Highlight of the Day - Although it sounds really insignificant, I found a long iPhone 5 cable for less than a fiver on Living Social, which means I can now charge my phone over night and still have it on my bed to use as my alarm - not fun to have to get out of bed to snooze every day.  Life changing.

Embarrassing moment of the day - getting lost at Kentish Town station.   Google Maps really makes it looks like you come out on the opposite side of the road to where you actually come out (I double checked afterwards).  I had to ask in Greggs and the guy behind the desk said "Oh, don't ask me, I'm not a local."  I mean, where does he commute from to work in Greggs?? I eventually found my way anyway.

Today, I went narrow boating on the Thames, as you do.  We started at Broadway Market and spent just over 2 hours on the boat to go all the way up to Camden via Angel - it was so much fun! Not the best weather, but it was mostly covered.  I went for a friend's birthday and we all just drank ourselves silly on the boat as we looked at the pretty canal and waved at strangers (which got a bit awkward, as we were actually moving really slowly!!).  We went through lochs and everything, just like Rosie and Jim! I loved it and would definitely go again (would be even better in summer...if we ever get one!)

Highlight of the Week - chilling with vino tinto, vino blanco, beer, shandy and a new discovery of 'tinto verano con limon' which is red wine mixed with traditional lemonade or less traditional lemon Fanta in SPAIN in the SUNSHINE - woo!

Lowlight of the Week - Realising how unfit I am.  Getting lost on a 1-hour mooch turned it into a 4-hour hilly hike.  This was on the second day of my week-long holiday.  I then spent the rest of the week aching all over - slightly depressing perhaps.  I chose to solve it by eating lots of tapas and drinking lots of wine.

Embarrassing Moment of the Week - Where to start? I went into the women's toilet and almost walked into a 70-year-old Spanish woman, panicked because I didn't know the word for "sorry" so I bowed, almost knocking her out (I used to live on Japan, I blame it on that).  My friends and I also got kicked out of the cathedral in Toledo in a rather loud and public fashion as we tried to sneak in because we'd missed the free entrance period by about 2 minutes (due to very misleading signs).  Jesus would've been ashamed.

Yes, I haven't blogged for over a week as I've been sunning myself up in Spain.  My friend won a stay in a 'villa' in the Spanish mountains, near a 'town' called Cecedillia.  Not long before we left, the 'villa' was downgraded to a 'lodge' to a 'flat' and the 'town' to a 'village' that was more a of a cabin (but still very nice).  I've got another friend who lives in Madrid, so I spent some time with her and we also went to the stunningly beautiful Toledo (although we spent most of our time there looking at things without knowing what they were) and the incredibly intimidating tomb of Franco (plus the odd thousand civil war victims!)  I enjoyed myself immensely.  Only small problem was the lovely 4-hour delay that Easy Jet provided us on the way back.  Oh yes, and the perfectly grey sky that greeted us on our return - back to reality!

Also used the panorama function successfully for the first time on my camera - see above! Go me!

Highlight of the Day - FINALLY getting a new phone - iPhone5, woo! No thanks to Carphone Warehouse or Three - all thanks to me being intelligent, determined and (eventually) very un-Britishly forceful.  I might give you the full shabang in another post one day, but I don't want to think about it for now, I'm happily playing with my new Appley toy.  Also rather enjoy this Youtube video of idiots at the Coachella Festival in the US pretending they know bands that don't exist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_IzYUJANfk

Lowlight of the day - being stuck in Sainsbury's whilst a man announced about (no exaggeration) 20 times that the fire alarm was about to be tested.  It was tested, he then announced 20 times that the fire alarm test was over.

I felt pretty old today.  I went to a club for the first time in quite a while and I enjoyed myself, but whereas a couple of years ago I would've partied until 5 and spent all night drinking, I stopped after 3 drinks (because I didn't want a hangover, didn't want to queue at the bar and didn't want to spend £4.50 on a dwarfed can of Heineken...so sensible) and was pooped by 1.  We went to see Mark Ronson DJ at XOYO in Shoreditch by Old Street Station.  We had to call the club first to ask them how to pronounce it because we were a bit embarrassed we might say it wrong in front of some cool kids in the queue or something! I can confirm it's just X O Y O in letters - nothing too complicated there then!

We saw Mark Ronson announce some other acts, but we're not entirely sure we even heard him DJ, because it was so smokey and we just had to leave at one before our legs dropped off.  We also had to move to a less crowded area several times, because we didn't like trying to dance whilst feeling like you were in constant junction of people and were elbowing people left, right and centre.  The mix of music was really fun though - some dance and some classic disco, and upstairs they had RnB (I had a good gay sing to Jumpin' Jumpin' by Destiny's Child, to which I still know every word - they played a quicker version and I still put myself on fast forward and sang all the way through - not totally over the hill yet!).  The strangest part of the night was when a girl came up to me (from quite far away as well, she'd obviously picked me out of the crowd) and asked if I had any "M Dog".  I had no idea what she was on about, I said "What?" then she asked again.  I said "No" (crazy girl) and then she said "How about coke?" I laughed out loud and said "NO." Really, I would've thought the fact that I hadn't heard of the first drug and reacted in such a shocked way to coke would prove that I wasn't drug dealer (although really I'd hoped I don't look like one anyway!!), but the persistent little thing still carried on "Anything?"  How confident was she that I was a drug dealer??

