I have debated whether to include London in this series. Not because I doubt it makes me happy, but because I have blogged about my love for it extensively before. However, we took the girls into the West End this evening to see the Christmas lights, and that decided me. 

My wonderful, crazy, busy, crowded, chaotic, exciting, vibrant, lively, lovely city makes me too happy not to earn its place. We’re so lucky to be a 20 minute tube away from the heart of it. Husband is off work now, so I left him in charge of the children and I went into town a bit earlier, so I could give blood. A combination of that not taking as long as I expected, and Sophia’s nap at home being longer than usual meant that I ended up having an hour to kill before the rest of my family joined me.

It was very strange. The office where I used to work is on the next block to the Donor Centre, and so this is very much my old stamping ground, but it has changed so much. The cafes I used to frequent have mostly changed, but I had fun doing a little window shopping and then having an indulgent Cioccolata Fiorentina in Carluccio’s whilst re-reading Katie Fforde’s feel-good novel The Rose Revived which is a pre-Christmas must for me. 

When the others arrived we wandered through the streets of Mayfair, admiring the magical fairyland lights and gazing in awe at the window displays of shops too posh for us to think of even walking into. I saw a pair of pretty, delicate diamond and emerald ear-rings in one Bond Street jewellers, and although they were a mere snip at £6995,00, husband did not respond particularly positively to my suggestion that they’d be a nice little extra stocking filler. We looped back up Carnaby Street – one of my favourite streets in Central London, and always with amazing Christmas lights, and finished up by having spelt flat breads topped with all sorts of delicious things at Flat Planet. This place is a family favourite of ours, and it was the first time we’d taken Sophia since she started on proper food;  happily she seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. And I have a triple chocolate Ben’s cookie in a bag, just waiting for me to devour very shortly. I might even have a Bailey’s with it – after all, it is Christmas!