LONDON DAY 3, A MORNING TRIP TO WINDSOR CASTLE AND A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE

 Hello again my dear readers,

I am picking up the pace, trying my best to avoid long gaps between the postings of the narrative of our trip so you will not lose the plot😜.

For our third day in London we planned a visit to Windsor Castle in the morning and in the evening going to the theatre to see The Mousetrap.

The easiest way to get to Windsor Castle is to take a train.  As I mentioned earlier, our hotel in Aldgate was just two minutes away from the train station which was extremely convenient.  We alighted at Waterloo Station to change for the GWR train that took us directly to Windsor and Eaton riverside.  From there, it was just a 10 minutes walk to the gates of the castle.

Windsor Castle is one of the oldest and largest occupied castles in the world.  It was founded in the 11th century by William the Conqueror and has been a home for 40 monarchs ever since.

It's architecture is based on a medieval structure with Gothic features reinvented in the modern style.  As you walk towards it, you become aware of how big and imposing this castle is.  

There are a few rooms that are open to the public such as the State Apartments, Ceremonial and  Historic Rooms, Queen Mary's Dolls House, you can explore the Precincts or watch the Changing of the Guards.

Unfortunately the photography is not permitted inside the castle so I can't share with you any images but I can assure you that the interiors of the castle look as grand as its exterior.  You wouldn't expect anything less of the royal residence, naturally.

When it comes to food and drinks, there are a few small outdoor cafes where you can get coffee and sandwiches but if you really want to enhance your experience, have your lunch in the Undercroft Cafe at Windsor Castle.

Situated underneath St George's Hall, it dates back to 14th century and has a medieval interior that reflects the architecture style of the castle.  The cafe serves delicious set meals comprised of a hot soup, a main course and a delicious pud at a very reasonable price which for us, Australians, was an icing on the cake considering the weakness of our $ against the British £.

After lunch we took a walk around the grounds and then made our way to the train station to get back to the hotel to refresh ourselves for the evening.  I know that it sounds like a cliché but we were going to see the play, The Mousetrap.  You know the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"?  Well, I have my own spin on it and whenever we are in a foreign city, I would always say "When in such and such, do as the tourists do" and so we did.

The play has an interesting history.  It was written by the master of mystery, Agatha Christie.  The play has a twisted ending which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre.  It is not only the longest-running West End show but it also has by far the longest run of any play in the world reaching its 30,000 performances on the 19 of March 2025.  Christie herself didn't expect Mousetrap to run for such a long time.  When her impresario was going to give it fourteen months, she contradicted him giving the play only eight months.

The play was performed at Theatre Royal in Nottingham in October 1952 but moved to St Martin's Theatre in 1975 where it has been performed ever since.  

It might not be the most thrilling, nail-biting plot as I expected it to be but we thoroughly enjoy our evening.  When the show ended,  we stopped at the box office to get one of the theatre attendants to stamp our playbill showing that we had just watched performance number 30,197!!!

After the leaving the theater, we stopped at a local pub for a night cap and then took the train back to the hotel.  Day 3 was done and dusted.  

Have you seen this play and what is your opinion about it?  Please share your thoughts in the section below.  

Until then,

Anna

xoxox

Linking with I DO DECLARE 

LONDON DAY 2 - DINNER AT SKETCH

Hello dear my dear readers,

Welcome to the evening edition of our Day 2 London sojourn.  If you wondering what we did in the first part of the day, you can read it here.  Hint:  we went to see The Wallace Collection 😀.

Please accept my sincere apologies for taking a long time between posts but if you were following my blog, you might notice that about a year ago I stopped blogging and it is taking time to fall back into the rhythm.  I am working on it as we speak so please be patient😊.

You won't believe me if I tell you the reason I wanted to go to Sketch.  Many years ago I had a strange hobby, using my Olympus camera I was taking photos of the unusually looking toilets whenever we went; some of them were quirky, some were lavishly decorated, some had interesting interior details, etc.  It was way before iPhones, Instagram or Facebook so you couldn't share it with anyone unless you printed them.  So when I mentioned it to one of my friends, she just jokingly suggested that if we ever going to London, I should check out the bathrooms at Sketch.  Mind you, it was many, many years ago and  that hobby has died as many others did over the years, I still remember her comment and put a dinner at Sketch on our London's "to do list".

A quick read of their webpage made me want to go there even more.  I couldn't find any mention of the bathrooms though but we liked the food and the vibe and decided to give it a go.  As per usual practice, any place that we would like to visit on our travels which requires booking, we would book from home well in advance and this time it wan no exception.

And so on our second night in London we found ourselves standing outside Sketch looking at the "Faceless Dog" sculpture hung about the entrance.

The first thing we saw when we stepped inside, was a famous "Drip"

followed by the drawing of a Hopscotch pattern on the floor.

