Laugh all you want, but this trip was largely inspired by the shopping opportunities that it provided. Last year, when I went to London for the first time, I lucked out into getting into London Fashion Weekend. I had such a great time, that this year, when planning a trip back to the city, I tried to coincide my visit with the event. It worked out well. I still can't believe that I can just take off for the weekend for "shopping trips". I'm such a snob. I wonder if I'm the only goof that decides to hi-tail it to Milan, Paris or London when I need some retail therapy. If I were in Toronto, my big trip would be to Yorkdale, the Eaton's Centre or Yorkville. Ha ha ha. Oh well, might as well make the most of it while I still can!
Anyway, so I arrive to London late Friday night armed with a big "to do" list, as usual. This trip made me realize that going to London really isn't enough time. Sure, you get an extra hour on the way there (time change), but since I have to wait until a certain time for a flight (work commitments) and on the way back, you're essentially losing an hour, a day and a half really isn't worth the trip to London. I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time I go (knock on wood that there is a next time).
Saturday is to be a jammed packed day. I'm up bright an early, arming myself with a greasy English breakfast (not a full breakfast - just toast, a fried egg, bacon, sausage and beans) and day pass on the underground (love it!).
Among one of the many stops of the day, Molton Brown. I was recently introduced to this bath/body line by a friend, so I wanted to visit a store in its "homeland". I'm sort of weird that way. I like to go to the source. Anyway, the shop was fab, and I did make one exotic purchase. These kinds of stores have become a recent splurging phenomenon for me. I remember the days that L'Occitane on Bloor was too intimidating to even look into its windows, and now, it's just like going into The Body Shop (albeit, a whole lot better). I guess Molton Brown is really nice, but I'm more intrigued by Korres right now. I'm such a snob.
Of course, no trip to London would be complete without a trip to Burberry. Of course I wanted to buy nearly everything in sight, but I was good enough to keep my credit card in my wallet. Those trenches though...sigh, maybe in the distant future. It's just such a beautiful material. You know it's good stuff. And the fit? Fab. Snob, snob, snob.
On my list of "things to do": go on the slide at the Tate Modern. This exhibition just sounded too cool to pass up. I mean...it's a giant slide! The queues (I LOVE that word - I'm going to introduce the world to America if/when I go home) were crazy, but I still had to do it. Forget the little ones, I wanted to go on the slide from the 5th floor. It didn't look like the people were sliding really quickly, but it sure felt fast. And 
long too. Long enough that there was a point where my body asked my brain: "Is this over yet? I should have come to the end and be on solid ground by now." Like that feeling that you get when you miss the last step, or, when you're used to going off the 1m springboard and then you go on the 3m for the first couple of times (I remember that like it was just yesterday!). Anyway, it was pretty fast. And the spiral was tight enough that by the end, I was starting to feel dizzy. I had to take a moment at the end before I could stand up. You were 
sliding feet first, lying on your back, arms across your chest on top of a burlap mat that had a little pocket on the bottom to tuck your feet into. They even provided knee and elbow pads for those who wanted them, but I'm h-core. I didn't go for them (nor did anyone else I saw go down the slide). The random spotlights that shined in your face was a little annoying. I don't know if that was on purpose. Also, the centrifugal force was pushing me up on the side of the slide, and only the middle of the bottom of the tube was flat, so I was going down most of the slide on a bumpy surface. Quite annoying, and really shaky on the body. Still, I'm really glad that I did it. It was a lot of fun, and I would highly recommend it for anyone visiting the city.BTW, Men: Paul Smith shirts? Yum.
