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Lady at the Party
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
When I first moved to Hampstead I spent awhile working my way through all of the local bakeries, tea houses, and coffee shops trying to find the best one. The quality and atmosphere varied widely; there was the old-but-well-loved Coffee Cup; the uber-pink, cupcake-filled Tea Cup, (yes, the names are very creative); the hyper-corporate Starbucks and its English counterpart, Cafe Nero; and the seemingly-never-open Chaiwalla, among others.
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Lady at the Show
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
The other night I went with a group of friends to see a play at Shakespeare's Globe Theater on the Thames. Liberty, a three-hour marathon set against the backdrop of the post-French Revolution Reign of Terror, could only be described as...well...long.
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Lady at the Lanesborough
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
My Glaswegian grandmother drank tea by the bucketful. Actually, she drank it by the cupful. But she drank buckets of it. While it never struck me as particularly odd that my mother drank five cups of coffee every morning, my grandmother's afternoon tea habit seemed bizarrely unnatural. I remember watching her sip cup after cup of the stuff as I sat with eyes wide as the saucer she placed her English Breakfast-filled teacup on, wondering how on earth anyone could drink so much tea.
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Lady Tastes Christmas
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
Back in June my boyfriend and I had tickets for Gordon Ramsay's Taste of London. Set in Regent's Park, the event featured top London restaurants offering small samples of their best dishes. We looked forward to the event for quite some time, but unfortunately had to cancel last-minute when I randomly won a modeling competition at a certain racecourse in Berkshire. I live such a predictable life.
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Lady in the Lounge
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
I spent a lot of time in London airports in 2008. From Stansted's old, cramped Ryan Air terminal to Heathrow's debacle-turned-flagship Terminal 5, I saw the best and worst that BAA has to offer.My favorite experience at the airports in London is the lounges. Most people don't know that there are various tiers when it comes to lounges in London. But this is the UK, after all. They have class distinctions to reinforce.
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Lady on the Red Carpet
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
Ever since I moved to London I have heard about the movie premieres that take place regularly in Leicester Square. All the daily papers have pictures of celebrities from the prior evening's premieres, whether from Mamma Mia, the latest Keira Knightley film (there are too many to keep track of these days), or Harry Potter. Never did I think I would be on the other side of the firm-but-fair guard rail that keeps the commoners from overrunning the smart set on the red carpet.
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Lady in White
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
Snow! Lots and lots of snow! More snow than London has seen in 18 years!The entire city has shut down. The tube is not running. The airport runways are frozen. Every adult and child in London is enjoying a snow day.
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Lady Looks at Art
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
One of my favorite things about living in a city that is a cultural center is that great art comes to me as opposed to the other way around. Having been on travel hiatus for two straight weekends, I've had some time to catch up on the various art exhibitions around London. That's to say nothing of my December addiction to the Natural History Museum, which I visited no less than four times in two weeks, and January's V&A obsession, which has seen me there three weekends in four.
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Lady in Highgate
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
I don't usually spend my free time in cemeteries. It's not that I have anything in particular against gravestones or funerary urns. It's just...well...it's just that they creep me out a little bit.On Sunday, however, I made an exception. Braving the frigid London cold, my boyfriend and I took a post-lunch stroll across Hampstead Heath into Highgate.
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Lady in the Neighborhood
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
After spending half of January, half of February, and half of March outside of London, I wanted to spend some good quality time with my home city this weekend.In order to reacquaint myself with my amazing neighborhood and give myself something more exciting to write than "woke up, sat around the house all day, went to dinner, slept" (sounds like a bad Twitter post!), I spent this weekend strolling around Hampstead's narrow cobbled streets and gorgeous green spaces.
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Lady in the Open Garden Squares
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
When my boyfriend and I first moved to London a year and a half ago, we camped out in a chi chi hotel in Belgravia for three weeks. Every day on our way to the tube at Victoria we would pass the beautiful gardens in Eaton Square, Chester Square, and Belgrave Square. We always wanted to go inside and enjoy the leafy green spaces and lovely flowers, but alas the gates were under lock and key and the only ones allowed inside were the residents that lived in the buildings in the squares.
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Lady Gets a Taste of London
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
Last June my boyfriend and I bought tickets to Taste of London, a temporary foodie paradise in Regent’s Park that featured top London restaurants selling miniature portions of their signature dishes. We couldn’t wait to go. Unfortunately, a little something called the Face of Ascot competition forced us to change our plans. Instead of heading to Regent’s Park that Saturday to eat good food and drink champagne, we headed to Royal Ascot for a second time. Thankfully it was worth the trip.
