My Weekend in London

I just spent some of the bank holiday weekend in London.  I had a great time and here are some of the highlights.

I went to see 2 shows - Gypsy at The Savoy Theatre - Imelda Staunton is fabulous as Momma Rose and pretty much carries the whole show, but the kid who plays Baby June in the first part of the show steals all her scenes, she was so funny and over the top.

I also went to see a play called American Buffalo starring Damien Lewis, John Goodman and Tom Sturridge at the Wyndam Theatre.  All the actors were on top form and it was a really interesting play. Definitely worth going to see.  It was so popular there were some people standing in the aisles.

I always take the opportunity to pop into Whole Foods when I am in London and I bought some Savse smoothies which I love (luckily they now do them at my local supermarket so I can get them whenever I want but its always nice to start the day healthily when I eat so much in London).  I also bought some bread and butter pudding which I really enjoyed when I got home.

My favourite stores in London include & Other Stories and Forever 21 as we don't have them in Leeds.  The jewellery in both shops is really reasonably priced, so I bought a few pieces.

I popped into the new Lush store on Oxford Street which is huge and although I was tempted to buy some things I managed to resist as I didn't want to carry them around with me all day.

I went to the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A and it is well worth a visit. The clothes and accessories are amazing and there is an interesting narrative running through the whole exhibit.  Thank goodness I was never tempted by the bumsters (very low cut trousers and skirts.  The word bum cleavage springs to mind) back in the day as nobody needs to see that much of my arse.   Kate Moss makes an appearance near the end in a very interesting way.  I will say no more as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. This was well worth the £17.50 entrance fee, but booking in advance is a must as it was very busy.

I happened upon The Hummingbird Bakery on Wardour Street and all I will say is the Salted Caramel Cupcakes are to die for.  I can also heartily recommend the Chocolate Orange ones as well.

We went over to Borough Market to check out the wonderful food on offer and I bought a Salted Caramel and Honeycombe doughnut from Bread Ahead Bakery. It was delicious and there was so much filling in the centre it was crazy.  I would make the trip to Borough Market just to pick up one of these fab doughnuts.

I popped into Choccywockydoodah just off Carnaby Street to buy a milk chocolate marshmallow lolly for £9.99.  Definitely recommend that.

I had a £10 voucher to spend in Liberty, so I bought the Aveda Be Curly Curl Controller which cost £20 (£10 with the voucher). I will review this when I have used it.

We had a chance to check out a couple of museums while we were down there. The V&A whilst we were waiting for our time slot for the McQueen exhibition and also The British Museum when we took the chance to view the controversial Elgin Marbles (AKA The Parthenon Sculptures).  I have been to these museums many times before, but there always seems to be something new to see everytime.

I loved our meal at The Spaghetti House.  We had the Spaghetti Bolognese La Spaghettata to share which cost £18.95 and is literally enough to feed a family of 4. We also had SmokeShack Cheeseburgers at The Shake Shack which were delicious.

I stayed at The Premier Inn Euston which cost £100.  It's within walking distance of Oxford Street and very close to Kings Cross and Euston which makes getting around very easy.

I used my Oyster card to travel around on the tube which saves money as I paid a maximum of £6.40 per day. We did have a problem when the fire alarm went off at one station just as we were about to exit.  As all the barriers opened we didn't scan our Oyster cards.  When we went back to carry on our journey, the money on the cards had gone down more than it should.  Turned out we had been charged an extra £5.20 as we did not scan out.  We didn't realise this until later in the day when we ran out of money on the card and had to add some more on.  You can check the card history on the ticket machines to find this out. A helpful member of staff at Kings Cross tried to refund us via the ticket machines, but it would not work as we had used the card after the extra charge had been added.  We had to queue at the ticket office to get a refund in the end, which luckily wasn't as busy as normal and when we got served it literally took seconds to recredit the cards.   I am not sure in an emergency situation that I would always remember to scan out at the barriers, but it was easy enough to get the money recredited back to the card in the end.

I definitely fancy trying out The Hershesons Braid Bar at Top Shop on Oxford Street. It's £15 for 15 minutes.  I also want to try out Blow Ltd in Covent Garden for a blow dry, manicure and make-up.

To finish, I just thought I would add a photo from the window display for Make Up For Ever at Debenhams.  Make Up For Ever has just landed in the UK and is exclusive to Debenhams.  To promote it they were doing body painting on some models.  It was hard to get a photo through the window, so here's the best one I managed to take.  I didn't have any time to browse, but I did pick up a leaflet about makeup lessons and applications which I would definitely like to try next time.  Prices start from £15 for a makeup application focusing on one area to £50 for a Sophisticated makeup look lesson.  Prices are redeemable against Make Up For Ever products on the day of the appointment.

Wow I can't believe I fit so much into 2 days.  There's still so many other places I want to visit so I'm going back in a couple of months.  Any recommendations?

Leighlee

I bought these with my own money