London - Leaving Do & Birthdays

Wednesday 18 April 2007
I was given the responsibility of organising dinner for our team and our new Project Manager this evening. I chose The Forge, a new restaurant in Covent Garden. Thankfully everyone really enjoyed the food...the menu was extensive...there were too many things to choose from; I might have to take Yang there one day! I also got to choose the Champagne and given I wasn't paying, I immediately chose Louis Roederer as Aaron and Alli bought us a bottle a while back and it was really nice...well it's apparently the best non-vintage Champagne around. *sigh of relief*...I didn't want to disappoint the new Project Manager on our first ever meeting.

Thursday 19 April 2007
Yang cooked (with assistance from "Sous Chef Ryan") French trimmed lamb cutlets with a trio of vegetables and a side of potato gratin for Jason, Ammy, Peter and the current residents of 9 Lowry House.

Friday 20 April 2007
After work Yang and I headed to Pizzeria Oregano in Islington for a quick dinner as Sean raved about their linguini (personally I didn't like the pasta but Yang said the Pizza was good). Then we went to help Sean set up for his leaving party at the Salmon and Compass. It ended up being a bit of a late night...but thankfully, Richard took us home in his Porsche 911 Turbo, so not only did we save on paying for a taxi, we got to sit in a much nicer car! Oh...to have a car again...you Perthites don't know how lucky you are!

Sean & Joe; Yang, Sean & Linus; the other Shawn (no he is not my brother!) & me

The private upstairs Bar @ the Salmon & compass; DJ fuboi

Blythe, Sean & Alli; Peter, Van, Jason, Sean

The Foo Cousins; The Boys

Saturday 21 April 2007
With barely any sleep, we still made it in time to meet Alli, Aaron, Loreen & Felix at J Sheekey, a fish and seafood restaurant that is run by the same people that own The Ivy...both west end celeb haunts. The food was nice...but really heavy for our very first meal of the day...as a result, we didn't have dessert...and apparently their desserts are really good...oh well. Enjoy the photo (to the left) as they have a no-photography policy in the restaurant, but management kindly let our waiter help us take a photo.

After lunch, we went camera shopping for Alli and then Yang and I headed off to Knightsbridge so I could run a few errands at Christian Louboutin (would you believe that when I bought a pair of Louboutins in Paris, they gave me one 4 inch and one 3.5 inch heel) and Harrods. I also saw Mohammad Al Fayed for the second time (I almost barreled into him as he only had one bodyguard this time and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going). We also had relaxing drink overlooking Hyde Park at the Fifth Floor Bar in Harvey Nichols.

We then caught a taxi to Clerkenwell on the other side of London for Jason's and Peter's birthday dinner at Dans le Noir, a French restaurant where you dine in complete darkness and the waiters are blind. The 18 of us were all led (it was a pretty funny sight seeing 18 people with their right hand on the right shoulder of the person in front of them being led by a blind waitress) into a completely dark room. When I say completely dark, it really was completely dark and there was no light so your eyes couldn't adjust to anything. There were a few novelties to dining in the dark...you drank wine out of tumblers (apparently wine glasses tip over too easily!), and it proved quite difficult to cut your food into manageable pieces...I ended up stuffing my mouth and getting sauce all over my face (I don't want to see what I look like on the infra-red cameras!). We also had Peter Smart (who had dined at the one in Melbourne) trying to steal our cutlery to make us eat with our fingers and coming over to the other side of the table to say hello from behind...which was a bit of shock at the time (you are not allowed to move around in the dark without being led by the waitress). We all had a "surprise menu" where you are not told what you are given to eat and you have to guess what you've just eaten. The food was okay but the servings weren't very generous (we were actually still hungry afterwards) but it was an interesting experience.

After dinner, we had dessert and milkshakes (and in some cases, more food!) with the group at Tinseltown before heading home.

Sunday 22 April 2007
Still in the marathon spirit after last weekend, we woke up early today to watch a bit of the London Marathon outside our apartment (this also meant dodging runners to get to Canary Wharf) and around Canary Wharf. We have never seen so many people in Canary Wharf on the weekend...again, it was the same supportive atmosphere as in Paris.

Then we caught the train to Putney to meet Jane and Ed for lunch at Olé Restaurant. They had a Spanish craving as they were a bit disappointed with the food in Barcelona during their trip over Easter. I would have to agree that this restaurant had some of the nicest tapas I have had in London...it's just too bad that it's not closer to Central London.

Then we went back to Canary Wharf (where we saw a few stragglers from the London Marathon) to say goodbye to Sean before he flew back to Perth.