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Lady in Noho
Blog: A Lady in London - 7 November 2009
A month ago my company moved into a new office in Noho. Formerly known as Fitzrovia, Noho is a trendy area around Charlotte Street in central London. The area has grown on me quite a bit since I started spending most of my waking life there.
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London: 5 More Family Favorites
Blog: Family Friendly Hotel, Resort, Suite Reviews: Travel Savvy Mom » blog - 6 November 2009
As a Londoner (now living in California), I take my kids every year to pay homage to this fabulous city. The list of favorites is never ending but here are five from our most recent trip.
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Pilpel Falafel, Spitalfields
Blog: An American in London - 12 October 2009
Of the many amazing memories I have of my trip to Israel last summer, eating the best falafel and hummous of my life ranks up there. So imagine my excitement when Pilpel opened near Spitalfields Market (which is where I work). For the past three months, I’ve found it a colossal exercise of [...]
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My Old Place, Spitalfields
Blog: An American in London - 2 October 2009
Back in January, I first visited the divey-but-certain-dishes-are-delicious Gourmet San, and so I was thrilled to learn that Gourmet San has a sister restaurant near Spitalfields Market called My Old Place (now that I work near Spitalfields, I’d like to find a nearby Chinese restaurant that’s good for lunch). So two weeks ago, four friends [...]
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St. John Bread and Wine, Spitalfields
Blog: An American in London - 28 September 2009
An old friend who used to live in London and now lives in Hong Kong was back in town last week, and he wanted to eat pig products, English-style. Obviously, that meant St. John Restaurant. Sadly, the Restaurant had no available tables on my friend’s only free evening, but its more casual sibling, St. John [...]
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Boho Mexica, Spitalfields
Blog: An American in London - 24 September 2009
Two weeks ago, some of my expat friends and I read this glowing review of Boho Mexica and knew we had to check it out immediately. If you know any American expats in London, you’ll know that Mexican food is our catnip and crack, rolled into one. (It’s an odd phenomenon, of course. [...]
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My Actual Costs – Europe – Summer 1998
Blog: GoBackpacking - 24 September 2009
Thoughts on money for the budget-minded When it comes to travel, there are two things you can count on: (1) you’ll always find a cheaper exchange rate after you’ve traded your money, and (2) you’ll always go over budget. I don’t mean to be negative, but these are the Murphy’s Laws of travel. Yes, there are more, but [...]Buy travel insurance from Worldnomads.com (Lonely Planet's preferred carrier)
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Packing List For A Summer In Europe
Blog: GoBackpacking - 23 September 2009
I purposely bought a small backpack to help limit me in what I brought on the trip.Buy travel insurance from Worldnomads.com (Lonely Planet's preferred carrier)
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London Icons: Big Ben, Red Telephone Box, Bobbies
Blog: PassportChop.com Travel Blog - Reviews, Travel Experiences - 23 September 2009
To conclude our 17-day long Central Europe trip, I will provide you with a quick showcase of London icons. Starting with Big Ben -> Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north-eastern end of the Palace of Westminster in London, and is often extended to refer to the [...] Related posts:Souvenir Shopping in London
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£5 Chinese Buffet Dinner at London Chinatown
Blog: PassportChop.com Travel Blog - Reviews, Travel Experiences - 21 September 2009
London’s Chinatown is the best place for home-sick Singaporeans craving for chicken rice or any other Chinese food. However, at £8-10 for a plate of chicken rice, it is quite expensive to eat in some of these Chinatown restaurants. Fret not because while walking around Chinatown, we saw 2 all-you-can-eat buffet Chinese restaurants! We wanted to [...] Related posts:Budapest
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Shilpa Indian Restaurant, Hammersmith
Blog: An American in London - 20 September 2009
Last Friday, Jon and I met our friends at the Lyric Hammersmith for a performance of “Punk Rock” (which, by the way, was pretty forgettable). The show ended at 9:30 pm and I needed food, stat. Thank goodness for Tamarind & Thyme’s July post on Shilpa Indian Restaurant. The restaurant is near [...]
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The Compass Pub, Islington
Blog: An American in London - 18 September 2009
Despite the good number of tasty gastropubs in Islington, it’s still nice when a new one opens in the ‘hood. The Compass has been open about three months, and for a place that doesn’t want to be known as a gastropub (they insist they’re a pub that happens to serve food – whaaat?), the place [...]
