London Loveliness

I have spent the weekend visiting J in London, which was wonderful. We had both been ill with coughs and colds prior to my visit and had worried that we wouldn't be well enough to see eachother, so I am very glad it went ahead. There was a rather major mishap when I missed my train due to Christmas shopping induced traffic jams on the way, but I was informed by a very kind station attendant of the cheapest way to get to London via train and managed to get there within an hour of my original arrival time.

The first evening in London was spent shopping in Oxford Street. This was an extremely wise move as at this time of year Oxford Street is ridiculously busy-we still had to fight our way into shops but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We visited Urban Outfitters, where I bought a copy of Taschen's 1000 Pin Up Girls, which is already providing me with inspiration for lingerie designs, makeup and hairstyles; and a small glass perfume bottle.

The next stop was the Topshop flagship store. I only bought a diary and a Hello Kitty keyring for my younger sister, but would have liked to buy more. I tried on a gorgeous purple satin and black lace corset, and a pale pink and black lace fitted dress, but neither fitted. One of the reasons I make so many of my own clothes is because I find it so difficult to find well fitting high street clothing. With my large hips, fairly small waist and medium sized bust I don't seem to suit retailers' views of the public's figures-everything is too tight on the bottom, too loose round the waist and too tight around the bust, or vice versa. So irritating!

We then ducked into the heavenly B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful shop, a girly riot of gold, glitter and glamour. After a long time browsing I chose a lipstick in Boudoir, a clear, retro red. The staff at B were absolutely brilliant, as they explained what products were for and suggested suitable colours, but then backed off to allow you to choose what you wanted. The shop also smelled lovely and the products were displayed well. My only critiscism of B is that they use a lot of natural ingredients in their cosmetics, but then ruin it all by adding parabens. Parabens have been linked to a possible increase in the chances of getting cancer, and I try to avoid them as much as possible. I try to use natural shower gels and shampoos such as those by Faith in Nature, and I'm currently using a body cream and face cream which is 99% natural from Lloyd's Pharmacy. I still buy B products which don't have parabens, I just wish they would eliminate them from more of their items-I would be a much more frequent customer if they did!

Next was Selfridge's, where I stocked up on origami paper in the Muji section and enjoyed browsing the handbags, shoes and beauty sections. J and I had planned on having a glass of champagne in the Moet bar, but we were so tired by that point we decided to leave.

After a hard few hours of shopping and fighting through crowds, we relaxed with dinner at Ed's Easy Diner in Piccadilly. I had a divine chicken burger with fries and sour cream, accompanied by a heavenly butterscotch milkshake. Ed's is definitely in my top three places to eat, I love it there and try to return each time I'm in London. It goes so well with my aspirations to be a pin up-'50s style and full of classic Americana.

The next day we went for breakfast (despite it being lunchtime when we left the flat) at Villandry, a very special foodhall and restaurant. We ate gigantic croissants and drank coffee from huge French style cups. My croissant came with a generous serving of butter and a delicious apricot jam. Usually I would be quite horrified by the idea of jam on a croissant, but the combination was spot on. Breakfast was further improved by the sighting of John Snow of Channel 4 news sat a few feet from our table. J is rather fond of him and was very excited. We could hear the sound of his vibrant and intelligent conversation while we enjoyed our coffee. We browsed in the foodhall and admired the gorgeous loaves, fine chocolates and mouth watering pastries.

The next day I went alone to Chinatown while J worked on Latin translations. I love Chinatown-the gorgeous gates at either end of it, the interesting shops, and the sound of Mandarin Chinese being spoken all excite me. I bought lots of cute koala shaped chocolate biscuits, some sweets called "Pinko" because there was a sweet little pink monkey on the packet, a purple satin cushion cover embroidered with tiny pink roses and leaves and a green satin scarf. I would have bought so much more if I had more money-I definitely need to return again soon with more time and funds! I had wanted to get a cheongsam, but again my big hips prevented me-the biggest hip size I could find was a 36". I need more like a 40". Possibly even bigger. I think I shall have to resort to making my own. I was highly tempted by the huge amount of Hello Kitty products on sale (HK is actually Japanese, but meh) but there were so many I found it confusing and couldn't decide what to get!

That evening we were both tired so we didn't do much, and the next day it was time to go home. But before I went to the train station, there was just time to squeeze in a visit to VV Rouleaux, the legendary ribbon and trimming shop. I spent an age staggering around carrying three bags in small side streets before I finally found it-I was given wrong directions several times. But it was worth it-full of gorgeous frothy frills and satin ribbons, beaded fringing and sequinned birds. I spent an extortionate amount on ribbons, a tiny piece of delicate purple lace (at £7.50 a metre I couldn't afford a metre, but a scrap satisfied my lust), and lingerie elastic. It is another place I will have to return to with more time to choose more carefully and more money.

After that it was onto a red double decker and back to Paddington for the train home. All in all I had a lovely time, as always, and hope to return soon for more excitement, shopping and culture.