Birthday Part 1

As of lately I feel like all I have been doing is work, work and working so this week I decided to take a whole week off work to celebrate my birthday with family and friends. I filled out each day with plans and honestly I thought with all the walking I had done this week that I would have lost some weight but... It seems that the eating had over-weighed the walking. It was a tiring but happy week, there were times where I felt so emotional and thankful; and though I am an Atheist the word that kept coming to mind, was blessed.

Sunday - Day Out with the Family
There were 10 of us and it started off with dimsum at Golden Dragon, where we ordered far too much. The picture beside was just the start of it, the table was not big enough so we had to leave the dishes stacked.
We then took the kiddies to the arcade in Trocadero and when I say kiddies.. I also mean me, my younger brother and my cousin. We probably had more fun than the babies did. After that we went to Boba Jam for some bubble tea, the babies ordered some crepes there as well, which I got to try for the first time and it was actually quite nice. We then needed some time to digest before dinner so we were walking around Central London before stopping to take tourist pictures in the middle of Trafalgar Square. For dinner we had Korean BBQ at Arirang, usually this place helps you to cook the meat but because there was so many of us they couldn't really get to the table so my uncle and mum volunteered to cook it instead, thereby I have no decent pictures of it lol. My auntie then surprised me with a Patisserie Valerie cake, I say surprised but being sly is not in her vocabulary. I was still thankful though. It is not surprising I finished the day in a food coma.

Left - Duck wings, jelly and pork slices. Right - Crispy pig.

Derp faces with the lil' bro and lil' cousin.

Lil' cousin and me.

Banana and chocolate crepes.

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Monday - Sketch Restaurant with the Homie

Ever since I saw Miyavi's (a Japanese rock artist) Instagram picture of the Sketch Restaurant toilets' I was intrigued and upon researching about it I became more and more interested. Alas an opportunity had arisen. I know that S.D enjoys visiting these expensive restaurants so she was the first person I thought of. We went shopping in Oxford Street beforehand to buy a few bits and bobs; cue embarrassing story, I was walking out of H&M when the detection machines beeped, the security guard pulled me back to check my bag and out of all the items in the bag, the item that still had the security tag on was a bra. I think he felt quite embarrassed as well since he folded it up really small for me after taking the tag off.

The restaurant is located just off Regent St near Hamleys. The sign for it isn't big at all but you can instantly tell, with the white deer head sticking out of the building and a dressed-to-impress door man waiting at the entrance.

Outside the entrance.

As we entered it was quite dark inside, we were greeted by the lady at the desk, tall and in a tight dress, who gave us directions to The Gallery and to let us know that they also have a cloakroom to leave our bags in if we wish. Upon arriving at The Gallery another lady asked us where we would like to sit and I chose a comfy table at the end which I saw had a sofa chair there. One of the attractions of The Gallery is the mish-mash of the random furniture and cutlery, no 2 items are the same. We were then bombarded with a number of different staff coming up to our table and making sure everything is okay. One was a wine connoisseur, one was a water boy, one was a bread and butter boy, and I think another 2 were the actual waiter/waitress. I must say the staff were very friendly and attentive.

I did read the reviews of the restaurant beforehand and many people were saying that for the quality of the food, it is overpriced and so my expectations for the actual food were not high but it was much better than I had originally anticipated. The snail starters had to be the nicest dish of the day, whilst the mains were okay. My salmon was half-cooked so it was somewhat fishy but S.D's duck was really nice. The side order of the spinach in cream sauce was tasty but the wild rice was somewhat tasteless and hard. For desserts I had the Napoleon pastry dish and S.D got the Malabar dish. The actual pastry in the Napoleon dish seemed to be quite burnt and crispy but I was not sure if that was how it is suppose to be, aside from that it would have been a really nice end to the meal. S.D's dessert was an exploration for the taste-bud but the presentation of it was not so great. I think that you do pay more for the atmosphere rather than the food here but I am glad I can now tick this place off my to-do list.

The funky menu.

Snails for starters.

The mains and side dishes. The portions seem tiny but it was quite filling in the end. 

Our cocktails - Berries on Fire and Perfect Passion. We both liked our own cocktails, I had the berry one which was quite sweet and S.D had the other one which was quite sour. 

I am an artist :D

The view from my sofa seat, straight on was the toilets.

Me and the Homie

The toilets! I was somewhat scared when entering the egg toilets. The toilet actually speaks to you whilst you are trying to do your business. Also bizarrely the cleaning lady was in a maid outfit for some reason.