So while I'm sitting here with Al and Marion having a fairly lazy Saturday morning -- which is more than okay considering that I'm still not feeling very well, I thought that I would write a little bit about yesterday!
Marion and I ended up sleeping in a bit -- Al had woken me up around 8:30 before he left for work, and then I promptly turned back over and went back to sleep until about 10. We got a somewhat slow start to the day, which again, was perfectly fine with me! We walked to the Underground and took it to Marble Arch so that we were near Oxford Street (the big shopping street). I had asked to visit the enormous Primark (think Target -- but almost better?) and so we, along with the rest of London, had a happy time perusing the ridiculously low priced clothing.
It was really fun to have all of the Christmas decorations out -- seeing as there's no Thanksgiving here, they can start decorating the day after Halloween. We wandered along Oxford Street and went in a few other places like Selfridges -- which was great fun. After an hour or two of perusing, we went north to try and find a place to get some lunch. Funny how when you're actually trying to find a restaurant and know there are tons around but then you can't actually find one? After a while of looking, we finally settled on an Italian chain called Strada -- Marion had penne with tomato sauce, olives, tomatoes, peppers, and mozzarella cheese -- very tasty, and I had a pizza with mozzarella, gorgonzola, and spicy Italian sausage which was also delicious!
From there, we walked to the Wallace Collection, which was just around the corner, and strolled through for a bit -- very cool stuff. Armour, paintings, china, etc. Plus all in an incredible house! After that, we decided to head back to Al's apartment, and we decided on walking back! It was a nice walk -- probably about 3 miles or so.
Perhaps the highlight of the day was dinner! Which Al had made a reservation for at the Hawksmoor -- which just opened a few weeks ago. It was so so good. It's a steakhouse, but you order the steaks by increments of 100g -- and the waitress would say the pieces that she had (so she would have 600g of the sirloin and 900g of the Chateaubriand) but then she could also "trade" with the other servers if there was a different sized piece that we wanted. Crazy! We all ordered cocktails -- mine was quite good -- it had gin and another something and then gingerale and pieces of fruit in it (yes, a very girly drink I admit). And Al ordered steak tartar which I tried for the first time! It wasn't bad at all -- but I had to just not think about the fact that I was eating raw meat...We ordered a Chateaubriand and a ribeye steak for the table along with some sides -- triple-cooked chips, chips that had been dipped in meat drippings, buttered greens, onion rings (which were outstanding), and a little pot of mac and cheese! All were absolutely delicious. The steaks were juicy and tender and flavorful -- and I especially enjoyed them with the bearnaise sauce. Yum!
We were all quite full after dinner and so after we took a cab back to the apartment, Al and I went for a nice walk around his neighborhood! Pretty wonderful day!
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