Alan and I went to London on Saturday, to do some serious shopping. Alan had made an itinerary, so that we wouldn't be wasting any time thinking about what to do next. Our first stop was Portobello Market, in Notting Hill, an antiques market in a lovely neighbourhood with dinky brightly painted houses. We spent quite a while here in the Saturday crush, until the stalls of silver cutlery started looking a bit repetitive. Alan picked up a silver coffeepot which turned out to be not silver. There were some cool stalls, like the one selling vintage fabrics, but most things were too expensive for us.
I wanted to show Alan what Whole Foods was like, so we made a stop there. I bought a bar of cinnamon white chocolate and a bag of Dutch paprika crisps, my favourites, yay! I don't understand why salt and vinegar is such a popular flavour here, it's paprika all the way for me! We were flagging a bit by this point, so we decided to have some delicious pizza slices in their rather spiffy café.
Alan was looking for a new coat at a low price, so we went to vintage men's clothing shop Old Hat on Fulham High Street. Despite its being recommended by the Chap magazine, there wasn't anything there to catch his fancy, unfortunately.
Although it was now a bit late in the day for food markets, we went to the wonderful Borough Market, a haven for organic foodies, where we picked up ingredients for a risotto on Sunday. I love the Borough Market, the variety is huge, it just makes me wish that we had something like that closer to home (and also that we had more money).
After a much-needed tea stop, we continued onto more generic shopping on Regent and Oxford Street. We got some VERY expensive hot chocolate at Fortnum and Mason's, and, after a rather unsuccessful day of clothes shopping, I unexpectedly found a lovely woollen jacket at Benetton, a company I've ignored for many years now, perhaps undeservedly!
We were utterly exhausted at the end of the day. But I was not entirely satisfied, because I was in need of new shoes. The very next day, then, I acquired two pairs of black jodhpurs:
Yes, they are pretty similar, but the ones on the left have Goretex in them, and are lined with fleece, which I thought would come in pretty handy once the icy rain starts coming down and I still have to look presentable for work! The other pair were just really too comfortable to leave behind.
Finally, after a year and a half of barrenness, my never-neglected orchid has decided it's time to cheer up our flat. This is exciting:
And there is another bud about to open up!
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