ninety-two days

Day 12...it's finally sunny!

Up until today, there had been a grand total of 30 minutes of sunlight during my entire stay in London. Today, however, is beautiful. I had lunch at a restaurant called Just the Bridge, which is on the Thames River, right next to the Millenium Bridge (which I understand is called the Bouncy Bridge by the locals, because it was poorly engineered initially and had an uncomfortable reverberation when walked upon). The food was tasty, and the view was lovely. I had crispy duck and mango spring rolls and something else... Sorry Simon, still no fish -n- chips. I'm working on it. Along with downing a pint, etc.

A few nights ago (day 10, to be exact), several of us dined at Hakkasan, which is the only Chinese restaurant ever to receive a Michelin star. It was very trendy, dark, loud and smoky, but the food was excellent. I was put in charge of the wine list, and received no help from a completely un-knowledgable sommelier whose only interest seemed to be convincing me that I really needed to order a magnum (double bottle) instead of what I had chosen. It all worked out and everyone seemed to enjoy my picks.

I was given tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show, which is apparently very exciting and "the beginning of the London social season." It's tomorrow evening, so I'll try to post shortly after with my commentary. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the long weekend that's coming up. I had thought of going to Paris, but it turns out to be prohibitively expensive on such late notice, so I'm going to put it off for a week. Perhaps I'll just have a very "London" weekend and find a good place for a proper English breakfast and wander around Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace.

posted by jess. @ 2:06 PM