Stuff and London Day 1

It's almost been forever since I last wrote. Between then and now, I've got my Macbook Pro (which I love), completed our moved into the new house that we now own (partially, on our bank's charity of 5.99% APR), bought £200 worth of food and drinks and had our housewarming BBQ in our backyard (which a lot more people turned up to than I thought they would... which is nice, considering I'm pretty much a social recluse most times), attended CG's wedding afterparty thing, went to London...

Oh yes, London. :) It was ace! Boy and I had been toying with the idea of going down to London for months now. Initially I just thought we should have a mini-holiday just the two of us and booked the first week of September off from work to enjoy the last of the British summer. And I was going to suggest a driving holiday because Boy loves driving, has just got his RX8, and apparently some of the best driving roads were up in Scotland somewhere. But he said he didn't feel like a driving holiday because of the fuel consumption of his car (though thinking back I think the amount we spent in London would've refueled his car at least 20 times!). So we decided we'd go down to London instead and do really touristy things.

Which we didn't end up doing much.

Instead, we spent most of our three-day break eating. I think I tried to cram too much into three days - I forgot the bit where we actually have to sit down and catch our breath a bit before heading for the next "scheduled" activity. And we kept changing our minds what we felt like doing...

But anyway, this is what happened.

We checked into Crowne Plaza St James and it was fantastic. I think Boy really liked the hotel. ^^ Good job me! It's in the West End, walking distance from Buckingham Palace, 2 minutes from a tube station, 10 minutes walk from Apollo Victoria theatre. Heaven. Location was perfect, and the quality of the bedrooms was what I'd expected from a hotel like theirs. The room was fairly large too, which I was really surprised about considering the location - most of the time you pay mainly for the location and the room will only just about fit a bed and a desk (for example, Corus Hotel Hyde Park, a 4* hotel). Actually, I thought with the price we paid we might be shunted into a broom cupboard!

So, piccies of the room we paid £356.71 for 3 nights for:

Comfy double bed was a bit too comfy for us - we had no motivation to get out to explore London at all after getting into it!

Other side of the room with the TV, minibar and walk-in wardrobe.

I don't know why I always take pictures of the toiletries...

However, I was all excited because I've booked us to eat an early dinner at the restaurant next to our hotel called Bank Westminster. This is an attempt to get to the theatre as well to watch a musical, which was one of my must-do-whilst-in-the-West-End list. I didn't really care that much about visiting museums or getting on the London Eye.

Our hotel room's balcony overlooks a fountain right outside the restaurant we were going to be eating at that first night. It was quite pretty, but Boy said that every time he heard the fountain he thought it was raining outside!

The fountain and the Bank restaurant.

Inside Bank Westminster.

It had really good atmosphere, and the waiting staff were excellent. Very attentive but not overbearing, sincere smiles and quick to top up on our drinks whenever we were running low. We were never kept waiting. Of all the restaurants we dined at during our three-day stay in London, this place offered the best service by far. The food was very good, but not the best.

King Prawn Tempura, chilli & lime jam.

Smoked haddock & leek risotto, poached egg.

8oz fillet with peppercorn sauce.

Eton mess.

Chocolate fudge brownie sundae.

Everything looks yummy but I guess my tastebuds just weren't blown away. The tempura just tastes fairly standard, no special batter nor did the sauce taste any different from the sweet chilli sauce. The risotto was okay but a bit on the bland side... the best smoked haddock risotto I've ever had was still at the Lincoln Grille and they've stopped doing it. Oh well. Fillet steak was good and tender, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Eton mess. :)

All in all, pretty good restaurant and I will probably visit again and try some other dishes to see if they are any better. I think a lot of restaurants can take their notes from Bank on customer service, because that's the main reason, if I'm honest, that I will visit again.

We then took the cab real quick to Apollo Victoria to watch... Wicked The Musical!

Ceiling prop for Wicked. The dragon moves and smoke comes out of its nostrils sometime during the show.

It was bloody fantastic! So so so funny, even Boy enjoyed it, and he doesn't like musical as a general rule and he only agreed to go to this one because he wanted to make me happy. :P And the voices... amazing. I want to go to another musical now. :P

Anyways... I'll write more about day 2 in London when I next do another entry because methinks it's bedtime now!