Winging Wednesday

Vanessa is definitely in town, proven by the fact that I am blogging at 3.30 am. The university sleeping habits are back!

Today we started without a plan, and it was great fun. First, she had to change 8,000 Thai baht, which only squeezed out £97. We ate brunch at Maison Blanc on SJW High Street and set off into town.
Ended up at Green Park, of course, and popped round to Christie's for any possible previews. No, but the doorman sent us in to see the Garrick prize-thingy (portraits and depictions of various stage/screen actors) and I picked up a sales schedule.

As we exited, delayed a second by some people coming in, and then by chatting for a couple of minutes with the doormen, I noticed a lad in a suit waiting at the bottom of the steps. It was none other than my old French teacher's distant cousin whom I have not seen in about a year! I was knocked thoughtless for a minute, exclaiming merely, "Oh my God, I can't believe this!" a few times.
Then I gathered myself together and introduced him to Vanessa. He's gotten taller and slightly older. So we promised to meet up sometime.
I had been wondering about what he was up to these days, and he said that he's working in the area and as he passed Christie's he wondered if I was in there - and indeed I materialised on the step! And I have not been there in many months! What timing.
Not the first time I've bumped into him in town, the last being on the stairs at the Bond Street tube station.

V and I then went off to Fortnums, where I bought her a tiny address book to replace the ancient one that was falling apart even when we were roomies. We also bought calissons, small petal-shaped marzipan-like delicacies from Provence; a custom box of assorted choccies; and two marrons glacés.

At Piccadilly Circus I was beginning to feel hungry, so we crossed over into Soho and ended up, amazingly, at Yauatcha. Even as we passed Chinatown (ton yan gai) my heart began to sink as too much reminded me of ... Delightful ... (I wonder if he still reads this blog...? He used to love it ... I was really flattered by that ...)

So, Yauatcha for dim sum: char sui cheung fun, crispy duck rolls, golden dumplings, and squid cakes. Everything deeeeeeelish as ever. We ended with a shared Shanghai Lily cake (see earlier Yauatcha entry), and fragrant orchid tea.

Then we wandered off to Leicester Square in time to catch a performance of the automated clock chime at the Switzerland thing.

See, it's quarter to 4am and brain is quitting on me now.
Then we walked up Regent's Street, popping into whatever shops took our fancy, passed Oxford Circus, up St Christopher's Lane, onto Wigmore Street, Marylebone High Street, Baker Street, and then caught the bus at Dorset Square. I couldn't have made it around Regent's Park.

(We walked a total of 6.29 miles.)

At home, I had a bowl of cereal and V had a rocket salad. Then we moved on to tea, one calisson each and a short wine-tasting session with a tipple each of my yummy orange blossom muscat.

Between V checking her email and chatting with JP, and me pottering about in between, the night slipped by and here it is, about 3.55 am and I will now post this.

FIN