You can spot some amazing signage and typography around London if you look carefully enough. This company has been around for over 75 years, I don’t know if this signage dates back that far.
Browsing Tag
London
I’ve been wanting to go to Hix for ages. It must be the only restaurant in Farringdon I haven’t been too, which is crazy considering how long it’s been there. So when I got a chance to go out for dinner in the area with a good friend I didn’t hesitate in booking.
It didn’t disapoint – I loved the inside of the restaurant – great decor, and a lovely looking bar. While they specialise in fish, it isn’t the only thing on the menu and I thoroughly recommend their ‘Heaven and Earth’ starter, which is a little ball of black-puddingy delight. I followed the starter with a beef flank and ale pie – minus the optional oysters, and we shared a gold chocolate mousse and new forest trifle.
I loved all of the food, and I especially loved the cute martini – which came with extra martini. Smooth and strong – exactly how it should be.
PS – I’ve even been back once already – and it was just as good the second time 🙂
One benefit of going to work early in the Summer months is arriving in town just as the sun is rising over The Thames. There’s a perfect view downriver to Tower Bridge from the station at Blackfriars.
I’ve started the last ‘phase’ of my back/arm piece. The design for the right arm is going to include a gorgeous girl-head, along with a modern take on my Dad’s old heart tattoo and an hour glass. Joined together with flowers and ribbons. At least that’s what it is planned to be – the designs always change and morph as we go along, which is one of the great things about not starting out with a fixed plan.
Just look at those eyelashes…
The day after the theatre trip I was up early to meet girlfriends outside Harrods, to do the ‘Race for Life‘.
As before, we walked it together. And as before, it there was emotional moments – though mostly fun ones. And we had a well-deserved Prosecco or two afterwards, followed by Katie and I having a lovely lunch in Knightsbridge. I was worn out by the time I got home 🙂
Finally the day had come to enjoy my Mum’s Christmas and Birthday present – tickets to see the wonderful Sheridan Smith in Funny Girl and then afternoon tea at the equally wonderful Savoy Hotel.
We met in Oxford St, and did a whistlestop tour of the second floor at Debenhams, picking up a new jacket, dress and a couple of tops on the way – all in the space of about 15 minutes! Because the Saturday Prudential Ride 100 was on in London it meant lots of road closures and grabbing a cab wasn’t easy, so we tubed down to Charing Cross and walked along The Strand to The Savoy Theatre.
It was exciting seeing the signage for Funny Girl, and I was very much hoping that Sheridan was going to be in the performance. We got to our seats, which were only 5 rows from the front and was thrilled to discover the she was in the show! I’ve never seen the film and didn’t actually read anything about the play before seeing it, so I didn’t know what to expect. I was blown away – it was a simple story and a simple set, but great acting and performances made it completely enjoyable all the way through, with funny and emotional bits (as well as songs and dancing, obviously!)Â There were no points were it felt like time was dragging and the audience gave Sheridan two very well deserved standing ovations. That’s the second time I’ve seen her in the West End, and the second time she has been absolutely fantastic. We saw her in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2013 at The Noel Coward Theatre, when she starred opposite David Walliams.
After the show we walked next door and had tea in the Thames Foyer at The Savoy. I was ready for it by then, and it didn’t disapoint. Dainty sandwiches, fluffy scones and sweet pastries, all set under the lovely glass dome – with a twinkling piano to accompany us. The Savoy is a grande damme of London hotels and afternoon tea there was a very civillised end to a lovely day.
I’ve been moaning a lot on Twitter these past few weeks about (and to) the company that run the rail franchise that I have to use to get to and from work. So much so, I’m now boring myself! The failures of Govia, which includes Southern Rail and Thameslink are well documented, and seemingly never-ending. The company appear to have carte blanche to cancel hundreds of services daily and in fact, are now approved to do so by the Government.
I’m sure the reasons for the appalling service are complex and multiple – I’ve read both sides of the published story: The unions who feel their members are being treated unfairly and the company who blame the unions and their staff for the problems, while penalising them through removal of train passes and, allegedly, overtime. But by far the biggest cost is to the passengers.
I leave home at 7am every day and I return at 7.45pm if I leave work bang on time, without working any extra hours or staying late to go out. It’s not a big deal, lots of people work long hours and I choose to live outside London so I can live in something larger than a shoe box. But my ability to do so is completely and utterly reliant on a functioning public transport system, where delays and cancellations are the exception, not the norm.
On any one day in the past few weeks, over 500 services have been cancelled on the Brighton to London line PER DAY, and today new timetables have been announced that cull 2 services an hour – 341 trains a day. Basically they are cancelling trains to avoid having to cancel trains and yet, with these cuts come no reduction in fares. Yep, the £4,600 or so I pay every year will now buy me 15-25% less service. Regardless of whose fault it is, it is quite astonishing that customers are picking up the brunt, both financially and emotionally, of this catastrophic mis-management.
