My version of a quiet week...

After my rampant socialising of the past two weeks, I took it down a whole octave this past week. I wrote a lot, had some great work-related things going on (the Grazia mention, two big fat commissions and an excellent protracted conversation with the lawyers regarding my work visa) and confined my socialising to a couple of strawberry vodka lemonades on the roof at Soho House in the wonderful 25C sunshine, a brief foray into the Diesel party with Sexy S & Ginger on Friday (full of twenty-something children in hipster outfits), & some quiet meals with girlfriends.

Mexican at Rosa Mexicano on Monday with lovely L & her son, in town for a long weekend to vist his dad who is shooting a movie with Kirsten Dunst in the city, and then an early supper, blood orange margaritas & more guacamole at Mexican Mama on Tuesday with BA & N for a catch up & wedding dress consult. (I am going to turn green if I eat any more avocados.)

We ate burgers & fries & drank cheap red wine at the counter at Florent in the Meatpacking on Friday and, most memorably, mezze on Thursday at Pylos, a modern Greek restaurant on East 7th with a tiny street front that opens into a sophisticated and grown-up minimal eating space. (I love the East Village for its constant architectural surprises like this.)We ordered lots of appetizers mezze style, amongst which were an artichoke moussaka that practically had me licking the dish, a plate of sensational deep fried haloumi with grapes and a sweet reduction, and a Greek salad that was so much more than the sum of its parts.

Although we've drunk excellent Greek wine here before (retsina remains a distant memory), a bottle of Champagne was drunk to toast BA's engagement and I tried to forget that in the one block walk from my apartment to the restaurant with BA I had managed to buy a pair of aubergine patent, hidden platform Mary Janes with a four inch heel by Pour La Victoire from Coco & Deliah, a brilliant little boutique (with a very good on-line offer) just past my front door.

They were half price in the sale & bought to replace my burgundy ToSho versions which I have worn into the ground since I bought them with JD's dissie card in Sept 06. Even if I don't wear them until next season, I know I'll get loads of use out of them. Have I done enough justification now? I don't know what's got into me of late. I've bought more stuff in the past week than I have in the past two months put together.

In London, I rarely get led astray by retail. Even in the relatively posh bit of North London in which I have a flat, the nearest shops to me are a Londis, a dodgy offie, a granny salon and the local*. It's just not quite the same somehow.

Oh, & now I have something else I want to save up for: this beautiful necklace that Queen Marie dedicated to me over at Kingdom of Style.

*translation for my American friendsLondis: Chain of bodega type corner stores (without the deli counter)
Offie: Off-licence liquor store (meaning you can't drink on the premises)
Granny salon: Hairdressers catering to the Senior Citizen market with £10 specials on perms and weekly wash & sets
Local: The pub

Images: nymag.com