Poshdeluxe

january 1, 2007

after stumbling out of bed, oh, about the time the sun went down (but HEY now, it’s london, so that could be any time between 10 AM and 3 PM), we did the only proper thing you can do after a night out celebrating the new year: we went on a pub crawl.

i mean, we were just trying to get chummy with double oh seven, loosen him up a little, you know?

we headed towards portobello road to hit up the fat badger, which turned out to be my favorite pub in london. they had all of the pub requirements (chandeliers? check. french fries, i mean, chips? check. tasty beverages? check) PLUS some really really badass wallpaper:

here at the fat badger, we take your grandmother’s favorite floral print and KEEP IT REAL, yo. instead of pretending like you’re surrounded by rich, decadent gardens, you can pretend like YOU COME FROM THE STREETS. i wonder how this would make me feel if it was in my bathroom? cos i need to feel secure when i’m taking a shower.

other pubs, unfortunately, did not have the same flair for wall art:

there’s PLENTY more where this came from, but fortunately for you, i only saved one other photo of this creative genius on my flickr.

olivia’s friend sarah (she has v. good taste in friends) met up with us as we made our way through five pubs. and by “made our way,” i mean, ate our way. can you sense the happy tummies in this picture?

i realized that since british people call french fries “chips,” it constitutes Cultural Fare, so i’m allowed to eat as many fries as i want in the name of International Exploration.

guys, it takes a LOT of fries to form a Bridge of Understanding, believe me.

apparently, there was also a disco ball involved.

[henri took this picture, thus his thumb]

i think the glint of the mirror ball triggered a flashback in amber’s mind… you can see the sadness in her eyes as she mourns the loss of her favorite red lipstick (but no tears this time).

for our last stop, we managed to find a pub that was open til the wee hours of MIDNIGHT. yes MIDNIGHT! of course, that’s when the sun comes up in london, anyway.

hellooooo 2007! come here often?

january 2, 2007

for our last day (booo), amber suggested we head up to hampstead, which apparently escaped most of the bombing during the world wars and consequently looks like a charming little postcard village!

there’s even a dog in the window that will bark cutely as you stroll by!

of course, when things are this lovely, it means that they are not real. and by that i mean, the price range of these places is not in my reality.

even though the town is adorable, we were REALLY there to see the view from kite hill in hampstead heath, a sprawling park next to the city. after several failed attempts at actually ENTERING the park (it turns out the hampstead has incredibly, uh, circular streets) we made it to the base of the hill!

here’s the horizon that beckoned to us:

and here’s the view that greeted us!

why HALLO, london!

in addition to the view, kite hill offers lots of dogs (except some of them are muddy and try to jump on you and IT’S NOT FUNNY), joggers (i.e. crayheads) and children. my favorite child is the girl below, in the green hoodie and what appear to be PINK (!) shoes:

as you can see, she’s pointing towards something in the horizon while her sister tries to tug down her arm. i was lucky enough to hear the conversation (and i swear i’m not making this adorableness up), all of which took place in extremely precious british accents:

little girl: LOOK! LOOOOOOK! IT’S THE EIFFEL TOWER!!!!

sister: no it’s NOT.

little girl: YES IT IS!!! I SEE IT! RIGHT THERE!

sister: that is NOT THE EIFFEL TOWER.

little girl: it IS! it’s the EIFFEL TOWER!

sister: UGH. NO. IT. IS. NOT.

little girl: THE EIFFEL TOWER THE EIFFEL TOWER THE EIFFEL TOOOOOOWER!!!!!

later, i saw the same little girl pointing in the opposite direction and proclaiming, again, her discovery of the eiffel tower. what a little columbus pants!

as we looked out over london, amber and i marveled at the two years that had passed since we first gazed in wonder at paris from sacre couer. on that trip, my camera caught her looking gently, lovingly, wistfully out over the bridge at her city.

now she has a new city, a new chapter, a new life. amber and her london.

