Well, I’m not managing this blog business
very well am I? It has been proving a lot harder than I thought. Ok, well, not
so much hard as many other things have distracted me… do you know how much
telly there is to watch? How much laundry there is to do, especially when you
should be doing something like this. Its like magic I tell you… it builds up
and up and up. Ok, I will ‘fess up - I have also been distracted by landing
myself a rather gorgeous boyfriend (Colin is the lucky man’s name….), since the
start of the year.
(Oh, and in case you had forgotten my list - see here....)
Anyway, I digress. See? I have the
attention span of a gnat.
So I KNOW you have all been dying to find
out where I am on my list. Well, I am very pleased to tell you that I have in
fact made quite good progress. In the words of my good friend Julie
Andrews/Maria von Trapp (the Disney version, not the evil old Austrian
version), lets start at the very beginning (and work our way down).
NUMBER 5 - DONE
A few weeks back, you might have seen that
I made the top of the shard with my best friend Willie. It was his 35th
birthday and so as a reward for reaching that milestone (and not looking at day
over 38) I took him up the Shard. All in all, it was a cracking day out. We
started off at the bottom - as you do for these kinds of things - and then made
our way around the bottom 'til we got in the first of two lifts before
eventually emerging on the 68th floor – the viewing platform. Perhaps
not a well-known fact, but I am terrified of heights and I thought this was all
fine. No problems with being this high up – its all covered in, no open spaces
at all. Great views were aided by smashing weather – at least in our immediate
vicinity. We could see all the way over to some wind turbines somewhere outside
of London. I think it could have been Holland…not so sure. One of the best
things to see was the fact that the weather wasn’t so great all around London
and we were able to see areas that were having rain showers across London. After our 360 degree circuit, we moved
from the 68th floor up to the 72nd floor and this is when
my fear of heights kicked in. This was exposed and even though completely safe
with glass all around us, I had to shuffle and hold on to the side or railings
whenever I could. Well, I mean you don’t know when a gust of wind is going to
come in and whisk you away do you?? Ask Dorothy!!! Nonetheless, we did our
circuit here too (shuffling as I went) and got some great pictures, which you
can see below. After ticking off number 5, Wills and I went to have some
celebratory cocktails. Just the one or two. Number 5 done and well worth it.
NUMBER 14 - DONE
I have indeed made it back to Chez Bruce,
courtesy of my gorgeous friend Sian and alongside the aforementioned Willie.
Drinking/Eating/Willie (see a pattern here….and DO NOT EVEN dare be rude about
that). We went back to celebrate
Sian’s birthday and have to say, had a lot of fun. As well as ticking number 14
off my list, I also very closely managed to have my death row dinner. You know,
the dinner you would have if you were going to the gallows in the morning?
Well, mine would be Foie Gras of some kind (apologies to all the vegans out
there…but who wouldn’t like to be force fed every day?) followed by a very
bloody steak and chips with béarnaise sauce, accompanied by a juicy red wine. Dessert
would comprise a crème brulee. Slurp. So in actual fact, what I did have at
Chez Bruce was foie gras with brioche and onion relish to start. This was
followed by a cote de boeuf that I shared with Willie. Accompanied by triple
fried chips and béarnaise sauce, I was in heaven. The meat was like butter and
extremely tasty. Not even the 4 very large, very strong gin and tonics could
have dulled that taste. Yum, yum, yum. For dessert, there was a crème brulee on
the menu, but I decided not to tempt fate and desisted. I did have a very well
balanced chocolate and salted caramel tart and actually had most of Willie’s
and Sian’s desserts (Brownie and ice cream) too as they were not terribly keen
on theirs. Oink, oink, I hear you cry and yes, guilty as charged… I had one of
my two best meals in London at Chez Bruce, back some time ago, which is why I
wanted to go back. However nice this was, with fab company it didn’t quite live up to the last time
time. I suppose I should ask
myself if I was setting my expectations too high??
