where did this day go?

today was one of those days where it felt like you did nothing, but when you have to sit and write about it, you realize you did quite a bit, compared to what you might have done at work.

we started our day shopping locallly at elys and whittards of chelsea, takking advantage of some of the 'boxing day' sales. and i tell you, the sales here are what the sales used to be at home. one crazy day where everything really is 50% off. from wimbledon, we head down to oxford street to meet up with her friend and coworker from scotland, andy. he actually lives just outside of london and commutes to aberdeen, only home for an occasionaly weekend.

we went to an african/lebanese restaurant called ayoush. we started with one of my fave starters...hummus with roasted pine nuts and grilled lamb and pita. so yummy. then i tried the lamb tagine, and holy crap, it was good. it reminded me of the Kremlin restaurant on fourth street, way back 10 years ago. that was one of the best restaurants in mount royal and it was such a disappointment when it was ploughed down for a condo complex.

andy wanted to show us the wallace collection. the armoury was incredible and the weapons...man alive, i can only imagine the damage that they did. we also saw the infamous laughing cavalier and andy's favorite, miss nelly o'brien, a portrait of a courtesan. absolutely stunning. i'll have to go back since we hurried through and saw mere highlights.

afterward, we walked down the marylebone high street (i had been there before for pints in november with larissa, at the prince rupert) and we found ourselves in the Daunt book store. again, i need to go back there - its a proper book shop. not a chain, and i think i could speand hours there. we then head back to oxford street and attempted to shop. there were so many people there - and i'd bet there were at least 2 million people there (and seriously, i'm not exaggerating). the line up to get into the gucci shop at selfridges went outside - it was absolute insanity. gina indicated that i just didn't like to shop, to which i thought 'you call this shopping?' it was like frogger, only instead of dodging cars to cross the street, you dodged people just to walk down the street. in fact, one woman got me so angry i actually said 'get the f*ck out of my way'. wow.

afterward, we left the insanity for wimbledon, and had a pint at the prince of wales. it was quite a nice pub - better than i expected. and of course, i had a leffe.

we rounded out gina's last night here with a trip to M&S for some mac and cheese, and banoffee pie. mmmmmmmm, fantastico. gina's packing up right now...i have mixed feelings about it. as with any holiday, its nice to go back to a 'schedule' but its at the sacrifice of being without family. sigh. its a precarious balance, isn't it?