Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sunny days

M and I were out and about alot this weekend because my mother-in-law was here again with us and she looked after Little Planet for a couple of days. Our weekend activities this week included...
  • Lunching on spinach with sesame sauce and tempura of pumpkin, asparagus, green beans, sweet potato, carrot and mushroom at Toku restaurant in the Japan Centre on Piccadilly
  • Choosing a 100% wool carpet and soundproofing underlay for Little Planet's nursery
  • Watching the Tweenies on CBeebies with Little Planet as she lay on her stomach and babbled away at the characters Bella, Fizz, Jake and Milo
  • Viewing several art exhibitions: reinterpretations of Native American life as depicted in paintings by Kent Monkman at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, Suzanne Treister's transcriptions of newspaper headlines into alchemical drawings at the Annely Juda Fine Art, and Wyndham Lewis' portraits of friends such as T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Ezra Pound at the National Portrait Gallery
  • Browsing babywear at Fenwick department store on Bond Street and buying two cute spotty sleepsuits from Baby Gap on Regent Street
  • Buying traditional sweets such as acid drops, rhubarb and custard sweets and dolly mixture from Fortnum & Mason
  • Watching the mildly engaging and very subtle Unrelated movie at the cinema
  • Buying cookware from John Lewis on Oxford Street and assorted cheeses and crackers and fish from the Food Hall
  • Strolling through Russell Square in the glorious sunshine
  • Buying magazines from Borders, and browsing gardening, parenting and cooking books from Foyles and Japanese photobooks in Claire de Rouen, all on Charing Cross Road
  • Viewing Dryden Goodwin's large black and white photos of strangers in London streets at the Photographers' Gallery in Covent Garden
  • Snacking on coffee and Portuguese custard tarts at Fernandez & Wells in Soho
  • Browsing menswear in Brooks Brothers, Gieves & Hawkes and Jil Sander - M eventually buying a deep charcoal wool suit from Nicole Farhi and a light grey jumper from John Smedley
  • Snacking on charcuterie and sipping red wine in the tapas bar Dehasa on Ganton Street
  • Dining at Korean restaurant Biwon near Holborn on kimchi, chilli chicken stew and bi bim bab - a stew of vegetables, beef and chilli paste on a bed of rice and a raw egg broken on top and served sizzling hot in a clay pot
  • Enjoying a barbecue in the garden
Wasn't it a gloriously sunny and warm weekend? This coming week, I have a visit from my parents to look forward to. The week after that, I am not looking forward to M being away again.

5 comments:

Olivia said...

Oh no! I never did get to visit the Japan Centre before I left, and what's worse is I walked past it a million times, since Piccadilly was my stomping ground.

....and I kind of miss Fortnums....

Anonymous said...

wow!! what a wonderful way to spend the weekend..I can almost feel the sun warm my face!!
-childwoman-

Hypatia said...

Hello P - I'm enjoying your updates so much and following the progress of the Planet family with great pleasure. If I don't comment, it doesn't mean I'm not reading... Sounds like you're striking a good balance between 'me' time, 'huasband and wife' time and 'family' time; I hope I can manage it with as much grace when my time comes! I'm doing a series of 'the Happy' over on my blog and will soon be writing about a Portuguese book about Portuguese cakes and confectionery, but since you've enjoyed great cakes this weekend, here's a sneak peek at what it's all about: http://www.fabricoproprio.net/livro-book/ (scroll down for the English) Enjoy!

Jean said...

Vegi tempura from Toku and rhubarb and custard sweets from anywhere - yum :-)

Thanks for the pointer to Claire de Rouen shop, which I wasn't aware of.

Anonymous said...

what a lovely way to spend a weekend :)

hope there are many more such weekends in store