Friday
Eat: Wahaca. Some of the nicest Mexican food I’d had in a long, long time (sorry Pablo, I still love you though). The pork tacos were amazing, as were the cocktails and dessert.

Play: We ticked a big box on my wishlist by heading to Her Majesty’s Theatre to see The Phantom of the Opera. It was an amazing experience, complete with champagne and chocolates (thanks Yvonne!).
After that, we met up with my friend Steve for a few quick cocktails before heading out to Propganda for some dancing. The night (which runs in Dublin as well, at The Academy) provides a brilliant mix of danceable indie pop tunes, which kept us on the floor all night and helped work off some of that Mexican food.
Sleep: We stayed at the Strand Palace Hotel at Covent Garden. It was central, relatively cheap, clean and had hot showers – that’s pretty much all we were after and we got it. The staff were friendly and there was also free WiFi in the bar which came in handy.

Sturday
Eat: Headed to Cecconi’s in Mayfair for a “power breakfast” with another London friend. It’s a popular trader hot spot and we felt very Wall Street-y. Well, I would have if I wasn’t wearing ballerina flats.
Play: Once we were fuelled up, it was time for a mega shopping sesh where I picked up this little lady, followed by champagne and macaroons in Harrods (I told you this was a girly weekend).
A prep sesh in the hotel and it was off to Shoreditch for tapas and sangria at Amberjack’s in Hoxton Sq. They were delish and highly recommended. We popped into Zigfrid Von Underbelly and Electricity Showrooms, before heading back back closer to home for some cheesy dancing and mojitos at Dirty Martini. To be honest, I wasn’t mad on Shoreditch – too much laid-back cool and not enough fun cheesiness, although I did really like Cocomo (no website sadly), a tiny little Moroccan bar with very nice Mojitos.

Sunday
Eat and Play: Headed to the lovely Columbia Road, my favorite spot in all of London. I picked up a nice book in Rob Ryan‘s amazing shop (the only piece of his work I could afford really), had a big dirty rasher and relish roll from a local stand and bought this very nice lunch box which is now very far up on my Favourite Things list. I could have stayed and browsed and shopped all day, but we had a flight to be catching.

That’s it! Couple more shots below.

When you’re next in London, I’d heartily recommend a trip to most of the places I’ve linked to. Do let me know how you get on…

1) Oxegen is always, always going to be wet and muddy, no matter what. But Republic of Loose have some great new songs and Jay Z knows how to get the crowd going in the lashing rain. Glad I popped into Punchestown, even if it was just for the day.
2) It takes seven hours to get from my front door to the circus‘ entrance in Portrush, Co. Antrim. Luckily, I had my trusty Kindle and some excellent reading material to see me through – I read Sh*t My Dad Says, which was short, but very sweet and funny as well as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I completely adored. I also got a couple of chapters of David Nicholls’ One Day. So seven hours well spent.
3) The Giant’s Causeway coast is breath-taking. How have I been to Croatia and Bali and Egypt but not here? It’s so jaggedy and beautiful I was almost afraid to take pictures because there was no way my tiny sensor could capture the enormous prettiness of it all. Ethan had great fun legging it up and down the stones. A little montage of the trip below.
4) There are people who drink on trains. At 11am. On a Monday. They are made of stronger stuff than I.