I felt my birthday this year deserved a post of it's own! I read a thought piece online at the beginning of the year (can't find it online now) that was all about how it's a privilege to have a birthday and we should continue to celebrate - in whatever way that looks best to us - but to mark it in some way.
So this year, I took the day off and made plans for the day. Victor suggested lunch in Hutong, a fancy Chinese restaurant in the Shard. Since I enjoy Chinese food and love going to the top of tall buildings this was something I was definitely on board with.
I started the day with one of my favourite things; a walk through Russia Dock Woodland. Heading up Stave Hill to take in a slightly gloomy view over London. Before back home to get ready for out posh lunch.
The food in Hutong was excellent, particularly my starter of Shandong chicken and our main of spicy soft shell crab. We were luckily seated at a window table facing out over my side of London (looking east). My only criticisms are that for fancy toilets there was no hand cream (which I wanted to take advantage of!) and unsurprisingly the authenticity was undermined somewhat by the misplaced lions at the entrances - Chinese entrances often have two lions either side of the front door. A male and female; which you can tell because the female has a lion cub under one foot and the male a ball. In Hutong one entrance had two males and the other two females. #fail
After our lunch, I dragged Victor over to monument as climbing to the top has been on my list of things to do for some time! It was definitely more of an undertaking than I anticipated, still feeling full after lunch, but we managed it and even got a certificate to prove it when we got safely back to the bottom. The views were good, although obviously completely overshadowed by all the surrounding skyscrapers. Interesting to think how this would have been one of the tallest structures when it was first constructed and now it's so dwarfed by everything else around it.
For the rest of the afternoon we wandered slowly down to the Tower of London, stopping off for a quick drink by the Tower itself before jumping on the riverboat back to Rotherhithe. A truly lovely day, and well worth the celebration.
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| Although it was cloudy, it was still quite bright! |
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| Looking over at his office. |
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| These were not good :-( |
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