Feeling sky high

It’s a love affair to remember and as all good rom-com or TV drama fans know, the best of relationships remain on and off. So I like to regularly return to London and rekindle my love for it and discover something new each time. It’s been an unreasonably long time since my last visit (COVID blah blah blah) but this trip more than made up for lost time!

The trip as a whole was my birthday present from Ollie and I’d been yacking on for ages about how I’d always wanted to do London in the Sky (dinner 100ft in the air above the O2), so he made my dreams come true (like he always does). We pre-booked our ‘flight’ a few weeks ago and decided on a lunch one rather than dinner (I figured it wouldn’t lend itself to going for a night out afterwards). So after catching the train down to London, we were straight to their garden terrace next to the O2 to check in for our flight. We couldn’t have picked a better day for it! The weather was gorgeous so I wore white ruffled bodysuit, scarf print shorts and black espadrilles (I deliberately avoided any shoes that could slip off in the air!). The garden area was lovely with deck chairs, photo spots and a saxophone player providing the entertainment, and after a glass of prosecco there, it was time to get strapped in!

The whole experience was incredible and I even got lucky enough to have a few empty chairs in front of me, meaning I had a near-perfect view! The views were amazing and the wind meant that the table was spun slowly so you got to see a few different angles. The wind also made eating a pretty extreme sport! If you do a lunch or dinner flight then it’s a 3 course menu plus 2 glasses of wine (so it says on the menu, but they were way more generous than that and just topped you up whenever you ran low). They’ve planned it pretty cleverly to avoid cooking too many different components on the in-air kitchen, so we had burrata and tomato salad to start (tofu version available as a vegan option) and then for main it was either beef, salmon or veggie option, all served with potato, artichoke, leek, baby sweetcorn and a spicy sauce. Me and Ollie both went with salmon on the basis that beef isn’t really a lunchtime thing and I’m so glad we did because the salmon was perfect but the beef looked a little dry and overdone. For dessert we had a posh version of strawberries and cream and then it was someone on the flight’s birthday so we finished up with chocolate cake! The food was all amazing (if an extreme sport to eat between the wind and being strapped to your chair) and it was a meal that I would’ve been impressed with had I eaten it on the ground. The fact it was in the sky was just an amazing (if expensive) experience and one I’d definitely recommend.

After starting on a high (pun intended), we were on to our next activity! Me and Ollie were supposed to do junkyard golf in Leeds at the start of June but after getting ridiculously drunk the night before, we were too hungover to manage it. So we made a second attempt at it in London and this time it was a successful one! We’d chosen the Bozo course which has a funfair theme and it was all really cool. It was a pretty short course (9 holes rather than 18) but still really fun and the cocktails were fab too. Naturally I won - I would say Ollie let me win with it being my fake birthday and all, but I’ve beat him 3 out of 3 times we’ve played together now!

Then it was time to check into our hotel! I find it hard to find cool hotels in major cities because so many of them look like they cater to business clients and are therefore super dull and functional, but that definitely wasn’t the case with the NYX Leonardo Hotel. With a New York theme, it had a bright jazzy lobby and restaurant, cool artwork in the room, a smeg fridge and a super stylish bathroom. It was a really spacious room too as we’d opted for the biggest style that they offer, and they’d even left a birthday card and some cupcakes for us!

After some downtime to chill in the room, we were off again (always non-stop plans when you travel with me). I wore a new mint green skirt from my latest ASOS order with black off-the-shoulder top and black knotted heels, and then added a pop of excitement with this constellation bag which I just think is so cute but is annoyingly too small to fit my phone in it! Style over practicality always though.

I’d scrolled through pretty much every restaurant in London to find the ones we fancied and on night 1, that was temper Soho. A cool basement restaurant with an open kitchen, they specialise in tacos and barbecued meats (like music to my ears). It was a bit confusing though as normally tapas-style places say 3 dishes each, but the menu was a mix of small, medium and large dishes so we needed some guidance from the waiter! We ended up getting cheeseburger tacos, crab tacos, chicken-dukkah carnitas, sweet and sour pork rib, chilli and garlic mezcal prawns, barbecue duck and some beef fat potatoes. Everything was incredible and I was especially impressed by the pork which hadn’t jumped out at me from the menu but was recommended by the waiter. And after some cocktails and wine at the restaurant, we headed off into soho for some more drinks.

