Birthday Treats @ 42nd Street

During the summer I became another year older and part of the celebrations see me spend a lovely evening with M being wined and entertained in the West End.
I am notoriously difficult to buy for so along with a couple of gifts M booked to take me to see the biggest musical in the West End at the moment.
42nd street opened a couple of months ago and we were lucky to see it on one of the nights that my friends husband is tap-dancing his way across the stage.

Prior to the theatre we dined at The Savoy Grill . The restaurant is associated to Gordon Ramsey but sits within the beautiful Savoy Hotel. In stunning art deco splendour the restaurant is just beautiful.

With a 6pm booking we dined on the pre-theatre menu which offered a great selection of courses and variety of dishes at a very good price.
We both started with the Tomato Gazpacho, followed by the Chicken Liver parfait (T) and Ham Hock terrine (M). Beef Cottage pie with sauteed spinach and heritage carrots was the main and for dessert M chose Dark chocolate mouse with polenta shortbread and I had the Pineapple carpaccio with chilli, lime & mango.

This was accompanied by a glass of prosecco and coffee and chocolates. The service was fantastic and the food was delicious.
The ambience and the decor of the restaurant is real old school art deco British / Hollywood glamour. It was lovely to get dressed up on a Monday night instead of rushing home from work.

After dinner we made the short trip across the road to Drury Lane where we had tickets to see 42nd street.
This show is a spectacle from the point that the curtain rises to the finish. The show set in the post Wall street crash of  1930's New York it features a young wanabee actress who has just stepped off a train from Hicksville, she arrives late for her audition for the chorus line of the newest show on Broadway. With the Director having lost all of his money in the crash he is being funded by an tycoon who wants his ageing actress girlfriend (Sheena Easton) to take the lead. As rehearsals continue tensions grow which results in an accident the night before opening night which sees the novice step into the lead and take Broadway.

The song and dance scenes in the show are fantastic and anyone who has dreams or aspirations to tap dance in their childhood this is a must see show.... I loved it and now cant wait to take M to Broadway and 42nd Street later in the year.

Goodbye Summer .... Hello Autumn!

Yes after a summer hiatus I am back!, I had so many good intentions to blog over the last few weeks but life and work have kept me busy. I am hoping with the nights drawing in a little more I will get back into some semblance of a routine and get back to blogging more. I know that lots of people have moved on from writing blogs, but its still something that I like to do, however I am no longer going to get stressed if I miss a few posts!

  So life has been busy since I returned from holiday. I've celebrated birthday's, anniversaries, including M & I's 1st year "friendversary" and spent some lovely days out and about in the city.

We have played the tourist a lot over the summer months visiting Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace, and picnic'd in St James Park. We have walked lots and dined in The Savoy and the recently opened The Ivy at Tower Bridge along with burgers and BBQ at Byron and Bodeans. I'm not sure how I've managed to stay within target but I am hanging on.
Birthday treats included lunch with Bestie as we share the same birthday week so always try to do something together. With her job relocating to Chelmsford I joined her for lunch which was an old school lunch favourite of fish finger sandwiches! and cake!!.... there has been a bit of cake over the last couple of months. Definitely getting back on plan in September.
Lunch was lovely and a great hour of gossip and laughs.
Another night out with an old friend was to see the West End musical Beautiful - a great show, showcasing the amazing talents of Carole King. We had a lovely time and I am so glad that I saw this before it finished in the West End. It is now on a UK tour and I would recommend it, if it visits a town near you.

Another lovely evening out was an impromptu walk along the river after work which resulted in cocktail and coffee watching the tennis on a rooftop overlooking St Paul's. Madison Bar and the rooftop of New exchange at St Pauls has been a favourite for a while but was new to M. We were passing as the sun was setting so I decided to pop up and share this little gem, not knowing that the tennis was being screened on a big screen, so we grabbed a couple of drinks and sat for a while watching the sunset and a few sets of tennis.

As you can see the walk and views were stunning and I will share some more of my summer adventures over the next couple of days.
have a great evening.... look forward to catching up with some favourites in blog land x