Birthday week. This used to be something I would always look forwards to but the last few years haven’t been great and it still causes anxiety d this time. This year was better though. Basically, I fell off my bicycle two years ago and ended up having emergency surgery on my knee on my actual birthday. Happy Birthday to me. Last year I had a massive panic attack when my birthday travel plans got changed last minute, which anyone with anxiety will tell you is the worst thing to happen. Anyways, I’m determined to start feeling more positive going forwards. It’s always a good point in the year to see how much actual progress I am making as well with my surgery recovery. It will never be the same again but it is so much stronger now.
The first event in the calendar for Birthday week was Mika who performed at the Harbour as part of Bristol Sounds. This was the first time we have got tickets for this event, we are usually away or unsure of the artist performing. It was so good. I wish all events were only a short walk from home! Mika was excellent, he had even brought a surprising amount of staging with him. The crowd was buzzing and everyone had a good time. Thankfully the rain held up and it was a perfect sunny evening.
My actual Birthday was on Friday and I woke up to being spoilt by my husband with some lovely whiskey and the Disney jigsaw I had my eye on. The plan was to head to London once he had finished work so I spent the day playing some Zelda and packing ready for the weekend away. The train to London was a bit chaotic as they only ran a small service, thankfully we had bought a SeatFrog upgrade for First Class so had a bit more space on an otherwise very cramped train. Not that it mattered that much, pretty sure they ended up declassifying the train and there was no trolley service. Don’t worry, we have of course requested a refund 😛
Our hotel was in the Finance area of the city, near to Moorgate Station and it was lovely. When we checked in they informed us that we had an upgrade to a suite! Never actually had this happen to me before so I was dead excited. Our room had a living room and it was a large corner room so lots of windows. The hotel was called Apex London Walls. We are becoming quite fond of this brand of hotels called Apex having stayed in them while in Bath and Edinburgh. As it was quite late by the time we arrived we settled on chilling in our suite(!) and watching some Glastonbury on one of the two giant TVs in the room.
Our first full day in London started with finding some munch at The Breakfast Club. I have been here twice and had two of the best meals but I was so disappointed this time. Most of my food wasn’t cooked very well and just did not taste very good. The place isn’t cheap so it’s disappointing when things like this happen. Anyways, onwards and upwards right? We headed into the Covent Garden area of London as I wanted to check out the new Uniqlo store. We got there before opening so we had a quick mooch in TK Maxx where I bought some amazing Mario Badusco body wash that I’ve had my eye on and then on into Uniqlo. The store was disappointing. I had seen so much hype for the store, and yeah it was beautiful…but empty? Like they barely had any stock, we tried to find some shorts for my husband and just could not locate them anywhere. We had a quick look around Covent Garden itself and popped into Glossier for my first-ever visit. I treated myself to a trio of lipglosses including the Birthday one which smells like Birthday cake. So good! It was around this point of the day that the heat really started to get to me though. I always joke that the weather is nice on my birthday but my idea of nice is about 23-25 degrees and sunny but London was a toasty 30, which is not conducive for walking around in.
We quickly stopped by a free art installation I had seen online at Tottenham Court Road which was awesome and not overhyped unlike certain other things this morning. After a little cool-off at the hotel, we headed out to see the Conservatory at the Barbican, which was shut. There was a wedding which looked beautiful but I was gutted. We had a little look around the open areas and it’s all a bit lovely, isn’t it? There were loads of people outside enjoying the sunshine by the waterside, soaking up the nice weather. Another quick change and cool down at the hotel and then it was out for dinner at somewhere I have wanted to try for ages. I have tried and failed to get a reservation for any of the Big Mamma Restaurants but somehow this time I got it. I think the birthday gods were looking down on me this year. We ate at Gloria’s in Shoreditch and this absolutely lived up to the hype. I knew exactly what I was going to order, the Spaghetti Al Tartufo which was homemade spaghetti with creamy truffle sauce and fresh black truffle, served in a pecorino wheel. It was hands down the tastiest pasta I have ever had. You have to have 2 people minimum order it but my husband also agreed it was phenomenal. We ended the meal with Tiramisu and a MASSIVE slice of lemon meringue pie.
Sunday was even hotter than Saturday and at this point, I was starting to struggle. We stopped by Coal Drops Yard for a mooch around and some breakfast before taking the walk along the canal to Camden Market. The walk was lovely in parts, but as soon as we got near actual Camden it started getting busier and busier. The crowd levels were insane, it was shoulder to shoulder and after a very quick walk through the market, we called it a day and headed to find some aircon at the newly renovated Battersea Power Station. This place is lovely, the shops are a bit higher end but it has a nice Lego store and a much better Uniqlo store than the Covent Garden one. We had a cocktail in what once was the old Control Room. It was very quickly time for the train home and even though I had a lovely weekend, I was glad to be heading home to my lovely little home in Bristol.
