13 years is a long time...

It's been 13 years since Princess Diana died in THAT car crash in Paris - and whilst 13 years is a long time, I still remember it like it was yesterday, as I am sure many of you do. This week in the window at Harrod's in Knightsbridge there is a memorial to Diana and Dodi, lots of flowers outside which have been left by the public. As I watched people stopping to read the memorial and take photos it made me think of other tragic deaths that literally stopped the world - JFK, John Lennon, Michael Jackson.. How incredible is that people have such an impact - and yet at the end of the day, they are just people like you and I....

But anyway - enough of that! Time for me to talk about my amazing week in London.

The weather was of course typically English - but I didn't care (it was sunny a few days). It was so nice to see the sky and to be able to breathe (relatively) fresh air - although I did just read that people in London live 9 years less than most of the Western world given the pollution......

You would have thought that given I have been living on dumplings for the past 6 months I would have gone for something different whilst away. Nope. I managed to eat dumpligs on 4 of the 6 days I was in London. I am a sucker for people watching and what better place than the Dim Sum bar in Harrod's...
www.harrods.com/harrodsstore/visiting/restaurants/xin-dim-sum-bar

I am a fan of staying close to Hyde Park so I can go running in the mornings. This time I stayed at the Sheraton Towers at Knightstbridge - awesome location, right next to Harvey Nic's as luck would have it and right at the Albert Gate entry to Hyde Park.
www.starwoodhotels.com/luxury/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=412

Barclay's have this brilliant new bike service in London. There are racks of bikes all over the city and in the burbs - you basically pick one up from wherever you are and you can drop it back anywhere you like!! At the moment it is only available to people who pay an annual fee, but I am told that will change soon. A brilliant idea and the hire costs are relatively cheap too - under 30 minutes hire is even free! www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/14808

As anyone who reads this with any regularity would know much of my life revolves around exercising, shopping and eating (no partricular order of course). So being in Knightsbridge was great for all of this. I LOVE the stores they have where you can grab brekkie or lunch or a snack. Check out EAT - brilliant food (arh yes - they had dumplings too!); we need a chain of these in Aus. www.eat.co.uk/

Continuing the food theme... I had a lovely casual dinner with divine Miss Caroline at the cafe on level 5 at Narvey Nics. I also had a delicious brekkie there on Monday morning before I headed to the airport. www.harveynichols.com/output/Page113.asp. Speaking of breakfast.. Caroline (ye who sends me to all the great food heavens...) recommended The Wolseley for Breakfast. WOW. What a fantastic place. Next you are in London go for brekkie - it was delicious (on Picadilly). www.thewolseley.com/

So besides dumplings and breakfast... we also ventured to the Connaught for afternoon tea - how very grown up! It is in Mayfair just off Oxford Street - on a stunning street which just happens to have a Louboutin store on it. Divine sandwiches and a host of yummy pastries and cakes.
http://www.the-connaught.co.uk/afternoon_tea.aspx

One palce I didn't make it to was the Serpentine Bar and Kitchen in Hyde Park - looked super for Brekkie.. next time :). www.serpentinebarandkitchen.com/

So, from food to shopping. How is that in all the times I have ventured to London, I have never been to Carnaby Street!! An awesome shopping area not far off Oxford St. www.carnaby.co.uk/. This is also where you will find the gorgeous department store, Liberty. www.liberty.co.uk/.
Unfortunately, I was 2 weeks too early for the launch of Manolo's Liberty collection!!

One other store I had not heard of before is Desigual - a Spanish label. WOW. Amazing clothes - I think I was in the store for 2 hours and suffice to say, I walked out with a very heavy shopping bag (Tony Tanner's fault). Happy, bold clothes which are fun to wear and make you feel good! www.desigual.com/

Of course I did the rounds of the usual stores (you can't beat Primark for $3 t shirts!) and I managed to discover The Shoe Galleries at Selfridges... It's not 100% finished yet - grand opening 18 September during London fashion week, but suffice to say it is pretty damn nice...
www.selfridges.com/en/Style/Features/The-Shoe-Galleries

And finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the incredible Harvey Nichol's windows. Absolutely amazing and obviously the brainchild of a very creative mind. Each window was entirely made from something - pegs, nails, tapes, books - very, very impressive (some pics above).

So besides shopping and eating... the purpose of my trip to the UK was to attend the wedding party of Mr & Mrs Bolton. Thankfully the rain stayed away (well until we were packing up and had to don the ponchos - well done ralph!!) and we had a fantastic picnic in Brockwell Park followed by a few very funny hours at the pub! I can't recall the name of the company Caro used to order the picnice hampers - but they were amazing; the food was delicious and there was ample of it. Suffice to say, there was plenty to drink too. I met some great people and had a blast - Caro and Ralph - thanks for having me and I hope you guys had a great day too and are enjoying your overdue Honeymoon.

Finally, I spent my last day with the fabulous Wilkies in Surrey. It's never enough time - but of course we managed lunch at a lovely country English pub followed by afternoon drinks at another English pub - it was a grey afternoon after all and the following day was a public holiday so everyone was in a good mood. Mrs Wilks - thanks for the awesome pack of treats, you know me too well!! Ben and Sam - missing you both already and I hope you have been practicing your Chinese I taught you :)

Whilst I was waiting for Caroline at the Connaught, I got to thinking about how you never know where in the world you will end up. As a little girl I never knew such wonderful places existed - and would never have dreamt that I would be enjoying such amazing experiences. When I was in Year 12 at High School I took Home Economics (I needed the units..) and as a child and teenager, I was a very fussy eater. As I sat at the Connaught last week, I couldn't help but think about my teacher's words; Mrs Oakes once said to me - 'how are you ever going to travel the world when you are such a fussy eater'. Well, I guess times have changed and I got lucky on both fronts :-). But it also made me think about how amazingly lucky I am, especially with so many people suffering in so many different ways all over the world. So this blog is for my Mum - I probably would never have enjoyed that afternoon tea if you weren't so amazing :).

That was my week in London. I've been back in Shanghai for 48 hours and it already feels like so long ago - thankfully the memories last longer. I'm staying put this weekend - off to Saigon the weekend after. Thankfully the weather is not quite so hot here now - only averaging about 32 degrees!

G
xx

PS - pretty desperate to come home.... only 8.5 weeks to go and I do have a couple of little trips home in Sept and Oct.