The restaurant offers a multitude of dining experience depending on what time of day you want to have your meal and whether you want sweet or savory or just a cocktail or two across different rooms, each decorated in a unique style.  After some consideration, we booked a dinner in The Gallery

As we were making our way to the dining room, we came across some other quirky displays and eye catching light installations.

But the toilets were the icing on the cake, just as I hoped.

You access the bathroom area by a split curved staircase.  As you enter the bathroom, you see big white egg-shaped cubicles scattered all around the perimeter. 

Each egg contains an individual toilet, each with its individual music and sounds creating quite surreal experience.   

The colours of the glass ceiling cast a soft glow over the eggs adding another dimension to the whole experience.

As for the food, I really enjoyed my Sketch Beef Tartare followed by Sketch 057 dessert.  The staff was very polite and attentive  and we both had a very enjoyable evening.  

This brings the end to our Day 2 in London.   Stay tuned for more😀

Until then,

Anna

xoxoxo

LONDON DAY 2, MORNING - VISITING THE WALLACE COLLECTION

Hello again, my dear readers

In my previous post I started sharing with you the details of our overseas trip to Scandinavia with a short stopover in London.  Our first day was rather uneventful as we spent most of it on the plane.  You can catch up here.

On the day 2 we woke up feeling much better, the jetlag was almost gone and we were ready for some action.

The first item on our agenda was a visit to The Wallace Collection.  I came across this art museum in my research about London and was very keen to see the masterpieces of paintings, furniture, sculpture, armory and other forms of art housed in this historical museum.

It was built over the 18th and 19th centuries by the Marquess of Herford and Sir Richard Wallace and is one of the finest and most celebrated collections in the world and is displayed at Hertford House in Manchester Square, their former principal London residence.  

The Collection was given to the British nation in 1897 by Lady Wallace, so it could be kept together and enjoyed by generations of visitors.  It was one of the greatest gifts of artwork ever to be transferred to public ownership.  The Collection was opened to the public in 1900.  I am not sure how it was organised back then but these days it is a free admission affair.

You would never guess that this elegant building is housing one of the most exquisite collections I have ever seen.  The last time I saw so much opulence gathered under the same roof was during our trip to St Petersburg visiting the Hermitage Museum.  

Every room was bursting with absolute treasures.  The rays of light were sparkling in crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceilings. The gilded display cabinets were heaving under the treasures artfully displayed on their shelves while their tops were decorated with the bronze clocks depicting some historical moment, a famous person or biblical scene.  The cabinets were richly covered with gilt-bronze mounts used as decorative and protective overlay.  

Most of the furniture and decorative arts were made in the 17-19 c France in Baroque or Rococo styles.  And yet every room looks different from the next.  That was achieved by choosing different colour schemes.

The the silk curtains framed tall windows, their rich intence colours of green, black, turquoise or red matching the wall-paper or silk wall and furniture coverings.

Out of all colours that dominated the rooms, this lushness green was my favourite.

We spent a fair amount of time walking up and down the stairs, wandering from room to room until we couldn't take in any more and decided to leave.

We walked back to Oxford Street to catch a bus home but not before popping into Selfridges.  Unfortunately, our Australian dollar was so much cheaper then British £ that whatever I was thinking of buying, would cost us three times more here than at home.  So we decided not to waste any more time and went back to our hotel to have some rest and change our clothes before going out again in the evening for our dinner at Sketch.

But this is for another post 😀

Until then

Anna

xoxoxo

LONDON SOJOURN - DAY 1 ARRIVAL

 Hello again, my dear readers.

If you read my previous post, you might remember that in August last year we embarked on our very first overseas trip past-COVID.  Our main destination was a tour around Scandinavia but first we decided to spend a week in London.

We were flying with Thai Airways which meant that we had a 4 hour stop-over in Bangkok,  Thailand's capital).  It took us ten long hours to get there and when we finally landed in Bangkok, it was midnight local time.  Luckily, we were flying Business Class and when sleepy and tired we made our way to the Business Lounge, we felt quite fortunate.  After refreshing showers and tasty meal of local delicacies we were ready to continue our journey.

The last leg of the flight, Bangkok to London, was fourteen hours, the bulk of which we spent mostly sleeping thus arrived in London feeling reasonably awake and alert. We checked in hour hotel Hotel Saint, around 9 am local time and took an elevator to our room.  We both knew that if stayed inside, we just crashed the bed and woke up in the middle of the night from the jetlag.  

 If you ever been on a long-haul flight, you probably know how jetlagged you feel for the first couple of days and we were no exception.

So we decided to leave the hotel and go for a walk around the neighborhood, afterwards walking to the nearest tube station and for no apparent reason, taking a train to Hide Park.  We chose to stay at Hotel Saint which is within two minutes walk from Aldgate Tube Station. Once out of the station, we just took an aimless walk around the neighborhood. 

However, after a while we felt so tired that we gave up, took the train back and went straight to bed.

