Pollock's Toy Museum

I took an hour last week in London to visit Pollock's Toy Museum by Goodge Street. It is a fascinating place, with a windy staircase and rooms piled with old toys. Fascinating, and also terrifying. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who had nightmares about Toy Story, but I found the old toys and toys from around the world really interesting. If you're not prone to toy nightmares, you should definitely go next time you're in London.

If you're interested, you can find more information about Pollock's here!

Foot Tennis in St. Pancras

 We met some friends for dinner at St. Pancras last Tuesday, and outside the restaurant where we ate, there was a tennis net. I'm still unclear on why it was there, but we took advantage and pulled it out to play a little game of foot tennis after dinner. Somehow it turned out to be four on one, but Sebastien, the one, managed to hold his own. I think Lenny and Kasia ended up claiming the winnings and going home with the giant pink tennis ball. 

Loving on Liberty London

I LOVE Liberty in London. It is my very favorite store to browse in this city (second place goes to Zara Home - why don't we have this in the US?!)

Back to Liberty. To put it in terms of San Francisco stores, it is like Anthropologie meets Britex Fabrics meets Barneys meets Flax Art and Design. There are so many beautiful things and so many levels and so many hidden rooms that you could spend all day in there.

I went on a two hour walk yesterday afternoon after working in order to keep my eyes open and stay up past 6pm. I was so exhausted that I couldn't even think about trying on clothes, but I walked to Liberty anyways just because it's such a beautiful place. I also couldn't think about taking pictures (plus I only had my phone - no camera because it was in our lost luggage), so these all came off of the Liberty website. I am going back there later this trip, and hopefully I'll have my camera in tow then so I can show what the store looks like, not just the products. 

Good Morning London!

Good morning from London! Jonny's company wanted him to come out for a few days for a project, and he managed to negotiate for me to come too. We found out we were going on Friday, flew out on Monday, and surprise, here we are! We actually did surprise Margaret, Jonny's mom, by knocking on the door of their house at about 7:45am this morning. She had no idea we were going to be here, and it was so fun to show up and see her reaction. 

I was acting like a tourist with my iPhone this morning, so these pictures are the result of that. It's 5:58am in San Francisco as I write this, but it's 1:58pm here in London. I'm going off about 2 hours of sleep and three cups of coffee, and I'm really starting to struggle to keep my eyes open. I'm going to do my best to focus my energy for the next few hours, though, and hopefully I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed by tomorrow.  Maybe I'll have more iPhone pictures to share by then. 

Londontown

Jonny and I spent Christmas with his family in London. My first ever Christmas away from Tennessee with my family, my first ever white Christmas, and our first ever Christmas as a married couple.

(1) The tube stop for the Prices - Harrow on the Hill

(2) Regent Street lit up for Christmas

(3) Dinner at Jonny's friend Tom's family restaurant right by Oxford Circus. This meal was amazing. Tom's dad didn't give us menus and just kept sending people out with more and more great food. He also treated us to champagne, wine, port, and amaretto and made sure both our glasses and plates were always full. 

(4) After dinner at Tom's family restaurant, Jonny decided to sing "With or Without You" with the subway musician.

(5) Trying out our self-timer with Jonny's parents at New Year's Eve dinner

We had such a great time - I wish I'd taken more pictures! Happy 2011!