London Baby

Good Morning Bleeps.

What a beautiful, sunny day. There is something about the sunshine, it just makes me feel happy. I am sitting here with a raging hangover but I don't care and I worked hard to achieve it.

We got up bright and early yesterday morning because Phil was schedule to do a 10K race in Ashford. I sat in the sun and waited for him to cross the finish line, which he did in 54 minutes. While we were waiting for it to start I couldn't help but feel a bit bummed out as the runners started pouring in. I miss running but was sat there with my legs killing me so I know that for now it isn't an option for me. I do need to do something though so I might go back to swimming, that way I wont over-heat and also it will be more of a low impact exercise. The sun is another reminder that the better weather is on it's way. Better weather = bikini, yikes! I need to kick this half a stone off that I have gained since getting sick and the way I see it is that I have two choices; sit on my arse, do nothing and feel like crap about myself or re-work my attitude towards what is a good workout.

I used to get off on that feeling of adrenaline that runs through your body after a gruelling run. If I wasn't killing myself I wasn't working hard enough. I need to readjust that way of thinking because doing something, ANYTHING, is better than nothing right?

Approaching the finish line

Anyway, I don't think I will ever get over the feeling of pride that I get when Phil approaches the finishing line of a race. He always puts a smile on my face.

We came home, got ready, packed and jumped on the high speed train to London. What Phil didn't know is that I had arranged for some good friends of his to join us in the bar for a drink before we were going to dinner. We went down for a drink quite early and Phil started to get itchy feet, wanting to go off somewhere else so in the end I had to tell him just to cool his jets and let him know his friends were coming.

We were joined by Stefan, Tara and Andre and managed to polish off three bottles of champagne between us before we had to catch a cab to Knightsbridge. It was such a laugh and as much as we were looking forward to our meal at Heston Blumenthals restaurant, we didn't want to leave. Those couple of hours flew by! It was so nice to just let our hair down, relax and catch up.

Me and Phil

Me & Tara

Stefan, Phil & Andre

We arrived at Heston's restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in plenty of time so we were shown the bar and had yet another glass of wine. By the time we got to the table we were a little bit tipsy but it was lovely. We were sat right by the window overlooking Hyde Park. The menu was very adventurous and it was really hard to chose because it all sounded lovely. Phil had the meat fruit to start, which was a chicken liver parfait stuffed inside a mandarin orange and served with grilled bread.

I had the Salamugundy, which was Chicken oysters, salsify, marrow bone & horseradish cream. I was a bit wary of the marrow bone part but thought what the hell and went for it. I was glad I did because it was amazing. Very rich but the texture and flavours worked beautifully together.

For our main courses, Phil had chicken with lettuce and I had the fillet steak (which again had a bone marrow butter on top). This came with Heston's famous triple cooked chips, which I have to be honest I didn't really care for. I am sure I am in the minority on this one but they looked like a chip (fry), tasted like a crisp (chip) and felt just really over-done and not at all fluffy inside like I think a good chip (fry) should. 


The fillet steak was literally the best I have ever had, it just melted in my mouth. I could only manage half of it because it was huge and I was stuffed. When we placed our order we had been told about a "special" dessert that takes half an hour to cook so if we wanted it we needed to order it in advance. Of course at that point I was starving so I went for it. After leaving half of my steak I was regretting that decision but I had faith in my man that he wouldn't let me down and would help me eat it. I wasn't wrong!

Fillet Steak

Chicken cooked with Lettuce

Tipsy Cake

We were going to have a chocolate martini nightcap at the hotel but we didn't make it, we ended up crashing out. Today I am totally hungover and my body is tingling like crazy but I loved every second of it. Can't wait for my next naughty night out on the town with my man. It has been too long!

So enough about me, how are YOU?