Probably one of the best weekends I've ever had.
We started on Saturday with a small lie-in til 7:00 and then I got up and dyed my hair (mahogany apparently!). Then Nick and I headed off to Westfields for some shopping - which was practically deserted, bliss!
We didn't get too much though, Nick wanted work trousers, jeans and a shirt but didn't see any jeans he liked. I wasn't going for anything but bought a pink blazer and some bright blue eye shadow! We had a quick lunch at Apostrophe which do the greatest thick hot chocolates. Not particularly diet friendly, I know, but my choice of sandwich was.
Got home and chilled out reading the papers for a while, and then got ready to go out. (Think I've got the hang of blue eyeshadow now...)
We were meeting friends in a bar first, because they'd won a free £50 bar tab, I wasn't drinking, but had a couple of "mocktails" which were scrummy. We then walked the nearly a mile (in high heels!!!) to the restaurant, Maze.
I know nothing about this place, but it's one of Gordon Ramsay's, under Jason Atherton, and it has a Michelin star. We were greeted with a bottle of Champers (I had one glass) and some amuse-bouche.
We were then invited to go through to our table - we were on the Chef's Table, which is in the kitchen, right in the heart of the action. They also have a private dining room there, but we had full view of everything going on.
They couldn't have been nicer to us - we were treated like royalty (I have no frame of reference here). We had 10 courses:
Mushroom and something (meat, but forget which) veloute with mushroom on toast
Crab salad with golden beetroot and bloody mary sorbet
Ewe's cheese and beetroot salad
We then had a tour of the kitchen, and 2 of our party got to cook off and plate up the quail that we were eating.
Returning to our table, we continued with:
Quail with date puree
Veal and pumpkin risotto
Lamb shank with a mini shepherds pie
Cheese course
And then onto desserts...
Sorbet platter - lots of little boules of different flavours: Mango, coconut, lemon, wild berry, cherry and basil (actually rather tasty!)
Trifle (in a shot glass with the most scrummy mini sponge cake on the side)
Panacotta with blood orange granite
The whole thing took about 4.5 hours and we were all stuffed by the end of it! It was fabulous. Also, because we were tucked away in the kitchen, we got all the dramas but it also meant that we could laugh hysterically and not worry about disturbing other diners.
On Sunday, we had a lie in and then Nick went off to his am dram group and I started making 10 aprons for a friend who is organising a hen night. Made some good progress on them by the time Nick got home. We then went off the cinema to see "Up in the Air", not an uplifting film, but very good nonetheless.
After that we had Sushi at Yo Sushi with a 40% discount.. although the belt wasn't working which somewhat subdued the atmosphere there. Still had a lovely meal though, and for under £40 between us!
Got home and caught up on Glee (I am LOVING it), and I have to say that comparing their version of that Journey song that the UK X-Factor winner also did - the Glee guys just blew me away. So good, I watched it twice!
So - that was my weekend - a perfect mix of doing stuff, relaxation and good food. Unfortunately I am now 3lb heavier... but hoping to lose it and more by Thursday's class with 20k of running between now and then.
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