3am in London

yes, it's the middle of the night, ie 9pm in NY. Second day and in London and did quite a bit today. Getting a kick out of the British accents and the Brits in general - they are a funny bunch, often acting like their out of their minds and half drunk. It's funny to watch them dance and joking and childishly playful in their 'refined' accents.

tonite we actually ventured out of central london area down south to Vauxhall - just to explore life outside of the touristy spots. the area is totally 'local' and actually had a wonderful (and for once not overly expensive) dinner at an Indian restaurant in the area. Vauxhall is actually home to the city's 'underground' gay area with a sauna and a couple of hard core / afterhour type clubs. We actually went to one of the neighborhoods newest clubs called Area, which isn't even supposed to open till July. It was open tonite for the post white party crowd. Was interesting, the people were definitely local and the sound system was amazing. It is still under construction and the bathrooms still smelled of pre-painted wooden walls.

took a bus home, (didn'tknow the tube closed at midnite!) and now ready to sleep. 2 days in London, one more day to go then off to Gay Paris... oh, but not before seeing Mary Poppins the Musical tomorrow!! So excited!

London, UK

...
We are finally here !!!
It is around 7P here in London and had walked around Soho, Theater District and also Oxford Street which is about half block away from our hotel, the Sanderson.




We flew on the new eos airlines which is EXCELLENT !





With the flat bed suite and 5 star cuisine on the 757 aircraft with only 44 passangers on board, We landed around 8A this morning at Stansted Airport which is around 45 minutes train ride north of the city. Took the Stanted Express and change to tube then taxi to the hotel.

This weekend is actually a long weekend as well in the UK since Monday is a Bank holiday so supposedly tonight and tomorrow night will be very crowded with lots of people from all over the world.

More will come ... stay tuned !

Overdue Vacation

Europe here we come! :-) Never been there, extremely excited to go. We're leaving this afternoon, took the day off to get ready and pack.

Last Friday F and I went to have dinner at the Hudson. the food wasn't bad, actually it was surprisingly YUMMY, with garlic fries to die for. We originally sat outside but when it began to drizzle, we headed inside instead - it was nice and clubby and the drinks were really amazing.




With the opening of the Apple store in midtown, we headed up to 5th & 57th to check it out. We realized that NYkers have an innate fascination with chain store openings... the people in this city seems deprived of 'middle american experience'. Trader joes and now Apple store. There was actually a line in front of the store that Sat morning. Of course, since getting up to 57th isn't an easy task (so many subway stops...), we made it there and so we also stood in line. It was funny since this girl walked up to the line and asked, "What is the line for?". I said, "To get inside the store." Her face was blank, she probably thought we were morons. "I know, it's stupid." i said, thinking that will redeem ourselves. At least the wait wasn't too long, soon we entered the glass encased boxed entrance that lead downstairs to the store.





This Apple store is supposed to be open 24 hrs a day. Interesting, I guess god forbid the artsy musician / filmmaker losing their connection in the middle of the night.

:-)

Back to D.C

So we were in DC over the weekend for work and F tagged along. We finally decided to fly instead of taking the train and driving since we thought the driving is going to be a pain and left the two babies at home again. Supposedly we will bring them together on the road trip - maybe next time.

Hotel Helix has one of the most colorful rooms from all of the hotels that we had stayed at. 350 sq ft. with the cute curtain divider between spaces. trying hard to be hip and hollywood... The location is great though - within walking distance to the gay clubs/bars and also a block away from whole foods and 7-eleven is around the corner.

There was actually a nice bar close to the hotel called Halo.. not sure if it's new or what, but it was pretty cool - reminded us of XL but newer and spacy-er. They had the most amazing Cucumber Ginger Martini I've ever tasted... soo freshing. I think if they actually had a BAR inside of a spa, this would be the signature drink.

M.I.A.M.I

Just like Will Smith said on his song, we finally went there last weekend. It was a great experience but a couple of nights is good enough. Water was nice and people are friendly although most of them in South Beach are tourists.

We stayed at this Design Hotels owned by Jonathan Marr called Town House. Very white color building and very white everywhere, location was right next to the giant SETAI building and a couple blocks away from the Delano.





We got to check out all the hotels and like the Shore Club better than the Delano. Raleigh was also nice. Something about the hotels, We feel its a little to tacky when you see bunc of toursits and 'wannabe' hanging out all over the places.



The first night, we had dinner at the FAB place (at least from the city search) say so hehe .. called 'fish at the avalon' okay food, we thought that it is a tourist trap but it was a nice experience just to hang out outside by the ocean drive.



We didn't do much the first night since we don't really want to waste the next day. After had a really good breakfast in our hotel, we decided to hang out on the beach that morning, too bad it was a little to windy so we walked around washington and collins avenue when all the stores were open and finally had a FAB. lunch at this local hang out cuban Restaurant called P&S, delicious and affordable.
At around 1P, the sun was totally out and the wind died down a bit so it was the right time to be by the water so yes we did it for almost 2 hours and got a nice tan.



Later that day after a quick nap, we did the collins strip after checking our the roof top at our hotel with the free drinks that they provided, first stop was the shore club-delano and ended up had dinner at Social located inside the Sagamore hotel, they served delicous tapas. The meal was SUPER affordable... :-)







We did check out the TWIST gay club afterwards on washington avenue to end the night which we thought was just okay.

We checked out a little early the next day and headed out to Fort Laudardale to check out the city. Went to this little town called ... and drove around the downtown area. Didn't do much there since we planned to go to the outlet just outside the city. Got some stuff of course after got a little lost and finally went to the airport.

It was such a great experience from the lively South Beach to the not so busy Fort Laudardale, definitely Florida has much things to offer.