On to day 2 and it was another jam-packed day! Not quite as warm though so I wore black skinny jeans, blue off the shoulder blouse (shein), pearl belt, black espadrilles and a silk scarf tied on my bag for a pop of print and colour. Our hotel was in Holborn, which I hadn’t stayed in before but it was a perfect location and had quite a few nice places for breakfast right near us. We ended up choosing Kozzy cafe which was super cute and I loved the interior. The food was lovely but wrote us off a little - mine in particular with salty halloumi and salty turkish beef sausage felt like a slight attack on the arteries. Nothing a good walk wouldn’t sort though!

Another thing that Ollie had pre-booked for my birthday was a gin masterclass at Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant, since we both love his shows. Kind of shocked he wasn’t the one running the class tbh. So since that was near St Paul’s cathedral at 2pm, we headed there for a wander round first. We ended up going in for a look too (for a non-religious person, I don’t half love exploring religious buildings) and it was so beautiful - you can see why it’s been saved and rebuilt so many times over its 1,400 year history.

Then it was gin o’clock! The Bread Street Kitchen was a super cool space and we started the masterclass with a gin and tonic while we learnt a bit of the history of gin. Having been to the Edinburgh gin tour only a couple of weeks ago, it was stuff we mostly knew, which was just as well because it was super loud in there and we could barely hear her! We had fun learning about gin pairings though and then got a chance to get behind the bar and mix our own cocktails. Which was the confusing part because I assumed we’d be making gin cocktails from some kind of list or menu but the bartender running the class was just suggesting random drinks for us to make (mojito, margarita and espresso martini - none of which are gin based). It was still good fun though and I obviously picked a nice strong cocktail to make (singapore sling). Then we finished up with more gin and tonics and a platter of food - thankfully small nibbly stuff because we’d overeaten so much at breakfast!

The sun had come out by this point so with nothing else planned for the afternoon, we enjoyed a sunny wander along the Thames, passing plenty of beautiful buildings and cute little pop-up spaces as we went. After getting as far as Tower Bridge, we crossed over and caught a boat up to embankment before stopping for drinks in covent garden to finish up a wonderful day.

We had a bit longer turnaround time on night 2 so while we chilled and got ready in the room, we popped open the champagne that Ollie got me for my birthday which I’d deliberately saved for the weekend! I went for a regal feel for my outfit (since I was being treated like such a queen) and chose this cherub print dress with cowl neck. I added cream and pearl quilted bag (shein bargain) and cream mule heels with gold chain detail, plus gold jewellery.

I was super excited for the second restaurant we’d chosen; Zuaya in Kensington with a menu of Latin American tapas, which combined my two favourite cuisines/concepts into one! It was also super pretty with lots of greenery and cool fringed lights and had a very definite date night vibe (temper was more of a mix of couples, friends, and groups). We’d arrived fashionably late (as I do to everything) but somehow the restaurant must’ve thought they’d forgotten about us because they brought us a mini cocktail shot to apologise for the wait! I then ordered a much bigger cocktail, as well as a beef empanada, a chicken empanada, a croquetta of the day (seafood), a beef carpaccio toast, grilled octopus, argentinian sirloin with chimichurri, grilled iberian pork and patatas bravas. Everything was absolutely incredible - the octopus and pork being particular highlights for me. I don’t often order pork in restaurants because it can be so dry and bland but this one was amazing. The service was really good, the vibe was really nice and the treats were plentiful! I included that it was my birthday on the booking (well, I’m only 6 weeks out) and they brought us ice cream AND free prosecco. What more could you want (at dinner and in life)?

We had one last activity booked for our last day in London so after checking out of the hotel, we headed in search of brunch. One of my favourite restaurants in London is Balthazar in covent garden and having never let me down yet, they even had a last minute table for us and were doing brunch until 4pm while most other restaurants were either full or onto their main menu. We both had eggs benedict with fries and we started the day how we meant to go on - with champagne.

Our last activity was something I’ve wanted to do for ages; flight club. A modern take on a darts club, it’s a cool funfair themed venue with fancy cocktails and interactive darts areas that offer a range of different games and the ability to take group photos, save your action replay videos and order drinks from the screen. Nothing like the old man darts stereotype! We had so much fun and while mini golf is definitely my game, darts sadly wasn’t and Ollie beat me in pretty much every single game.

Then it was on to St Pancras for one last glass of champagne (or two) before heading home, leaving the torrential rain, biblical floods and delayed trains behind us. We couldn’t have planned our trip (especially London in the Sky) more perfectly it seems. We’ve literally had the best time ever and it was so nice to be back in London again after so long. I’m so lucky to have Ollie and to have him spoil me so much! We may have gone all out on the celebrating but you do only turn 25 once (well, once or twice).