Meeting the people in my laptop...

On Saturday I spent the day in London with Joanne (Today we are...), Helen (Angharad) and Lisa (U-handbag). How odd it was to walk into Le Pain Quotidien, and on seeing them gathered around a table, to instantly feel as though I were meeting with old friends, rather than new. After a leisurely breakfast we walked a little way down the street to Liberty, and as we oohed and ahhed over things I was struck by quite how much fun and how very 'right' it is to go haberdashery shopping with others so equally obsessed by buttons and fabrics...it is also interesting to see which fabric bolts others are drawn to...we all seemed to have slightly different tastes and requirements for different projects...but we all ended up buying many of the same buttons.

I bought Zebra-girl and Dinosaur-boy an enormous glassy heart-shaped button each, that sparkle in the most gaudy and unsubtle way. They have been so well-loved since my home-coming that they have worn away much of the silver backing...the result of being clasped tightly in sweaty little palms.

After Liberty we went to The Cloth House (where all the above photos were taken), where they have the most wonderful washing line window-display. Inside I found this shoe last...I had only mentioned to Joanne five minutes earlier (on seeing the most exquisite and exorbitantly priced example in Liberty) how much I was coveting one, so imagine my delight when I saw a hamper laden with them, beneath a handwritten sign saying that one could be mine for only £5! Lisa may well remember my delight, for I very nearly up-ended her in my dash to rummage in the basket!

I wonder though, after wishing for a wooden last for well over a year, what I might actually do with it in reality. I had imagined that it may look nice by the fireplace...but actually it just looks a bit strange; as though a one-legged friend may have come to visit and left a vital bit of his walking apparatus on the hearth.

It seemed like we were shopping for quite some time...but when I looked at my watch I realised that we had dispensed with that activity fairly rapidly and instead wisely spent nearly the entire afternoon in Patisserie Valerie, where there were so many wonderful delights to choose from, that I became quite paralysed by indecision and in the end settled for a chocolate mouse that I had felt fairly ambivalent about. Happily though, my mouse exceeded all possible expectations...it was smooth, thick and quite exceptionally delicious, although requesting it was less enjoyable. Opening my mouth and uttering the words 'I'd like a chocolate mouse please' without snorting with laughter, as our lovely waiter, Adrian, jotted down our order (whom we became quite fascinated and thrilled by over the course of our prolonged visit) was trickier than you might first think. He delighted me by offering me a fork to eat my mouse with though. I declined. By the time we stood up to leave my face was aching from having laughed so much.

In the evening we wandered over to Waterstones 5th View Bar in Piccadilly where we chose to sample some of the drinks from their extensive cocktail menu, although unfortunately I was still nursing a hangover from the previous night so I was a little unadventurous in my ordering. Then suddenly it was very late and we all had to get back to our homes...as we were walking through Trafalgar Square, Lisa and Joanne remembered the wonderful carved baby that I mention in my sidebar (eyes right)....I was so pleased. I hadn't had time to go and visit it in the morning and it feels odd to be near without doing so. After admiring its lovely little stone form we saw that the doors were still open to St Martins...and so took the opportunity to go and gaze at its old pews and wonderful ceilings...we pondered on what paint they might have used to make it appear to look both so white, and so warm.

On the train home I tried to keep myself from sleeping by reading an article about Dolly Parton printed in the weekend newspaper, but I only succeeded in reading the same line over and over again, punctuated by 2-second naps. It was only a fear of what a night spent at the end of the train line might hold that kept me partially awake.

In the morning Zebra-girl and Dinosaur-boy, sparkly buttons in hand, wanted to see pictures from our day...but I realised that I had hardly any that included Helen, Lisa or Joanne...which is what they wanted to see (not more of Mummy's boring still-life-of-a-button shots)...how awful, this means we will have to recreate the whole day at some point.....more cake, more fabrics, more chatting, more giggling! It will be hellish.