I love weekends in London. Free time. A whole two days with no obligations, no office to be in and limitless opportunities. The day started with a wee sleep-in. Oh the luxury of an alarm-free wake up. Tom was off to the office that day so I had arranged to meet Kaylie at Hammersmith. Kaylie is the sister of a friend of mine from uni, Krystie, and it’s always so nice to catch up with her.

We decided to go check out the new Westfield at Shepherds Bush - the biggest shopping mall in the Northern Hemisphere. Inside the behemoth shopping mall, it certainly didn’t feel like London. It felt like being in a Westfield back home and Kaylie said it was very similar to Bondi Junction (haven’t been there). But basically it is just every single high street shop in the one place, with all the department stores and over 50 restaurants and food shops. A very special part of the mall is The Gallery, which plays host to the double height shopfronts of designer stores like Gucci, Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton. Of course all this makes for glorious window shopping and many people were doing just that. We decided that we could just indulge ourselves in a small part of the luxe experience by having a champagne at the bar in the centre of the gallery.

So we ordered our Bellinis (cheapest item on the menu!) and settled in for a good chat. Halfway through we noticed we were sitting in front of Tiffany. We watched the people go by…mainly just middle class Londoners having a gawk. A memorable sight was of a “working class” couple in matching tracksuits, pushing a pram with a child inside. She had a large designer handbag (not sure if it was fake or not…I can’t tell such things) and he was talking into a latest model mobile phone….”Oh you should see this place, it’s got Louis’, Prada’s, Dior’s and Gucci’s…” Will this new mall be a Mecca for the aspirational classes? Or further seek to alienate people by putting in picture perfect display all those eye candy things that they can’t really afford nor need.

Well, OK, sounding a touch elitist here, but it’s quite ironic that such a consumerist stalwart as the Westfield mall opens at a time of such economic turmoil. Though there certainly didn’t seem to be any whiff of a credit crunch on that hallowed ground. And that’s good…because after all, isn’t what we are experiencing simply a matter of psychology…the more we are told how bad things are, the more we will believe they are and thus act accordingly. So go forth and spend. Adorn yourselves and your home and you too can save the world as we know it.

Okay, back on track. So after our lovely cocktail and slice of luxury, we headed to Holland Park for a wander around. This is one of the most wealthy suburbs in London. The houses are large, the cars are expensive and the gardens (yes, the houses here actually have a sliver of a garden) are well manicured. After a wander up the hill, we settled into The Mitre, a pub Tom and I used to go to on Sundays for a lazy latte over the papers when we lived a little closer to it. We shared some hommous, pitta, olives, fetta and some mushroom and goat’s cheese bruschetta. A really nice meal. 

A leisurely walk back to Hammersmith through the streets of West Kensington and near good ole Milson Road brought us past the friendly neighbourhood pub The Havelock where we stopped in for a quick daycap. It’s such a lovely pub, spacious with people stopping in who all know each other. We walked past Betty Blythe on the way home, the most gorgeous period cafe cum organic food shop cum tea room cum neighbourhood meeting place. I still haven’t purchased anything from here yet but can’t wait to pop in to pick up a treat for a special occasion.

At Hammersmith, K and I said goodbye and I headed home. Tom got home around an hour later and we headed into Fulham for dinner and to see the new Bond movie. First we had dinner at a really cute Italian place. We were struggling for a while but eventually found this place which looked small from the front but stretched on for ages at the back. We shared a bruschettina to start, with some crumbed mozzerella. For main, Tom had a four cheese pizza and I had a grilled chicken, asparagus, goat’s cheese, walnut and rocket salad – SO GOOD! We then shared a cannollo for dessert and I had tea while Tom had an espresso. A nice meal and nice place with good service. 

So Quantum of Solace. It was…okay. Casino Royale was fantastic. This one not so much. All the reviews have said the same kind of thing. Namely, it’s a lot of action tethered together by the tenuous string of a plot. Daniel Craig’s acting talents barely get a look in here as he coldly racks up the body count and there is none of the “glamour” usually associated with the Bond brand. But it was still a bit of fun. Olga Kuryenchko or whatever herename is, is really beautiful! I found her a very likeable Bond girl.

After that we headed home. So it was a lovely Saturday. And now’s Sunday, 11am. The house needs a tidy, I need to grocery shop and plan for the week ahead on my health kick (not that yesterday was too healthy, but I limited the damage). I’m going to make tomato soup, hummus and pesto this afternoon while watching Come Dine With Me.  Also have to continute the job hunt. I applied for the most awesome job on Thursday night and haven’t heard anything so far. I have my fingers crossed but it already had 12 applications after it was posted and 37 as of yesterday. So I must continue. After all, one must be determined if one wants to change their circumstances. Resilence and tenacity get you somewhere, resignation does not. The only good resignation is the one I hand in when I find the perfect next role!!

On that note, I am off to be all domestically productive on this chilly and silvern Sunday.

Adios!