We had a relaxed start to the day after another night of cards. Craig and I did not improve but we weren’t embarrassingly far behind either.
It was drizzly so Mike and I decided to take the bus and go to Brentwood Mall which is about a 20 minute bus ride away.
We both got notified on our phones that we can use our Apple Pay to use the buses and trains in London so we accepted the link and they worked perfectly. Just tap on as you get on the bus.
The weather forecasts here are really crazy. They seem to vary by the minute. Siri is just as bad. One minute it’s going to be overcast with 0% rain and the next minute there are severe weather warnings and 60% chance of rain. Usually, any prediction of rain is correct and that was so yesterday.
The bus stop is just around the corner and the mall was at the end of the ride so that was easy.
The mall is predictably huge. It also has some really high end shops in it such as Rolex and Swarovski. The anchor tenants are John Lewis and another department store I’ve never heard of, as well and M&S foods and Waitrose. The exterior of the mall (especially in the rain) is not glamorous but inside it’s nice.

We had a good look around and got some food items and a coffee and then it was back on the bus. It was still drizzly but improving.
In the evening we had a big expedition into the city for dinner. This was part of Craig and JenY’s Christmas present to us and they had booked at Six by Nico which is a very nice place in Fitzrovia.

They have a set menu (with vegetarian options that can be switched as needed) and they have a different country every 6 weeks that is the theme for the food. This month it’s Italian.
We took the tube from Woodside Park which is a 15 minute walk away. The Northern Line took us right into the city and we got out at Leicester Square so we could have a walk to the restaurant. It had fined up and was a lovely evening.

From Chinatown we walked through Soho which was busy but not thronged with people.

Then through Fitzrovia whch is rather more posh and with lots of restaurants.

The meal was excellent. There were 6 courses and we had the wine pairing. In addition we had some arrancini balls to start with as a snack. I asked them to swap out the truffles from the first course and they replaced it with Parmesan which was divine. The others were ecstatic about their starters and I find it hard to believe they could be better than what I had. We didn’t share 🤪. Totally yum

We had a great time. Such a pity we didn’t have our Jen there to complete our Bali group from last year.
It was a short walk to the nearest tube station (Goodge Strret – funny name) and a pretty late night home but the weather remained fine and we didn’t fall asleep on the train 🤗.