Hello? Hello? Any viewers left? Updates on the way....

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 35^th 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 68^th 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 68^th floor up to the 72^nd 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??