LONDON DREAMS!!

Hi folks! What's happening! I know i have again dropped off the radar-was first getting ready to travel which meant packing a suitcase which i am truly lousy at!!! Just that one suitcase gives me nightmares -i pack and repack it at least twenty times because i am so indecisive-want to cater for everything-casual wear,formal wear,party wear,rain wear-since was going to wet and miserable London!!

So that took all of one week and everyone in my house was truly fed up of my  clothes woe and ran for cover every time i wailed about something, be that my four pair of boots were not fitting into my sorry suitcase or my new leather jacket was getting all squished or my conditioner bottle was leaking and so on and so forth! Then i was actually travelling -was in London for a week and the weather was awful-it was wet,wetter and wettest and i ran woefully short of all my rain wear and completely spoilt my tan,suede boots!

But in spite of the weather playing such a dampener-literally-had quite a ball! Mr. C was very busy,working as usual,poor chap! Didn't even have time for a proper breakfast and was just rushing around consulting maps and catching one tube after the next because his hoity toity and utterly selfish wife refused to stay anywhere else but central London because that's where her shopping havens and all the 'IT' places were!!! So while i was five minutes away from Oxford street and ten minutes away from Harrods-poor Mr C had to commute forty mins one way to work and back!! Talk about true love!!

Anyway so once my darling hubby departed for his long and arduous day, i would have another cuppa of Earl Grey and go for a leisurely,fragrant soak in my ample bath . Once that hard task was accomplished, would breeze down to the hotel coffee shop and have a grand,traditional English breakfast of buttery,scrambled eggs,golden hash,grilled fat,juicy mushrooms, blackened tomatoes,  tender,pale green asparagus, plump,perfectly browned, split in the middle chicken sausages ,crisp turkey bacon and toasted brown bread spread with clotted cream and the most divine and heavenly jams-raspberry,blueberry,strawberry,plum!! Aaahhhh! Heaven!!

It would take me a good hour to polish off this spread and my server would just gawk in utter astonishment at my humongous breakfast platter and give me polite smiles and make even politer enquiries if i needed anything else!! As if there was anything else that was needed and could be squeezed into my petite five feet three AND A HALF inch frame!!! Please note the "and a half inch" in capitals!!! That half inch is vital to my being!!!

 Once i was done nourishing or let's say over nourishing my slender (I WISH) body, would step out to start my day. However much people may crib and bitch about the unpredictable weather in London, one thing that we have to acknowledge, is that it sure spoils you for choice. There's just so much to do there-the museums,the art galleries,the theatre-Oh! I love the theatre! Watched "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Miserables" this time round. Awesome experience and would recommend it to all my friends.

 Other than that, love the sheer variety of restaurants and cuisines on offer and the shopping is a different story altogether!! Mr. C dreads this aspect and keeps reminding me that we are middle class folk and that the Pound is worth eighty five rupees!!! In fact he says it so many times that it reverberates in my brain non stop and i am even chanting it in my sleep!! Eighty five Rupees to one Pound,eighty five Rupees to one Pound. I am sure you folks get the drift.

I then just spend the entire day getting lost in Harrods or Selfridges or Harvey Nichols. Just find it such a calming,soothing experience-wandering around by myself-browsing through the aisles,trying out the stuff i want to with no one breathing down my neck and yelling at me to move my fat arse !(By the way just to get our facts straight, my arse is not fat at all-and that's the only body part that i can comment on with such brazen confidence!!) Now to get back to the topic at hand-no annoying,over zealous sales person following me around bothering me,hankering after me or being obtrusive and then when i am are tired, just sitting down for coffee and scones in the magnificent food halls and ruminating!! A verrrry relaxing and holistic experience for the spirit-at least for me! 

Other than that, would really recommend the bus tours of London-they are fab and most of their guides are treasure troves of information with a great sense of humour. So, you start your sojourn from Green Park and the bus takes you to all the important land marks of London and how many of them there are! While you enjoy the scenery,the guide prattles on about the history and culture and throws in a little anecdote here and there about how it was in the days of yore. Thoroughly enjoyable if you are a history buff, like me!

All in all, a great week and it passed in the blink of an eye. Now i am back and firmly entrenched in my 'gharelu' routine of yelling at the brats, unpacking my four suitcases-remember i started off with just one,firing the staff,watering my "mariyal" plants, working off the zillion calories that i ingested under the excuse of being on holiday and most importantly pampering and pandering to the rather sullen and sulky hubby (understandably so) since the shameful American express and Citibank credit card bills just arrived telling sordid tales of my wasteful extravagances!!

 Aah!! The ups and downs of my life!! They would put a roller coaster to shame!! Anyway, roaming around with a rather sad ,contrite ,suitably admonished and woe begone expression these days-trying to elicit as much sympathy and compassion for my spend thrift habits and shopaholic ways !! After all, i was in London! The shopping mecca of the world and a little bit of indulgence once in a while is permitted!!! Wink! Wink!