I'm going to start this post with a photo of the fantastic business card holder I got last night:
I got this last night while out with Rich. Due to scouts meeting on a Friday it's rare we get Friday night in London, but we make the most of it when we can. We went to see the FANTASTIC St Albans Scout and Guide Gang Show with the kids on Thursday (check out their website
here).
On Thursday night, Rich drew me a map as a clue to where we'd be going
I had no idea, but my colleagues quickly identified it as Aldwych and one of them pointed out that there's no tube station where he's marked, but there is a closed tube station nearby.
We met up and had a look at the outside of the tube station and a little wander around the area (if you're there, take a walk down some alleys as there's loads to see that's set back off the road).
Rich told me we had to get back to Aldwych for 6pm. I guessed that we were taking a guided tour or something, but at a few minutes to six, we were standing in front of a church all alone. He gave me a little print out and told me the church was St Clement Danes - the famous church from the song
The bells rang a few times, we could hear other bells in the distance and we were starting to think 'is that it' when suddenly the famous tune rang out. It was brilliant! Rich didn't know the rhyme before hand so we sang it along to the bells (when we weren't falling over laughing). Great fun.
I was told that this wasn't it - there was more to come so we headed towards Green Park. We looked in the windows of all the shops down Jermyn Street and past Fortnum and Mason. Neither of us had ever been in so we went in to have a look around. It was brilliant - almost as good as Liberty's! We loved the food and chocolate and tea sections, but as we wandered something caught my eye - the hat section.
I'm afraid there's no photos (I was too excited to even try to take some) but I tried hats by Stephen Jones, Philip Treacy, Adrian Howard and Caroline Sinclair. There were a couple I absolutely fell in love with and lots of fantastic inspiration. If you want to see some phenomenal headpieces then pop in and try them out. Fantastic.
Finally, we moved on to 'the last part'. We wandered down back streets and suddenly there was a beautifully lit hotel - Duke's Hotel, home of the martini that inspired Ian Fleming when he was writing the James Bond books.
Now that is a martini. They bring a trolley out and make them in front of you and they can best be described as smooth, perfectly formed and incredibly strong. We only needed one each and sat back and chatted about our fantastic evening.
OK, not as hatty as it could be, but I woke up this morning with a head full of hats and I really need to get off the computer and make them...