Looked up M Dog online today and urban dictionary tells me it's short for MDMA.  It's the first time I've looked something up on urban dictionary and it hasn't meant "shit" so I'm very pleased.

On the way home, however, we had a new lease of life and decided, spur of the moment to go to Duck and Waffle!! It's number 30 on my list of things to do, so that's a big tick for me! It's open 24-hours and it was absolutely wonderful.  It's the restaurant at the top of the Heron Tower near Liverpool Street.  If you don't know which one it is, see the picture above - it's that one with what looks like a mahusive radio aerial next to the Gherkin.  You get an absolutely incredible view over London, the staff are lovely and, at that time of night, it's very quiet up there, so you have an almost private view in a serene setting.  The signature dish is waffle with duck meat and a duck's egg, but we didn't get it, because it was a bit pricey and we weren't starving.  Instead, we got Columbian Eggs, which were only £9! It was basically posh scrambled eggs on toast with lots of avacado.  It was really delicious.  We sat there for about 2 hours chatting away (and nursing the oncoming hangover that was already setting in).  I will definitely try to go again - £10 including tip for

Highlight of the Day - The Light Show at the Southbank Centre - it was phenomenal.  It's about 15 pieces of art which all use light in some way.  The fact that there were only 15 pieces, but that me and my friends spent well over 2 hours there, shows just how fascinating they were: optical illusions, interactive adventures and mesmerising beauties.  Go, go, go!

Embarrassing Moment of the Day - Randomly falling into a really heavy sleep on the tube - possibly a tiny bit of dribble - horrendous!

This day was a special day.  We organised a birthday treat for a friend, by making her lots of clues on gold cards and hiding around London with them, with each clue guiding her to the next.  We planned meticulously, but this didn't stop the odd error creeping in, like my friend bumping into an old colleague when she was supposed to be rushing ahead of me and the birthday girl to be ready with the next clue at Warren Street Station.  My friend worked out the clue, we went to Warren Street, I thought we had made perfect timing, and then I felt my phone vibrate as soon as we were coming to the top of the escalators.  "STALL."  "I'm behind you".  As she had been chatting away, she had wound up on the same tube as us and we had taken her over! So we were heading to a clueless spot.  Stalling was not easy and it was all quite hilarious.  The clue was about newspapers and it was actually as simple as going to the Evening Standard stand right outside the front of the station, but I made it out it was more difficult, which sent her on a wild goose chase for a couple of minutes.  There was another part where I was going to go the toilet after during our lunch and not come back, instead going with the next clue to Goodge Street, waiting for the birthday girl to find me.  We were in the Attendant Cafe (see below) and you have to go outside to the toilet to the pub next door.  Of course, she needed the toilet at the same time, so we had to go to the pub togehter and I just had to walk into the gents', turn around and head straight back out.  I'd really needed to go too - so spent most of the rest of the day almost wetting myself.  Not sure what the landlady thought of my strolling into the loos and running out 5 seconds later!  Quick work!

Our lunch was in The Attendant Cafe, just near Mortimer Street and the BT Tower.  It's an old Victorian public toilet that has been cleaned up (they promise!) and is being used as a restuarant, so you can eat your lunch in a urinal, with a hand-dryer hovering dangerously close to your head.  It's quite the experience! It's tiny, so a bit difficult to get urinal-seats, but the food is lovely, the staff are very friendly (they even played a part in our clues) and it's just so unique, it's really worth a visit.  I had a sandwich on tiger bread (another addiction of mine) and a really tasty coffee.  I recommend it! My friends had goat's cheese tart and warm french toast - they all loved their meals too.  Slightly ironic that the toilets are outside!  My only disappointment is that there were no cheesy puns like BOGOF on coffees or something, or a fridge labelled the water closet...I'm a sucker for a good pun! It's a bit too cool for that I think though.  I'll be going again, I really enjoyed myself.

After more treasure hunt and the Light Show, we finished the day in Skylon Bar in the Royal Festival Hall Building.  Lovely cocktails (I had a blood orange martini), if slightly awkward table arrangements, as we couldn't fit 4 plates (for charcuterie, darrrling), 4 drinks and the platter around one table, so we were sort of sitting in a line along two tables, which were also of different heights.  It felt a bit like Christmas dinner!

Highlight of the day - at the risk of sounding like an obese alcoholic, a glass of white wine and a some NEW DELICIOUS Double Chocolate Digestives (I mean, it's a crime not to try new things), at the end of a looooong day at work.

Lowlight of the day - First world problem I know, but, semi-skimmed milk shortage at work meant that I had to compromise.  I've always drunk semi and for me, skimmed is like water and whole is like cream.  For my cereal, I thought I was being really clever by mixing some skimmed and whole by pouring a splash of both on.  Should that work? It tasted like runny cream to me.  It did, however, lead to much hilarity with two of the people I sit with at work as I was talking about 'semi', which their dirty minds turned into semi-hard-ons, only exacerbated by the introduction of '(w)hole' to the equation!  Innuendo galore!

