Chris' Birthday

Today Chris turns forty-eight. And still going strong. Given that he’s recovering from a virus, we have continued to take things slowly. This morning, we headed out to Paddington. Looked through the station which is really quite lovely for a train station, then headed down the main street. We stopped at various stores looking for a nice café, only to find to find one down one of the side streets. It was owned and run by an Arabic speaking family who treated wus with the utmost kindness and warmth. We sat out on the footpath between two gentlemen smoking and speaking their mother tongue, and a young man, with the same language who greeted his friend warmly and invited him to sit down when he arrived some moments after us. Café Panache does wonderful home-made cakes and their coffee is top notch. We ended up sitting there for quite some time, shooting the breeze and having a second coffee each. We took a couple of pics of local landmarks on the way back to the Underground.

In the evening, we met Jo and Graham at the base of the Walkie Talkie, there to go up to floors 35 and 36 to the SkyGarden and to celebrate Chris’ birthday at the brasserie. It is an extraordinary view from up top. Yu get to see the whole of London and beyond. We had a 5.30pm reservation so we stayed on the outside landing looking at the views and taking pictures until it was time to take our seats. We had our table for two hours.

It was a wonderful surprise for Chris to have a young Brazilian woman, Feliciana, as our waiter, so Chris got to speak Brazilian Portuguese with her throughout the meal. It was a great treat for him. It was a lovely surprise for him when she brought out a little treat for him for his birthday. We all had lovely meals and a few drinks, took another circuit around the top to watch the beginning of the sunset before we headed into the lift and went back down.

It was a wonderful day.

1 September The Day After
We met up today with Graham and Jo on their last day in London before they head off to other parts of the UK. We had coffee in the cafeteria of Foyles bookstore and then we all scattered to check out the books. Of course, we all bought some.

For me, I bought an Italian language textbook and workbook designed for intermediate and advanced students. I am hopeful that as I work my way through it, its assistance and training, along with the other learning techniques I am using, will lift me to the next level, which for me would be C1. Here’s hoping, or as the Italians would have it, ecco sperare.

After we said our goodbyes, Chris and I headed to Covent Garden to perfumery that we have visited before. Both of us have bought very nice colognes at Blooms on our previous visit. This vist was to be no exception. I bought a fragrance that I knew from 2022 or 23 when it was given to me a sampler with the main cologne I had bought on that occasion. It's called Ciel Immobile and I have been patient since that time to finally purchase a bottle today. It's so nice. I'm so lucky.Weiterlesen