My plans for the morning included taking a long walk to see holiday decorations and what is new since my last visit. I should have known better than to make plans. It was drizzling when I woke. Rather than the sky brightening, it became more menacing. When I stepped out to start the walk, serious rain began.
I hopped a bus and headed towards Carnaby Street, near where I was meeting my friends Pascale and Isabel. I was early, so on my way over I stopped at Liberty House, a venerable (and extremely expensive) department store in a magnificent pseudo-Tudor building. Nothing even tempted me because even their sale prices were outrageous.
The rain subsided briefly, and I dashed over to Senor Ceviche, a restaurant in Kingly Court near Carnaby Street. For the next three hours we ate, drank, and yakked. It was a wonderful way to spend a very rainy afternoon.
When we finally emerged from the restaurant, the sky was darkening, but the rain was holding off. We walked to Regent Street and from there to Bond Street to see the lights. The angels on Regent Street are lovely, but the decorations on Bond Street blew me away. Bond Street is home to one very upscale international store after another—Tiffany’s, Chanel, Bulgari, Cartier and more. Each building is decorated lavishly, and the street is adorned with what looks like a row of jeweled necklaces.
Just as we were getting through our walk there, the rain began again. We ducked into the Burlington Arcade, home to upscale British shops. If you want insanely expensive shoes, vintage Rolex’s, jewelry, and other luxury items, that’s the place to go.
Back on Regent Street I boarded a bus to meet up with Sue. The bus crawled up Regent Street, traffic was bumper-to-bumper. It might have been faster to walk, but between the rain and crowds, I was happy to be seated no matter how slow we were going.
We ate dinner at Rock and Sole Plaice, a restaurant with the absolute best fish and chips I’ve ever eaten.
A few blocks away is SoHo Place, a brand-new theater featuring the musical, “Little Big Things.” I knew nothing about the show going in, except that it had great reviews and isn’t playing in NYC. Those were our two criteria in deciding what to see. The music, acting and story were really good, but both of us left the theater unsure if we really liked it. (A conundrum, I know.)