ONE LONG BIRTHDAY

I have had two very heavy weekends recently, which have included me nearly getting arrested for harassing a traffic Warden (I only wanted a picture of me wearing his hat!), and riding a bike up and down Portabello in a drunken state, thus falling off it,  and picking up some nasty cuts and bruises.  These events were all caused by us celebrating one of my best friends, Debbies 30th birthday, which became a two weekend event (She likes to do nothing by half!)
The first weekend event was started by having lunch at the Hawkesmoor  Restaurant.  I had heard that it did some of the best steaks in London, but not being a steak kinda girl, I have never been that bothered about going.  I'm glad I did go, though.  Jesus that place can do meat!  It seems that they serve a whole cow up on a plate!  I didn't opt for the steak, but for the burger, which when it turned up seemed bigger than me!  It was good though, maybe even, the best burger I have ever had.  One observation though:  we seemed to be the only females in there, as the place was teeming with groups of men, savouring and rejoicing in the MEAT!

Address: 157 Commercial Street, London E1 6BJ
Tel: 020 7247 7392 (reservation is a must)
Nearest Tube station: Liverpool Street

Us ladies then, next headed down to our old favourite; The Powder Room on Columbia Road, for a bit of much needed pampering.  I last went there for my birthday, 1940s party and had victory rolls.  This time I decided to go for a bit of a Veronica lake look with the Aphrodite hairstyle as I was wearing the good old vivien's of Holloway dress.

Claire gets the Powder Room treatment

The Powder Room

136 Columbia Road

E2 7RG

Tel: 0207 729 1365

Onto the night itself, which was held at the Boudicca Bar in Clerkenwell.  Its wasn't the best venue as the room was a funny shape and the DJ was crap, but it was a full house outing and a great chance to catch up with friends.  We all then went back to Deb's to carry on drinking to the early hours of the morning and danced away to David Bowie and Michael Jackson.

Me and Alex

The fur faces that are my housemates and little Bex's

Sophia and Deb's

Jannick, Evans and me

Sophie and Angus

The birthday Girl

Nic, Me, Bec's and Duncan

Oli, Claire and Alex

Weekend two was a girls only event! This equals trouble.

First up we booked into the Cow Shed in Holland Park to get our nails done and have a glass of champagne. Its was great fun, though we did get told off for being too noisy (Oophs!) and the woman that did my nails had really low rise jeans on and her arse kept hanging out which wasn't very pretty (Don't worry I cut her arse out of my photos. Didn't want anyone else having to go through that!)

The cowshed

119 Portland Road

Holland Park 

W11 4LN

TEL: 0207 078 1944

Dinner was just round the corner from Portebello at a lovely gastro pub Called Bumpkin.  It had some fit waiters as well, but we weren't sure if they were straight, something we kept discussing more through the meal, as the wine flowed.  One thing we were sure of though, was that the food was great and I had the most amazing Chicken and mushroom pie ever!

Bumpkin

209 Westbourne Park Road

Notting Hill

W11 1EA

Tel: 0207 243 9818

Warning after this things become very messy.  In fact things become very blurred as well.  Some bright spark decided we should go for a pub crawl down Portebello Road.  The next lot of pictures you will see is a record of a slow but sure decline in humans consuming alcohol.  Luckily my camera ran of battery, before the real madness of:  Getting strangers to write in our book of "Things to do when your 30!"; Downing free shots from the barman that Liz was chatting up; Liz getting his number!,Deb's kissing a market trader old enough to be her grandad, me and the traffic warden thing, me and the bike accident thing, Deb's kissing some guy called Sam, Deb's and Brown harassing some bin men?, Downing more shots, Deb's kissing some Guy called Fin, Liz kissing some guy called Joel, Deb's telling her boss she was never going to sleep with him!, me having to undress deb's and put her to bed, me waking up the next day very sore and spending the day trying to patch together the night before events!  Oh! Dear! Girls behaving badly.  Love it!