ROUND THE WORLD #8. LONDON CALLING.
January 29, 2010

Whilst we were in the neighborhood we decided to take a quick trip over the ditch for an overnighter in London.

Checked into the St Martin's Lane Hotel in Covent Garden. Phillipe Starck design, a boutique type layout, and great service. Highly reccomended, although in the evening the bars do get quite rowdy.

Caught up with Andrew Bunney, (Gimme 5 alumni, Bunney, Creative Director Doc Martens) and Big Daisuke for tea at Fortnum & Mason. Having lived predominantly in modern/young cities most of my life - Taipei, Singapore, Los Angeles, Auckland, the history of European establishments and how they integrate into the modern world still amazes me. Fortnum & Mason is a 303 year old institution in London. Not quite your average Macy's.

Andrew took us on a quick stroll and tour through the area, through the Burlington arcade, where we saw the jewellers who performed the work on Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God" diamond skull.

Asprey, Bond Street, another centuries old institution.

Smythson's, and then Church's. I couldn't resist.

We all met up for dinner on Brewer St with Tommy, Andrew's wife, who incidentally writes a beautiful blog about life, culture, and food here - thisisnaive.com. I like her photography.

The rather glamorous, kinda nerdy, a little geeky, Mai Ikuzawa also joined us for the meal, as well as Chieko (HeadPorter alumni). Had a fun time trying to out-nerd each other. Daisuke was a real trooper too. This is the third country and third city I've seen him in over the past two weeks... then again, it looked like it was taking its toll. Nothing several shots of dutch courage couldn't fix though.

You know those moments where a good idea turns bad? Here is one of them. Meet Harold the Hamburg.