as apparently that's what did Cafe Society in.)
-Helen Mirren loves to watch America's Next Top Model, a fact that I came across on the flight home while reading one of the many British magazines I picked up. I really hope that watching America's Next Top Model is Helen Mirren's secret to looking so fabulous, because I not-so-secretly aspire to look that great at her age, and God knows I already watch plenty of America's Next Top Model.
Not-so-awesome things discovered over my long weekend in London:
-The £2 to $1 exchange rate is even more painful than I thought it would be.
-The landscape on Oxford Street has changed dramatically since I last shopped there. Most of the high street stores have moved toward Bond Street, leaving the stretch toward Tottenham Court Road with little more than junky tourist shops and totally messing up my standard shopping path.
-Speaking of shopping, Topshop now offers a 10-percent student discount. Where the heck was that when I was a student?
-Other things that would have been nice when I was a student: 24-hour buses. There are tons of them in London now, instead of just the infrequent night buses. Oh, the all-night-clubbing and bus-stop-ditching incidents that could have been avoided if only London had implemented this idea sooner...
-It seems that for me, international travel is destined to go hand in hand with neck pain. Although the soreness this morning is much less painful than the $300 neck injury I sustained when I got back from Bangkok, it still is annoying. I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm going to blame the guy sitting behind me on the flight back, who seemed unable to understand that each time he yanked on my seat back to get up out of his seat, I could actually feel it.
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