That's Enough Birthdays (Ed)

I'm not the biggest fan of birthdays--not when they're my own, anyway--but although this year, it feels like mine ran on for days, it wasn't so bad (almost as good, even, as last year's in New York).

I celebrated with friends on Saturday, hosting a small gathering in my flat. The cocktails were pretty successful (you should be able to guess what I made based on the ingredients in the photo) and I managed to avoid buying any beers, which, if undrunk at the end of the night, would remain undrunk until I got around to chucking them out.

Birthday burger

Monday was my actual birthday and it was mostly spent working, but did involve a brief escape for some tasty pizza and a chocolate éclair from Exmouth Market and also some lovely gifts from Kate Spade and elsewhere. After work, I met my parents at Kettner's for a cocktail (their special Movember cocktail was surprisingly fruity and sweet) and then we went for a birthday burger at Byron. As she wasn't sure whether I'd manage a pudding, Maman arranged for the waitress to put some candles in my burger, which was definitely unique. I did, inevitably, find room for half a brownie. Finally, we went to see Tabloid, which was a very funny--but also scary--look at the case of the utterly bonkers Joyce McKinney.

Cocktails at the Savoy

Maman's birthday was on Tuesday, so we went out for breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. Nothing like a boiled egg and posh soldiers to set one up for a long day's work (especially if the bread can be coated with LPQ's praline spread--not the slices that were dunked in the egg, I add). My parents had some vouchers for Gordon Ramsay's restaurants so we went to the Savoy Grill. After a cocktail in the hotel's classy bar, we went into the restaurant for dinner. Six rock oysters and a fillet steak had more than filled me up and as none of the puddings contained chocolate, I couldn't be tempted by a third course. Perhaps this was fortunate given that my second candle-clad food item in as many days was then brought out in the form of a chocolate panna cotta-like cake.