When I went to Harrods to look for some food (forget eating at restaurants in London - Harrods Food Halls are the best!), I noticed that there was a special exhibition going on. Harrods Rocks was mainly a display of guitars. Unfortunately, I don't know much about Rock and Roll 
and guitars, so the exhibition didn't really do much for me, but I'm sure that if you're really into that sort of thing, this is a great exhibition. I did enjoy looking at the special guitars. The ones that had been specially designed. The ones with bling were really pretty (I still like looking at sparkly things) and I think most of the pieces are going to be auctioned off at some point for charity. That night, a musical (of course). This is another reason why a weekend isn't enough to visit London. There are so many shows to see, and going to one cuts into your day. Still, I wasn't going to pass up on an opportunity to see singing and dancing onstage! The pick of
the night: Wicked. I'd heard rave reviews about this show after it first opened on Broadway, and although I wouldn't be watching Kristin Chenoweth, I knew I had to go watch this show. It was amazing! Potentially better than Chicago. Hard to decide, but the music, colours and costumes were fab! I thought Kerry Ellis, who played Elphaba did an amazing job. The best of the show. It was a little funny to heard British accents in a show, but I got used to it. I think it did take away from some of the punch lines though. I was cracking up at some of the nuances that were in the show, but I get the feeling that they were lost on the Brits (or potentially the other non-American tourists in the audience). I love the Wizard of Oz movie, and this show just added to the story. Everyone should watch this show. This one and Avenue Q (which I HAVE to see next time).I wanted to pack everything in to the Saturday, because Sunday morning, I would be going to London Fashion Weekend and who knew how long I would be there for. I'm disappointed to report that I didn't go crazy there. Sure, I feel in love with lots of stuff (bags, bags, bags!), but I'm too practical to forget about the ridiculous exchange rate. I'm sure that the prices were very reasonable for designer standards and for British standards, but I just couldn't do it. Sigh. I bought a little something, but nothing that amazing to report. I was sort of sad after leaving the place that I didn't buy something, but I'm sure it'll pass. It wouldn't even be like I felt like I was spending all that money on a "so and so", because I'm pretty ignorant about British fashion, but I'm sure that in the future a lot of the names there will be household names (if they aren't already) or they'll be cult favorites with the fashionistas. Sigh. I did get a bunch of free magazines and snacked on free Skinny Cow dessert bars. Tee hee. Another reason I love this event, is because it's the place to see London street fashion at its best. Most of the attendees are quite fashionably dressed, so it's a great learning experience. London fashion is really different from Italian, French, American, etc fashion, and I don't see very much of it, so I was a little thrown off by some of the stuff that they were wearing, but it really grew on me. Pencil jeans, ballet flats, leggings, stacked/slouchy boots (mid calf and ankle variety), jersey tops and vintage-y wear were everywhere. I kinda wanted to adopt some of the styles. I still consider myself a little fashion clueless (I'm a lot better than I used to be - thanks to living in Europe), but especially in the way that I'm not sure how I want to be. I'm starting to have an idea of how I want to project myself to the world, and I see people on the streets and at this event that are dressed to the nines...makes me wonder if I can do it too. I mean, fashion or practicality? I'd love to dress a certain way every day of the week, but my lifestyle just doesn't seem to allow it. Or maybe it doesn't, but I'll just stand out from everyone else (one of the points of fashion - but I don't really like to stand out...and it's not even the way that I dress is shocking, it's the fact that everyone else is just so relaxed with their fashion attitude). Oh, and there were tweens and pre-tweens that were dressed impeccably. I didn't even know the word fashion at their age. I was very impressed, and a little bewildered. I wondered if all of these people really do dress like that all the time. It just didn't seem to match with, I don't know what, but it just didn't seem right for some reason. And I love fashionable families. They don't have to match with each other (sometimes that's a little scary), but each part of the family need to be fashionably dressed. It's incredibly impressive and few and far between. I like fashion. And I would like to have enough money to not feel badly to indulge on great pieces every so often. I'm still in "sale" state. Boo-urns.
Anyway, that's my trip to London in a nutshell. Not too heavy on the tourist side (been there, done that - although there's still touristy stuff on my "to do" list), but definitely a lot of fun. I miss London already, but tonight, I'm going to Lisbon!
1 comment:
Wished that I was there! Sniffle...
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