Food Lovers Paradise!

I have come to the realization after two days that if I lived in London, I would weight about 400lbs. and an alcoholic! London is a food lovers dream! Yesterday I took the tube into the City of London to meet Tylor for lunch (the tube is nothing special) and we went to this place called the Bouword Market (sp?) which is what the Calgary Farmers Market aspires to be but never will be. This place was AMAZING and I have the most to die for grilled cheese sandwich. There was kiosk after kiosk fresh food. And the cheese. . .omg - the cheeses! Yesterday Tylor and I went to Waitrose to pick up a few little last minute things for his bbq and once again I was in a food lovers heaven! I swear I am the only person who goes on holidays to scope out the grocery stores. At Waitrose, the people working in the store were wearing suits and pumps. When I asked for something, she told me where it was and then asked if I wanted her to take me there - is that service of what! As well, the market on Portobello Road (Tylor lives in a mews off it of) was eye candy! The produce over here is phenomenal! I have never seen anything like it in Canada. Getting back to the market, it was packed - for those of you who live in Calgary, imagine Calgary Stampede crowds on the streets. You could buy just about any kind of fresh food that you wanted. Then to top it all off, today we went to Whole Foods (yep - I am a nerd!) I just wandered around the store wondering how much groceries I can bring back with me! I was in food heaven there!

On Friday night I met up with Tylor and a couple of his mates from work and we went to a place called Smiths on Smithfield which is in the meat packing district, or just off of. It really reminded me of NYC. Then we went to a restaurant called Vinometro for a lovely late dinner (ie - we weren't seated until 10pm) What amazes me about London is that you are able to drink in the street. So while we were waiting to get into the restaurant, we ordered a bottle of wine, sent one of the guys off to buy some crisps (chips) and we stood on the road drinking our wine!

Yesterday was the housewarming BBQ (the reason why I came over here). Tylor had procurred himself a bbq ($30 & made in China). While he put it together, I spent a bunch of time prepping for his event. Him and I spent the better part of the day cooking and cooking and more cooking - he belongs to the same group as me - OverProviders Annonymous! We had more food than you could shake a stick at! Just as his guests were to arrive at 5pm and about the time he was going to start the charcoal for the bbq, the clouds opened up and pissed down us for about an hour. So needless to say we had a few issues getting the bbq going and didn't get any food served up until after 8pm - but damn was it ever good!!!! He had about 20 people over (including a bunch of Canadians) and a most enjoyable evening was had (probably b/c A LOT of wine was drunk!)

I am trying to stay on some semblence of my training program so when I hauled my ass out of bed this morning at 11:15am, I went for a run. It was only moderately painful. One thing I noticed about here though is the absence of people out running or walking their dogs. I think people thought that I was strange running down their street. In the end though it felt great (and will help with all of the food and wine I have consumed!) We went to Harrod's today as there annual sale started yesterday. It truly is a store of excess. I found this lovely Valentino purse that I just LOVED but I was too scared to even look at the price tag. I am guessing it was about $8k based on some of the bags around it. The one thing I noticed about Harrod's is how inflated some of their prices area. I think a lot of people shop there so they can get a Harrod's bag (which is so not my thing). Tylor did manage to pick up some knives that he has been looking for on sale. We wandered around Kensington a bit more and have now come home.

I haven't exactly been doing the touristy thing. I haven't seen any real notible attractions yet, other than St. Paul's Cathedral but I was too late to go on the tour when I got there. Oh, I have been taking the tube and I did ride on a double-decker bus today. Tomorrow I am heading up to Newcastle on the train to visit a couple of friends and back to London on Tuesday where I am going to get together with my friend Karen for supper. Wednesday my plan is to go to Trafalgar Square for Canada Day. I am hoping b/w all of this and when I leave that I can get a bit of shopping in - although I do find it rather overwelming! I have though found 1 pair of shoes I want - yes - only one!