henri caught up to us, so of course i made him take the obligatory scenic view shot with me. he is, as always, appropriately serious.

at the risk of tiring you with “check out this view!” pictures, i have to post my favorite one of amber and me:

this is the kind of moment that repeats itself with a kindred spirit, even as the scenery of life changes. our laughter hits the same notes every time.

as usual, the picture-taking devolved into, well, yeah.

after we’d had our fill of the view, the wind and my camera, we stopped at a pub for some tasty business (obvs) and then wandered a bit more around hampstead.

i was momentarily hypnotized by this bakery display:

… CAN’T… LOOK… AWAY…

to round off the day, we headed over to the design museum to meet up with sarah. it’s on the river, so i got to say good-bye to the london skyline.

in front of the museum, there’s a box called “the tank” where they display a piece of design work. we saw a china set, designed by khashayar naimanan, with the pattern on the bottom! there was a mirrored floor so you could see the design:

this concept came with some sort of social commentary but i just liked the way the glass and mirrors made for cool pictures:

as soon as we entered the museum, i knew it would be MY FAVORITE. ok, ok, i love the tate modern, but wow, this place was quirky and fun and v. v. pop culture-friendly. for example, here is a room of chairs:

DON’T SIT ON THEM.

also, there were zines and album covers!

and children’s illustrations!!

[note the quentin blake work on the bottom right-- i love him!!]

and airline place settings!!

one room was dedicated to new designers, and it was super fun. the best part was a screen that showed your shadow but then added things to it while you moved– like wavy hair or horns.

it would even show you farting sometimes!!! but it wasn’t real. of course. i don’t ever fart, cos that is gross.

a designer named tim simpson created a machine that illustrates the process of natural selection. if a plant doesn’t grow faster than the others, it gets snipped. or something.

i felt bad for the plants.

there was also a special exhibit on alan fletcher, a famous british artist/graphic designer. i enjoyed all of his work, but i especially liked a case of pencils he put together to illustrate how technology can become obsolete:

what amazed me is that most of these pencils still had their erasers. that NEVER happens to me.
when the museum closed, we– what else– went to a pub. with chandeliers. obviously.

we decided to do it up for dinner, so henri and i headed back to olivia’s to change into posher outfits. and finally, we met the cat!!!!

olivia told us to keep an eye out for him, but he didn’t appear until that v. last night. it was like, a sign. a kitty sign.

and you can tell he really loves being held. immensely.

dinner became a race against time as the clock neared 9 PM (or was it 8?) and EVERY SINGLE RESTAURANT IN TOWN CLOSED (if it wasn’t closed already). thankfully, we found a posh place that, it turns out, serves THE MOST INCREDIBLE SOUP IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE:

this is green apple and parsnip soup. and it is the food of the angels. when the waiter brought it out, the bowl just had the middle clump in it, and then he delicately poured the soup around it, like a gorgeous ocean gently lapping around an exquisite island.

le sigh.

here’s amber in her best “sex & the city” pose:

i think she even out-cosmos a cosmo.

for dessert, i ordered bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and rum-soaked figs.

IT WAS AMAZING. i wanted to elope with it to a remote desert island surrounded by parsnip & green apple soup.

this is a pretty typical portrait of my relationship with all of the desserts in my life.

after dinner, we tubed it back to olivia’s place for a slumber party. yay! we watched henri’s ladies of the 80s singalong show, which is perfect pajama party fodder.

notice amber’s jim jam and tights combo. trés olsen!

since we had to get up at the crack of freaking dawn for our flight, i went to bed, cos i’m a pansy. henri and amber stayed up the whole night and gossiped about all of the teachers they hate and why they can’t BELIEVE that tyler brown is actually going out with missy peterson cos she is totally fugly.

the next morning, we hugged amber good-bye, caught the train for the airport and flew in to the rest of 2007.

double oh seven, i think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.