My sister came down from Swindon on Friday, and we met up for lunch and shopping in Covent Garden. The reasoning behind this decidedly odd choice of locale was that StoneGinger Designs have a stall there three days a week. My sister had happened upon them and was intrigued by the prospect of a bespoke carving as a birthday present for our mother. It seemed like a good idea to me, too, so we decided to go halves on a large carving.
Our first port of call, though, since we were meeting at lunchtime, was a restaurant called Maxwell's, right near the station. It seems to have opened quite recently, as they were handing out flyers last time I was in the area. We were seated immediately, and service was actually very swift, considering we had arrived around 1.30, and the place was already busy. By the time we left, however, there was a long queue outside. The food was excellent, and we had a brilliant waiter who clearly knew what he was talking about, enough to joke with my sister about the way a swordfish would be served, and make recommendations on the desserts.
Bellies full, our search for the sculptor's stall began... and, since we hadn't exactly confirmed the precise whereabouts of the stall, we ended up pottering about entirely the wrong market before stumbling upon the right one inside the central structure of Covent Garden. Around this time, I realised I'd forgotten the bag I'd brought with me, containing six cookies for my sister to take back to our folks, and a bottle of Mojito mix my boss had bought me. I dashed back to the restaurant (I had put the bag down by my feet under the table) and announced to the waitress at the door that I'd had lunch there a short while ago, and stupidly left a shopping bag under the table. She asked me what kind of bag it was and, upon confirmation that it was a reusable plastic supermarket shopping bag, she retrieved it from behind the front desk. Phew.
I dashed back to the stall, and initially thought my sister had wandered off but, thankfully, she had just been obscured by other, taller folks until I got in close.
When we first arrived at the stall, we had both been struck by a particular carving - a 50cm tall hanging carving of a blue dragon - possibly water-based, because it seemed to have fins rather than wings or legs. Since it was within our price range, we snapped it up, and considered ourselves very lucky that there was a dragon on show at all - while my sister had dropped the sculptor an email requesting to see any dragon-type carvings in our price range, the email had not been received. The sculptor said she'd have to have words with her email provider, since she pays for that service...
After that, the main reason for our shopping trip fulfilled, we set about browsing, first in Covent Garden, then into Seven Dials (my sister commenting at one point that it was like walking through Diagon Alley... it took me a minute or two to guess that she was making a Harry Potter reference) and on to Forbidden Planet. The Tron Legacy toys were pretty cool... but their selection of TransFormers was exactly what I'd expect to see in any toyshop. We had a quick spin in the book/comic/DVD section downstairs, before my sister realised it was getting late, and that we should probably head home.
So late was it, that I figured I should follow her to our parents' house, rather than attempting to get home and deposit our mother's birthday present before joining them all for dinner. I sneakily hung up the shopping bag underneath my raincoat, so as not to draw attention.
And since we didn't buy any wrapping or Christmas presents, as had been the original plan, we popped over to Brent Cross yesterday. Again, we had lunch first - Pizza Hut, where I was somewhat disappointed by the alleged blue cheese and portobello mushroom pizza and the fact that we had three different waiters during the course of our meal. Just like the Friday, the queues were longer by the time we left - some were already quite long when we first arrived, though Pizza Hut's was nonexistant until we'd nearly finished out meal.
The shopping itself was only mildly successful. I picked up a couple of DVDs that might become Christmas presents if nothing better turns up. My sister got some wrapping paper, and we saw a few things we might buy as Christmas presents, but most likely closer to the time - now is a little bit too early if we buy clothes, and it turns out our mother doesn't like them.
I had another dinner at my folks' place, collected up a few nicknacks, then headed back home. I may be going to the London Expo today... Just waiting on confirmation from the friend who's doing the driving...
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