I say emotionally, because I believe it is true that this disruption on people’s daily lives – on their ability to get to work, to hospital appointments, to job interviews and to go on days out has a tangible affect on stress levels, mental wellbeing and overall happiness. Not being able to get home to your partner, to pick your kids up or arrive home safely after a night out with friends is atrocious. You can’t guarantee getting to work on time – if you work for yourself that has a direct cost – and you can’t guarantee being able to get home on time. So all social arrangements are out of the window. Personally it causes me anxiety and frustration and increases my stress levels. I know they record punctuality and service performance, but I bet no one is recording impact on individuals and their stress levels during this disruption.
An Office of National statistics report published in 2014 looked at the relationship between commuting and personal wellbeing and the results probably weren’t that surprising, though I’m not sure the research asked questions around reliability of service as a factor to influence stress or unhappiness. It said that commuters who spend 60-90 minutes travelling to work each morning suffer the most, and are the most miserable of all of those surveyed. ‘The effects of commuting on personal wellbeing were greatest for anxiety and happiness, suggesting that commuting affects day-to-day emotions’, the report states.
So, how would they now measure the effects of harder/longer journeys to work, regular disruption, longer days – all brought about by the inability of Govia to run their business properly? I did a straw poll on Twitter (where else!) and the response was overwhelmingly that the situation is causing anxiety and frustration, and in two cases, caused people to actually change jobs. Overcrowding is also a huge issue for people, inducing claustrophobia and panic attacks.
But I bet no one is really surveying customers or thinking about customer experience right now. And I wonder how many current passengers would choose to use the company if they had any other option at all? Very few I would imagine. I also wonder if customer experience or brand reputation matters when you run a service that is effectively a monopoly over one of the busiest London-bound commuter routes and the Government gives you a billion pound to do so? And I also wonder how much you really care when your customers don’t receive full refunds while your CEO pockets £2.1m in bonuses?
At least I’ve got lots of free time, waiting for cancelled trains, to ponder it.
Well, I had a lovely time on my evening out alone. First, hairdressers, followed by dinner at Foxlow then cocktails at The Gibson. I didn’t read much of my book (I blame the lighting) and it was pretty hard to keep off my phone/IPad but I did have a nice relaxing time. As well as learning a few things:
- The rest of the world is really bloody noisy when you’re on your own in a restaurant. Made me realise what a braying bunch of noise mongerers me and my friends must be.
- You notice the speed at which you drink (first one, fast) and feel much more self conscious asking for a second (and third) drink than you do when you’re with someone else.
- Putting your phone down is way harder than you think. Which means it’s way harder to be completely out of communication with other people.
- It didn’t feel uncomfortable AT ALL. The restaurant was busy and I felt a bit apologetic asking for a table for 1, but only a bit. It didn’t feel like anyone was bothered.
- I really don’t know what wine to order. I only drink white and when the 3 or so I know I like were not on the menu I was a bit flumoxed. Turns out Resiling is nice.
- I was having such a nice time I wished I’d invited some friends along to share it. Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
- You have to eat a whole desert. Which, ya know, isn’t a problem because chocolate with salted caramel is awesome. How did I not know this?
- When there is sticky toffee pudding on the menu, most of the men in the restaurant will order it.
- The bill is so much cheaper. Obviously.
- It’s a bit like being invisible, in a good way. Not a superpower-good-way, but a quite nice people watching way.
It is Clerkenwell Design Week this week, so the whole area was buzzy, with people taking advantage of the shows, viewings and drinks parties.
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- Table for 1
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- Salted caramel chocolate
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- Lovely bar
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- Vintage shakers
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- A chocolate coin
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- Steak and salad
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- In on the act
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- Hello lover
Tomorrow something unusual is going to happen. I am going to have an evening to myself.
We are staying in London, but not going out together and I’m so spoilt for choice of what to do and who to see, that I’ve decided I can’t decide. So I’m going to finish work and then I’m going to sit in the hairdressers for two hours getting my hair coloured, without having to worry about where I need to be or what I should be doing. I can just sit there talking nonsense with my hairdresser and reading trashy mags. And then, when I emerge with newly coloured roots and a spring in my step, I’m going to go out for dinner and a glass or two of wine, with only a book and a notebook for company.
For about a week I have toyed with the idea that I could have made plans, could have met friends or gone to an event or seen a show, or done just about anything that involved making an arrangement. But the most luxurious thing I was drawn to doing was to buy myself dinner and spend some time not talking or listening to anyone else. Just a tiny little bit of time.
I wonder if the ability to find solitude is harder today, with so much bustle and connection, and it’s odd that spending time alone seems such a treat. I’m sure too, that people will assume that a woman dining alone is doing so because she has to, or is lonely, or has no friends. However, according to my basic online research, seeking and achieving even small amounts of solitude has many physical and psychological benefits.
Psychology Today magazine reports that periods of solitude allow you to reboot your brain and unwind, can improve concentration and increase productivity. Funny how the idea of sitting somewhere quietly with your thoughts and a book seems so alien that there are pages and pages of stuff about how to do it online. Anyway, I’m looking forward to experiencing something I haven’t done for ages and it’ll be interesting to see how long I can stay off my phone.
Now I just need to decide where to go.
