I decided to take a break from Glasgow and go on a little trip down to London to catch up with some pals that I've not seen in a while. The train down took 6 hours and I had the best intentions of reading and blogging on my way there, but ended up sleeping for 4 out of the 6 hours - ooops! I must have needed it (I felt pretty refreshed by the time I reached Kings Cross anyways) I took my new ipad mini from Argos on a test run with me to London, I am totally in love with it and all the pictures you see in this post were taken using it!
I booked into my hotel room on the top floor of the Megaro, literally right across the road from Kings Cross. The room was lovely, and the hotel itself was in a pretty handy location and hard to miss as I came out of the train station. The whole front of the building is covered with an amazing painted abstract design. I would definitely stay there again. I unpacked and headed to Harrods to spend a voucher gifted to me by the oh so lovely Jenn.
I treated myself to lunch and some macarons from my fave place - Laduree. Afterwards I spent a couple of hours wandering around Harrods, starting at the top floor and working my way down to the bottom.
The top floor held the pet section, including loads of lovely accessories for pooches and kitties, and even a doggy spa! I did find it quite odd that they had puppies for sale too. They were all piled up sleeping in a tiny little room with a big glass window. Didn't sit quite right with me to be honest. My favourite section was the food market on the ground floor (duhhh) where I got some lovely sparkling wine and fresh sushi.
Back at the hotel, I cracked open the wine, got ready and had a catch up with my design buddy Max. We worked together on Kirstie Allsopps Fill Your House For Free a few months ago. Max is another one of these people who keeps me super inspired and reminds me why I love what I do for a living! And he's definitely one to watch when it comes to upcycling - you read it here first ;)
We took a walk and ended up going for Dim Sum and cocktails at Ping Pong. This is my first time properly trying dim sum but I was pleasantly surprised (despite them looking like little aliens) Mind you, I wasn't actually that brave because I made Max take a bite of them all first.
One thing that I love about London is all the amazing places you can go for breakfast. I LOVE breakfast (okay I love all food but that's not the point) I spent Saturday shopping around Oxford Street and Carnaby Street, and at night I sat in the hotel catching up with my art department friend Matt, eating percy pigs, bitching about work and polishing off a bottle of gin. My head was a wee bit sore on Sunday morning, but I checked out of the hotel quite early and went to meet my best gal Erin for a wander around Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane.
Fresh coconut water (or milk?!) was a pretty amazing hangover cure! We had a massive breakfast (standard) and a catch up as we wandered around all the different stalls. On Sunday night I headed out to the east of the city to stay with Chloe :) Another wonderful bloggy pal I have met online, whom I would now consider as one of my closest friends. Myself, Chloe, her boyfriend and flatmate headed to Watford for the Harry Potter Studio tour. IT WAS AMAZING. That's all I'm going to say.
At this stage in my career I mostly work as an Art Department Assistant, but have been the Art Director on quite a few small to medium sized jobs too. The Art Department got such a big shout out on this tour, and it made me really proud to be doing what I do for a living, but also quite depressed as I would absolutely LOVE to work on something as big a scale as Harry Potter. Maybe one day eh?
I won't ruin the tour with too many photos for those who haven't been on it yet, but if you haven't then I definitely recommend that you do. I'm not the biggest HP fan out there, but from a work point of view it was so inspiring to see everything up close.
I stayed with Chloe on sunday night, and on Monday I went to Camden Market and Covent Garden to visit the Tea Palace and pick up some macarons from Laduree for Leah. Up until then I had felt fine walking around London on my own, but was feeling a bit claustrophopic so ended up walking from Covent Garden to Kings Cross rather than taking the tube. I met Chloe and Sally (another art department lovely!) and we headed to Shop, Drink & Do to have dinner, drink cocktails and partake in some DIY headband making.
Shop, Drink & Do hold regular crafty events in a really laid back setting. It was a brilliant night and I wish we had something similar in Glasgow!
Another thing I wish we had in Glasgow - WAH nails. I couldn't leave London without getting them done at Topshop on Oxford street. They've help up pretty well and are helping me grow my nails as I wouldn't dare biting these off, haha. I think by the end of my trip I have totally been converted to the ipad mini. I bought a lovely cover for it from Paperchase and it was so handy to keep in my bag for the whole trip. London is pretty great for free wifi everywhere, so I was able to upload pictures as I went. I know some people think what is the point in an ipad mini when you have an iphone, but it is just a lot handier to keep in your handbag than the full sized ipad, and I keep certain apps on the mini that I wouldn't keep on my phone.
On the tuesday morning I headed to Kings Cross for my train home, and was much more productive this time and sat doing some work and reading of my current book The Peaceful Warrior. Gutted I didn't get to see a show, get tattooed or attend a blogger event while I was down there, but I think I crammed as much into my trip as possible. Always gives me an excuse for another trip before the year is out :)
