Chesca woke me up early this morning to go to central London with mum (when I say early I mean before 9am as we haven't been able to get up earlier than that these holidays). Being in Oxford has made me appreciate London so much more to the extent that even the tube is interesting. We got off at Bond Street as mum wanted to go to French Sole - a dainty shoe store in one of the exclusive areas of the city. The store was tiny but quirky with shelves of cute pumps and heels. We then followed on to have lunch at a retro Lebanese restaurant near St. James' square behind Oxford Street. Here we shared a selection of pita, homous, falafel and salads all with hot peppermint tea. The food was made with generous servings of strong olive oil and bitter lemon juice so it really woke us up after the drizzly morning start. On leaving the restaurant it was still spitting and very cold but I was content wearing then panda hat Chesca gave me for Christmas - it's so cute! We went all the way to Carnaby Street and through the alleyways of Soho to find SNOG a colourful frozen yoghurt bar. The guy there was really sweet and spoke Spanish. I couldn't decide what to have but in the end opted for chocolate with cute white chocolate stars as a topping. He added brownies and a raspberry too :) The bar was all white with a single pink wall and glass counter for all the toppings. The ceiling was also white with dozens of light bulbs that changed colour from shades of pink to purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and pink again. It was truly a very vibrant shop. We did look a bit crazy eating frozen treats on a cold winter day but it was so good and totally worth it.
The last hours were spent wandering through to Covent Garden to have a look at the bead shops and STA where I needed some more info about travel insurance for Japan. By now it was not only cold and rainy but also dark plus we were very tired. Covent Garden station was packed with people but we managed to get seats on the tube back. I'm now sitting with Toffee curled up on my lap warm and snug at home. Today was a quick glimpse around some of my favourite parts of the city and showed how you can only find the best things by exploring new places.
