Statelady & Chezp's London Adventure: COMPLETED!!! About This Page:

[chezp]

Friday 14 November – part six: “I want an ice cream!”

My first impression was that it was very sparsely furnished and very modern. There were long wooden benches with seats either side and everyone was seated next to each other. I find this sort of seating a little odd, but as there was no one next to myself or Mark until the end of our meal, it didn't bother me too much. The menu was full of exciting options and I went for Japanese style noodles with seafood (I can't remember the exact name of the dish) and Mark went for something similar with beef instead. Once our server took our order, she wrote down the number of each order on our placemats, which were paper, a clever way of ensuring the orders were right and as a customer, if something came back wrong, you could easily show them what you had actually ordered.

We barely had time to draw breath before our food arrived. It was less than five minutes, I was serious impressed with that and with Kevan's use of chopsticks. And I thought it was his first attempt as well! I did manage to eat a couple of mouthfuls of food with the chopsticks on my first attempt, but then it was back to the trusty fork! The food was wonderful and very tasty and I enjoyed every mouthful. It was a quick, efficient meal and excellent food, but even better company.

We wandered up to Oxford Street and did a little bit of shopping, but the majority would be saved for tomorrow. When we got up to Oxford Circus, we turned and headed down Regent Street and soon we could see lots of lights, Hamley’s, the toy store. The first Hamley’s opened in London in 1760 and it first opened in Regent Street in 1881. The current store opened 100 years later in 1981 and it’s now established as one of London's biggest tourist attractions, supplying Royalty over the years, including the current Queen and two of her children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

When we got inside, we headed upstairs to the Thomas the Tank Engine section for one of Maureen and Kevan's children, who’s a big fan of Thomas. Maureen's eyes literally lit up like a child’s when she saw the display. They then had to make some quick choices, as the store was closing at 8 p.m. and we only went in about 20 minutes beforehand, but Hamley’s struggled to get everyone out, as they just didn't have enough tills open. Kevan ended up queuing for about 10 minutes to make a couple of purchases.

Then we walked back towards Piccadilly Circus to catch the Tube back to our hotel. As we got off the Tube, I decided that I liked the idea of an ice cream, so I asked Maureen and Kevan if there was a McDonald's near to the hotel. They walked up to Harrods on their first afternoon in London and remembered seeing one on the way there, so that sounded good to me. We started walking and could see the lights of Harrods. From where we were, it didn't look that far off, but appearances can be very deceptive and it was a long walk.

Sure enough, we found a McDonald's on the way to Harrods, but when we got there, the cupboard was bare. Their ice cream machine wasn't working! I couldn’t believe it and we left there without getting anything. Well, Harrods wasn't that far along, so we decided at least to go that far, so I could take some photos. We had an unexpected bonus when we got there - the owner of Harrods, Mohammed Al Fayed, was doing an interview with a TV crew in one of the shop windows, the last thing I expected to see.

So did we return back to the hotel and give up on the idea of an ice cream there and then once I’d got my photos of Harrod’s? Of course not! Maureen and I still wanted some, so we thought we'd walk a little further to see if we could find the next McDonald's. We reached the next Tube station and that was where we thought about turning back, but Mark kept saying that he'd just have a look around the next corner to see if he could see a McDonald’s and then if he couldn’t, we’d go back and of course so it carried on like that. Eventually we did give up and went back to the station to go one-stop back to where we’d started from about half an hour earlier. We had sense of deja vu as we came out at South Kensington station, considering we'd walked back to the hotel once already!

Once back at the hotel, we went our separate ways to bed. It was a great first day in London, we certainly managed to do enough on and it was lovely the way we all got on so well together.

The weather today was in the mid-fifties and windy, but dry.
The best thing today was the Tower of London.
The worst thing today was was Kensington Palace.
The funniest thing today was the ice cream saga in the evening! In the following days, Kevan's favourite phrase became “we’re not talking about the ice cream AGAIN”!
Today we tried Satsumas
And the result was it was excellent food, very fast service and a very enjoyable meal.
The most magical moment today was meeting Maureen and Kevan for the first time.

Next: “what does that button on the bath do?”