Bad Santa's

Saturday was going to be your standard, lovely Christmas sightseeing in London day. My beautiful friend Bec was over from Australia with her boy, and we had nice plans involving the south bank, London eye, tower bridge, borough market topped off with watching the skating at Somerset House.

The first couple of Santa's we saw just looked quite cute - a few claphamites on a festive pub crawl perhaps. The 30 or so we saw at Waterloo suggesting something more was going on. These Santa's seemed nice enough though - harmless Santa fun.

As the day progressed the Santa's seemed to be getting a bit of wickedness in them - some had cans of stella strapped to their Santa belts. We saw a few Santa's going for a piss behind some bins. I'm not sure you'd be wanting these Santa's to come down your chimney.

What the hell was going on? I pride myself on my pretty damn good tour guide skills, i like to think I know London as well as the best of them. So where the hell was my invite Santa? Have the elves decided to exclude those above the age of 35?

At Tate Modern Santa's were rolling down the turbine hall - not sure the curator's had this in mind as the next exhibition.

I was starting to get sick of these bad Santa's, dirtying our streets and as we walked onto borough market the Santa spottings diminished. We supped our mulled cider in peace.

And then we made the mistake of heading to Trafalgar Square.........

Lordy! Christmas chaos. Today is going to be a good time to jingle bells to wake all the bad Santa's up. Santa is gonna be feeling fragile.

The party we didn't get invited to is called Santacon. It did actually look like a lot of fun. Next year.....

http://www.santacon.co.uk/

Some enchanted evening....

I'm a cinema snob - I twitch at the prospect of sitting in an odeon in Leicester square surrounded by people who have come to ' the west end' for a night out. Give me a poncy, small venue any day - if they serve booze at your seat all the better. I'm talking Picturehouse, the Lexi, the everyman and new favourite the Rex.

Imagine my delight then to see posh people's favourite cinema chain The Everyman were doing a festive run of films at their ' enchanted cinema' season. Even better it was being held at the old vic tunnels - a mere 15 minutes train ride from my house. The Everyman and I get along great - I sat in front of Liam Gallagher in Belsize park once and got upgraded with 10 friends to a private balcony area in the Hampstead one. As a brand I love it.

So after an interesting 20 minute walk inhaling spray paint fumes ( the tunnels are underneath Waterloo train station, we got stuck walking down a graffiti tunnel for a while.....) we arrived to this underground lair of winter fun. I wasn't really sure what to expect - but we got Sofas covered in sheepskin rugs, lit candles, cool wall art. We also got the friendliest team of staff, delicious cocktails ( try the earl grey martini, the lovely bartender gave us the recipe) and a cosy, cosy space.

After working our way through the cocktail list we head into the movie. It is a very atmospheric space ( trains rumbled above us) - but definitely one to avoid sitting behind a big strapping Norwegian ( or indeed a 6 ft plus any nationality) - the screen is pretty compact.

We had the classic Frank Capra 'it's a wonderful life' - god and on nights like this it is isn't it?We came out to fake snow falling and a folk band.

Standard London evening......

As the movie says no person's poor if they are surrounded by great friends......

Just make sure the tall one's are with you not in front

X

We watched:
http://www.everymancinema.com/oldvictunnels

We got the recipe for:
Earl Grey Martini
Infuse gin with a teabag overnight
Add 3 parts gin mixture to 1 part squeezed lemon and 1 part sugar syrup. Shake with ice. Drink and smile

Waffley versatile.......

Not many ad slogans stay with me - get mash, get smash; birds eye potato waffles though are up there....and the waffle theme ( Belgium last weekend, never had a waffle there) was in a full force at the beautiful, new venue Duck and Waffle.

Bit of a surreal moment before my arrival - I parked near Liverpool Street station- the men in front of me looked a bit shifty. They seemed to be putting harness's on - as I walked away - late for brunch - I realised. I'd run into two base jumpers - they were about to throw themselves off a building. Much better to go up one in a lift and have a coffee at the top - but each to their own.

Anyway back to the point - D&W is up on the 40th floor of Heron Tower in the city - the views I'd seen online looked tremendous - it's above Sushi Samba ( want to be taken here - hint hint - looks pricey) and offers food 24/7. The ride up there is worth it alone - I got there early so ascended the glass lift alone. Wow - quick ride. I'm not known for my love of heights - but it was fine. We picked a gorgeous, crisp blue sky day. This place was going to be special.

Wow - once you get into the venue you can't help but break into a massive, Olympic style grin. It's quite simply incredible. Fairly small venue, and the views are easily the best of any restaurant I've ever been in. I couldn't stop grinning. The staff were all lovely, and tolerated my isn't this incredible chat very patiently. Soph arrived, and I patted myself on the back for such an ace choice of birthday venue ( Soph's 40th had been a few weeks previously).

I'd looked at the menu online before arriving, I was having the English breakfast. Sophie was more adventurous and went for Colombian eggs with smoked salmon. My tea was lovely.

Food arrived quickly from the open kitchen ( fit chef - not that you're interested - but just filling you in) - highlight of mine were the trotter braised beans. The Colombian eggs looked beautiful. It's also the biggest bargain in town - for the price of a lipstick you can breakfast here.

I want to come every week, I want to bring my girls for cocktails, my dad for brekkie, My neighbour - everyone......

Next time I'm having the waffles - we'll have them together - you all have to come. It's firmly on the London brunch list. Sorry Wolseley you've been bumped.

The ride down's a bit stomach churning though..........

X

We brunched at : Duck and Waffle, Heron Tower, 110 Bishopsgate. Liverpool street tube.

http://duckandwaffle.com/