Stay tuned for day 2

Until then,

Anna

xoxox

OUR SCANDINAVIAN ADVENTURE - PROLOGUE

 Hello my dear readers,

It has been a long time since I touch my blog or read anything posted by my fellow bloggers.  I have no excuses or explanation to offer, I just felt that I needed to withdraw.

After a while, it all started comings slowly back to me, I realised how much I missed blogging so I decided to give myself another chance so please bear with me.

As it stands at this very moment, I haven't been taken any fashion shoots to share with you, my dear readers but I do, however have some lovely memories about our trip to Scandinavia and would love to share them with you.

So, without further ado, let me begin.

Last time my husband I have travelled overseas was in 2019.  First, it was COVID and the whole world was in lockdown but even after the borders were opened, we didn't feel safe enough to travel long distance.  However, by the start of  2025, we ran out of excuses and decided that we are ready to face the world.  The question was, where would we go? 

 As you might know or not that in Australia if you work a full calendar year, you are entitled to 4 weeks of annual leave.  It sounds like a lot, but if you live as far we do and pay as much in airfares as we do, you try to cram as much in your itinerary as humanly possible to make your money and time worthwhile.

While we contemplated our next move, one day while doom scrolling through my FB feed, I saw pictures of my niece and her family travelling through Scandinavia.  And that gave us an idea of where we should go.  The question was how were we going to do it.

We didn't feel like doing places-hopping as we used to.  We were considering joining a tour but didn't want to be among a big bunch of strangers nor being on the bus for hours on end.  So I started to search the net and shortly came across a company called Nordic Visitor that offers all sorts of tours around Europe and Scandinavia.  After a comprehensive search of their website, we settled on a fourteen day tour called Highlights of Scandinavia and Baltic Cruise.  What attracted our attention was that this tour was catered for a small group of people (up to 20).  That and the variety of the modes of transportation which mostly involves ferries and trains, while the buses were only used for city tours and dropping or picking us up from the point of arrival or departure.  

Here is the map of the tour but if you like to know more about this tour in detail such as full detailed itinerary, tour highlights, main attractions, accommodation, transportation etc, just click on this link or ask me a question in the comments section.

It was only one thing left to do:  select a date, book and pay which we happily did.

We were extremely careful choosing the dates for our trip as we learned from our first trip to Europe

Many years ago we happened to be in Europe in late July - early August and were shocked by the multitude of people everywhere.  Since I had never been in Europe before, let alone in summer, I had no idea of how busy it could be.  On the other hand, it was our honeymoon so we didn't have much choice of when to go, didn't we?  Armed with this knowledge and personal experience, after careful consideration we came to a conclusion that we should book our journey towards the end of summer. The Nordic weather would still be reasonably warm and the crowds in Europe would be mostly dispersed by then.  And let me tell you, it was the best decision ever.

However, since I had 4 weeks of my annual holidays at my disposal, we decided to have a sojourn in London before embarking on our Scandinavian adventure but that is for the next post.

Until then,

Anna

xoxoxo

HOW I STYLED A MIDI DENIM SKIRT FOR THE OFFICE

Hello again dear readers, hope you are all well.

I put this outfit together with the help of brand new and not so new pieces.  Let me tell you about my new purchases.

First is a black midi denim skirt from Marcs.

The maxi denim skirts have been have been spotted down 2024 NYFW spring/summer ready-to-wear runways and were go-to-items among Sydney fashionistas over the cool months of autumn and winter and even in the earlier months of spring.  

The majority of shops stock skirts made out of blue denim in various shades from the darkest to the lightest cut straight with the front split.  I have tried so many of them to find the one that I look good in but failed.  For starters, this cut does not suit my body shape at all, also the true blue denim does not appeal to me.  

I was looking for a skirt that would look equally good in the office and on the streets.  Then one day browsing through the rack of a Marcs stand at David Jones department store, I found a skirt that matched all my parameters: it was made of black denim and has a flattering design lightly curving around the hips before flaring out though a fluted hem.  It suited my body shape perfectly and due to its black colour and silhouette I figured that I can wear it to the office too.

The second new addition to my closed is a white V-neck singlet from American Vintage.  I have quite a few white t-shirts but they all have a round neckline.  It goes very nicely when you wear it with a scarf.  I bought it in black too 👍😃.

And last but not least, is my new leather belt from a brand called Very Troubled Child.  My daughter bought it for me when she was on holiday in New York during her stuvac, Millennials slang for student vacation.  

You might also notice a big silver ring on my second finger, it is called The Bone Ring by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany and was a wedding anniversary gift from my husband.  

My Sandro jacket, Ferragamo shoes and LV red patent handbag have been living in my closet for much longer than I care to remember, proving once again that quality goods last a lifetime.

As for my Guy Laroche silk scarf, it belonged to my late mother-in-law who absolutely adored scarves and were given to me after her passing and now I feel privileged to share this passion with her.

Thank you for reading my blog, please leave your comments in the section below, your opinion is important to me 😍

Until then,

Anna

xoxoxo