Not too much to report today, so, I thought I'd tell you about a weird experience I had a couple of weeks ago.  I've been to a bar on Frith Street called Sofa King Cool (read it out loud if you haven't got the pun).  It's got luminous sign, but looks like it could be anything (particularly a sofa shop), but it's an underground basement bar.  It's supposed to be a lesbian bar.  However, the clientele is so small that when I went with a gay friend, it was a gay bar and when I went with a straight friend, it was a mixed bar (i.e. we were the only people there).  Both times, the staff were lovely and the decor's pretty cool - it's a bit futuristic with lots of neon - something like walking into a Kylie Minogue video.  Anyway, I walked past it about 3 weeks ago and a menu had popped up outside! The food sounded delicious and, even though I thought the atmosphere and neon might be a bit odd for a restaurant, I told my friend we should try it. 

Last week, we took the plunge, however, it was sofa king weird.  We were walking up and down Old Compton Street (we couldn't remember which street it was on, but knew the neon sign stood out when you looked down the road) and we couldn't see it.  We finally decided it was definitely Frith Street and as we walked down, we spotted it! It had changed its name to the Ultra Lounge.  The bouncer/manager/stray Australian invited us in.  I asked if it was Sofa King Cool.  Straight away, she was really quick to say it wasn't, how it had changed its management and was COMPLETELY different.  I told her I'd walked past a week previously! It's pretty quick to change completely.  The same menu was outside...I asked and she said it was the same food!! Completely different, but with the same decor and menu?? She was very cagey about it all and seemed a bit taken aback when I said that I knew it was Sofa King Cool one week ago with the same menu, but anyway, she was still friendly and we went in.

In fairness, they had toned down the lighting to make it more restaurant-y.  The waitress was really friendly, but someone about it oozed 'we are brand new and we don't know what we're doing yet'.  The food was really tasty and very good value.  For £20, you got three courses and a complimentary passion fruit shooter.  I had tempura prawns, tuna steak burger, which was very flavoursome, and chocolate gateaux.  I enjoyed it all very much.  The only slight problem (bar the identity crisis) was the WINE.  I am NOT a wine snob at all, but we ordered house white and they brought us an £18 bottle of GALLO wine.  If they were going to try and palm us off on cheap wine, I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but they should at least be sneaky enough to choose a bottle that isn't a famous cheap brand.  I mean, they are usually on 3 for £10 in the off-license! To make matters worse, when we wanted a second bottle, we very Britishly said that we weren't overly keen on the first bottle and ordered the next one up (not that we're cheapskates!) which was £20.  To our disbelief (although we were wetting ourselves laughing by now) she brought out a different Gallo! We asked if she could just tell us which bottles she had that weren't Gallo.  She came back a couple of minutes later and said they'd had a rush on (which usually I wouldn't believe, but there were about 4 tables seated there which is a rush by their standards) and the ONLY wine they had left was Gallo.  I think this probably means that had we ordered the most expensive wine on the menu, they would've just brought out a Gallo bottle.  We got cocktails instead which were lovely(they were on offer).  It was a very strange evening, but the food and cocktails were really lovely and very reasonable.  The staff are also really nice on the whole, I'd just recommend that you don't get the Gallo and for some reason, don't mention Sofa King Cool.

Highlight of the day - chilling.  Doing nothing for a change made me VERY happy.

Embarrassing moment of the day - being IDed in the Co-op for wine.  I'm 26.  Usually I'm flattered and often offended when I'm not IDed but I'm standing next to a sign saying "If we ID you, it's because you're lucky enough to look under 28".  That truly is rude.  However, this was embarrassing because he didn't believe my (embarrassingly provisional) driving licence was mine! He asked my age and date of birth - it was an interrogation! He said I didn't look like my photo.  That's because that's what I looked like when I  was under 18!  Fear not: Wine was bought in the end.

If this was 7 Days by Craig David, this would be Sunday.  I had an extra day off work.  I did nothing.  Well, I spent a long time looking at figures for ISAs and deciding, in my wisdom/confusion/not being bothered-ness to stick with what I've got, I also spent quite a bit of time organising an extravagant birthday surprise for a friend and, erm...did some laundry and some cooking.  I also napped a lot.  It was a real catch-up on admin and rest day.  It was lovely.  I would write one of my backlog of interesting things I did before I started the blog, but I'm going to carry the chilled vibe of my day through to my blog entry.

My proudest achievements of the day were finding that I was quite good at Pointless (on random TV show Challenge!) (I also had a big crush on the contestant, Raj, and managed to find him on Facebook...I didn't add him) and getting the chance to see Meatloaf be really weird, big-headed and opionated on Loose Women, whilst everyone else missed it at work.  I felt very priveleged.  I also think it's very healthy that I'm going back to work tomorrow before I become a full-time daytime TV addict.

UpDATE - Man 2, the one I like, text back..woo.  I feel big time like I was the keener of the two, but we've agreed (even if he's forced with his arm behind his back) to go out for a drink next week.  :)