London 2324 hours.

It’s funny to think that once upon a time if you wanted to travel to That London from the Midlands you would have to set aside a whole day which ate into your leisure time when you got there. If i went back in time to as recent as the 1970s and told everyone that we had breakfast in Nottingham and lunch in That London they would laugh at me and my fanciful blathering. The future is here though, and that is exactly what we have managed to do today; we can’t cure diseases or solve world hunger but we can move around the country pretty sharpish. Motorways might not be romantic or ascetically pleasing but they shave hours off what once would have been considered an epic journey.

Arriving in London without event, I had to have a shower before heading out which gave us time to have a cup of tea in the hotel and generally unwind. Mandi had her heart set on shopping for Christmas decorations (oblivious to the fact that I would nowadays like to see the whole thing cancelled) so after a very nice all day breakfast in Soho at Cotton Café on Berwick Street we headed into the West End. I was amazed at how down-market Oxford Street was looking these days, or maybe I just didn’t notice years ago when I worked at Selfridges. Apart from Selfridges and John Lewis keeping their end up, the rest of what is one of London’s famous shopping streets looks like any old high street. I’m pretty sure that Westminster Council could have stepped in and put a stop to Primark opening one of its disposable clothing shops there, (although to be fair it would save on packing – buy your clothes when you get there and bin them before you get home) or the plethora of mobile phone shops and other such chains. Selfridges itself is pleasant enough, that was first on our (by ‘our’ I mean Mandi’s) Christmas shopping list, and Liberty had a Christmas shop that put all others to shame. It even made me feel a touch festive. Harrods on the other hand seems to have carved a niche for itself as a tacky (expensive but tacky) gift shop frequented by people on council estates who win the lottery and get ideas above their station. Thankfully we weren’t in there very long, our decorations having been bought from Liberty.

On a previous visit to London we found a lovely little Italian restaurant tucked away down Heddon Street, (yes we went there again, no Bowie fan can resist) and hoped it was still there this time. London is always changing and it is possible to go to a really nice pub, café, or restaurant and never find it again. However our luck was in, and we managed to get a table there, and I still couldn’t name the place.

I can’t remember how it started, but I always say that Paddington Bear helped to get Mandi and me together. Last time we came down, Paddington Station was having work done so was closed in areas, so this time we made a point of going to see the statue of our furry matchmaker and have a drink in one of the bars there. By the time I had drunk one pint of Guinness I was knackered from travelling so headed back to the hotel to prepare for our trip to Brighton tomorrow.

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