Christmas in London

OK, so it wasn't technically Christmas itself, but the run-up.  I have a big thing about London - I love it.  Yes, it's crowded and (to me) huge and slightly overwhelming.  But it's also buzzing and atmospheric and picturesque, and so I managed to persuade my mum to go to London for the day with me.

Putting our Christmas decorations to shame

It feels like whenever my mum and I go to London, we always end up visiting the V&A Museum.  The fact that it's free and has abundant seating helps, of course, but this time we went to see the Masterpieces of Chinese Painting exhibition.  I'm definitely not an art buff, and I didn't really know what to expect, but the art exhibited there was gorgeous.  I particularly liked the landscape paintings, and I found one I would have been happy to take home and hang on my wall.

Byoootiful

For lunch we went to the Comptoir Libanais on Exhibition Road just across from the V&A.  We'd already been to the one on Wigmore St, so we knew there would be something there that we'd like.  It was absolutely packed inside but we only had to wait a few minutes before there was a table free.  Above is a picture of our drinks - apple, mint and ginger and my favourite rose syrup, lemon and lime.

This is my main course, although it's pretty enough to be a dessert.  It's lamb kofta with yoghurt, fried onions, pitta bread pieces and pomegranate seeds, and it was gorgeous.

Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Looking back, visiting Regent Street only five days from Christmas seems like a slightly stupid thing to do.  In our defence, we (along with half of the UK, it seemed) were on a quest to visit Liberty's after seeing an episode or two of the documentary series about it. Anyway, I like to think it brought out some Christmas spirit in us.

We made it to Tate Britain, but by then we were absolutely shattered, so we spent as long as we could in the cafe where I had the world's cutest cappuccino.