29 going on....(Part Two)

After Tuesday’s birthday surprises I was rather excited in anticipation of what may lay ahead for the evening. All I knew was that I needed to be ready by 4pm, which allowed for a very short gym workout before we were heading east on the tube.

To my obvious surprise we got off at Leicester Square (Piccadilly Line). At this point I did wander if we may have been going to a show…and before I’d realised we’d stumbled upon “Avenue Q”. http://www.avenueqthemusical.co.uk/ This mainly Muppet character lead show had had rave reviews and it certainly lived up to them all.

The fantastic music and somewhat risqué script had us laughing in shock at times but nevertheless the show was a hit with us and brownie points for Grigoria too.

From the show we walked through Covent Garden to Holborn, by which time I had no idea what was next, caught the Central line (west bound) and got off at Notting Hill. If I didn’t know better I would’ve thought that we were doing an evening on the tubes!

All I know now was that we were a little too early for the next surprise and we would be stopping for a drink before, so we walked down around Notting Hill / Portobello area for a quick cocktail in Eclipse bar. http://www.eclipse-ventures.com/nottinghill.html

Some 45minutes later and a little light in the head (Wow those cocktails are strong…) we walked (this walking was becoming a theme) further west along some of the very nice streets of Notting Hill only to stumble across our friends Olga & Geoff! I did suspect that they possibly could have been joining us at some point and I was very pleased they did.

The final surprise was obviously our restaurant and the only one I knew of in this area was the Notting Hill Grill by top British chief Anthony Warren Thompson.
http://www.awtrestaurants.com/nottinggrill/, which had been one of my ideas for Grigoria’s birthday.

After another short drink (cokes for Grigoria & I – those cocktails Wow) we were seated in there upstairs dinning area. Generally the restaurant is not sold as very posh place but more that they source the best British meat in town, but still it was very nice.

With a few starters, we tucked into steaks followed by a nice New Zealand (Tasmen Bay) wine, the company was perfect, the experience great and the whole birthday a well planned and executed series of surprises.

Easily one of the best birthdays I’ve had, I guess it’s not too bad turning 29!