West End Girls

Sloane was here!!! My very first visitor!!!

I just spent a wonderful weekend hanging out with my New York friend in London. She stayed in a hotel in Earl's Court, so I found myself in the West End for most of the weekend. Sloane was here for another friend's wedding, so while she was busy with the wedding events, I was wandering around a part of town I remember (but not quite) from my previous visits to London.

Saturday I had lunch with Sloane, and when she left to get ready for the wedding, I walked up to Notting Hill and down Portobello Road through the market. I was a bit disappointed by the market - so touristy! so much crap! - but the produce vendors were great and there was extremely good people watching. Saturday night Ashley and I went to Leicester Square and saw the McDreamy chick-flick, which had lovely scenes of New York - SoHo, Central Park, the Village - that didn't make me cry! It was a big step for me to see a NYC-based movie and not burst into tears. So go me!

Sunday Sloane and I visited my new flat (22? days to go!) and conducted an anthropological study by eating at Pizza Express (it IS quite nice), before heading to Kensington to shop. We tried on tons of clothes and bought none, which is responsible shopping, and found a ton of scrumptious shoes that I could have eaten for dinner. We also checked out the Conran Shop, which is what I like to call furniture porn, and I flipped out over throw pillows embrodiered with the Eiffel Tower. Sloane lost it for some stacking red chairs. We ended the day with a traditional Sunday roast; picture above is at the "local" (the local pub, for you Americans) in Clerkenwell Green. Unfortunately, I only know the pubs close to my office so I always default to them.

Monday Sloane and I had a traditional English breakfast: 1 egg, 2 sausages, 1 slice of bacon (really a side of pork), toast, and a stewed tomato. Sloane added beans to hers. After a fun inspection of Boots and some silly picture taking of me with my umbrella blown inside out, Sloane had to leave and I was left to my own devices in the driving rain. I spent the afternoon wandering through the V&A, and then headed home to get dry.

This was one of my better weekends in London, mostly because I had a second familiar face to share it with. Sloane and I have such a great time together doing normal things like chatting, shopping, getting coffee, and we laugh a lot. It was really comforting to have a very normal New York weekend in my new home, and I am actually hopeful that I can continue to have these types of weekends with the new people that I meet here.