London dispatch

Am a little behind on my postings, so please excuse this belated post on our goings-on in London yesterday.

In 2007 we made a trip to Europe, staying in London for a week, and back then I hit all my favorite design-based home stores that I had been reading about for years in the likes of Elle Decor Britain and Metropolitan home--Habitat, Selfridges, Conran Shop, etc. We are sightseers when abroad, for sure, but more often than not our trips are very shopping-based. With that in mind, in our last hours here, we hit Liberty of London, Orla Kiely's shop in Covent Garden, and Muji. Super fun seeing the flagship Liberty again, especially after my obsessive hunting for Liberty of London for Target® products (I know you're all aware of that period). 4 floors of fabulous and a tea room downstairs. Expensive fabulous, of course, but we did get away with a lovely piece of art (actually a big tea towel) from artist Rob Ryan. Orla Kiely was fab, though also very expensive for bags and such. We did buy a few things for the home there. Muji is totally Japanese minimalist products--they have a store in NY and also sell products at various MOMAs (SF being one of them)--Their clothes are so cute. While out and about we hit Neal's Yard area.



On the non-shopping tip, we also went to the London Design Museum, somewhere we hadn't been before. We traipsed along the Tower of London bridge above the Thames to get there. One of Lani's colleagues, Annie Leonard, had a piece in the current exhibition which you may be familiar with: The Story of Stuff. So good! Totally cute store, and we also had tea and cake at the cafe. Oh my God were my dogs burning after that walk though. We had gotten tickets to Billy Elliott show at the Victoria Theater (great show!), and then had room service when we got home at 11. I PASSED OUT.



Now for the funny incident of Lani walking into a plate glass door. HAHAHAH!!! Poor Lani. We hit up this Vietnamese street food cafe, had some yummy chicken pho and lemonade, get up to leave, and I'm following Lani out the door. A sonic boom happens and I realize that Lani has walked into the door. Needless to say the door was super clean glass. She was just startled, and we both laughed while one of the patrons giggled while eating his soup. I looked and him, motioned to the glass, and said "This really needs a sticker." Lani!!! She was fine, no bump, no headache, no concussion. She's great! No worries mate. Lani just said "I was drunk on pho."

We boarded the Eurostar yesterday, the high-speed train that goes through the English Channel--damn that bitch is fast!!!! Passed a lot of farmland when in France. And now we are here! Post about the lovely studio apartment to come.