Lunch at parliament...as you do!

So today I went for lunch at Parliament...as you do.  Sadly (obviously?) I wasn't there to receive any great honour; no, I was just there for a bite to eat and a good old gossip.  You see my friend Grace works there, and at some point casually mentioned that you could have guests for lunch; Emily and I have been nagging her mad to invite us down ever since.

Tourist shot!
*Note to fellow cape wearers: Carrying your bag under your cape is not fantastically flattering...as you can see.

As well as a delicious (and generously subsidised) lunch on the terrace over looking the river (enough to make me want to ditch journalism and move into politics), Grace gave us a whirlwind tour of the grounds...

Incredible stone work including some very impressive gargoyles. I do love a good gargoyle.

Westminster Hall: Built in 1027 it's the oldest part of Parliament, and the only surviving part of the original Palace of Westminster

Its awe-inspiring wooden ceiling is especially important as historians didn't previously think that carpenters were able to build self-supporting roofs until much later (13th or 14th century)

Em and I posing with some rather fantastic (in a Liberace kinda way) stone Deer. 

After Westminster Hall Grace took us through to the main building (where sadly I wasn't allowed to take pics).  We walked through St Stephen's Hall (which was home to the first Common's chamber), into the central lobby (a large hexagonal space with the House of Commons chamber to one side and House of Lords chamber to the other), and best of all into the actual House of Commons chamber itself - the highlight of the whole trip.  Being inside the chamber was insanely exciting and a little surreal.  It's much smaller than you'd think/ it looks on't telly.

I even came home with a souvenir in the form of a rather grand bottle or House of Commons sparkling water!  Who says politics isn't glamorous?

Anyway I just thought I'd share this as it really was one of the most exciting days out I've had in ages.  And don't worry if you don't have a friend with a jazzy job, Parliament is open (well bits of it) to everyone.  You can find out more about visiting, or even do a virtual tour here.

No doubt I'll be back on the leftovers in front of my laptop at the kitchen table for lunch tomorrow...

Dolce&Gabbana Dress Me Up London party

As anyone who follows me on twitter will know, last night I hit the Dolce&Gabbana Dress Me Up London party/ event, where 6 bloggers - Liberty London Girl (Sasha Wilkins), Bip Ling, Carrie Harwood, Maddison Rothery, Marian Kihogo and Lois Waller - took over Dolce&Gabbana Bond Street's windows and made them their own. While they were hard at work I busied myself: a. doing a fantasty Dolce&Gabbana shop/ imagining how well dressed I'd be if I were a rich gal; b. taking pictures; c. eating as many ridiculously delicious arancini as humanly possible; d. catching up with my lovely ex-housemate Julia. All in all a fantastic way to spend a Thursday evening!

Sasha Wilkins aka. Liberty London Girl contemplating her next move...

Marian Kihogo in full-on styling swing...

Bip Ling showing who wears the pants....

The Dolce&Gabbana store in an unusual state of disarray with clothes and bloggers strewn all over the place!

Bloggers blogging bloggers....

The real stars of the show - the to-die-for arancini!

And here are the finished windows...

Carrie Harwood

Sasha Wilkins

Bip Ling

Marian Kihogo

A close up of my fave window - Marian Kihogo's. Totes feeling the ghetto chic all white meets headscarves and serious bling!

LFW AW11 shows: Day 4 shows and more

Michael van der Ham - Backstage

Michael van der Ham - Catwalk

Topshop cafe lunch: Part 2

Todd Lynn - Catwalk

Giles - Catwalk

LFW AW11 shows: Day 3 shows and more

Matthew Williamson - Backstage

Matthew Williamson - Catwalk

Topshop cafe lunch

Richard Nicoll

Mulberry party at Claridges

A White Channukah

Happy Channukah! It's still a bit early to know if we're going to have a white Christmas yet, but at least it's turned out to be a white Channukah (even if this really isn't the same at all, as there was never a song called White Channukah...). Anyway. This year Channukah's come early. So early in fact that no one in the Family G household realised it started tonight until I looked it up yesterday afternoon! With half a day to buy presents (and it's supposed to be 8 pressies each), and everyone working full time (ish in my case) presents were a bit on the sparse side tonight. When I say sparse I mean it....I was given an unwrapped Mars bar my Mum had squirrelled in a draw. Not exactly what I'd been hoping/wishing/ visualising for...still at least we have another 7 nights to get it right....fingers crossed!

Birthday wishes and chilli kisses

Today is my bestestestestestestest (to infinity) friend Stephi's birthday - I've known her since I was 3 (which rather horrifyingly is 24 years now), and we now hold so many secrets we can't ever fall out. This also happens to be her very last Birthday as a Miss. She's back to back with weddings this summer (she says she knows all the couples, but I really fear she's become a crazy wedding crasher in her effort to make her nuptials the best ever), so we celebrated on Friday. Above is the birthday gal herself (a couple of cocktails to the wind) pretending to ride the Harley (I may have encouraged this quite a lot). V jealous about her new McQueen jumpsuit which she picked up in Hong Kong last week (yes, her life is far more glamorous than most)....and don't even get me started on the Chanel....

We celebrated with two of my fave things - Margaritas and Mexican food. Here I am playing with my food because a. I was drunk, and b. we ordered far too much!

Check out Stephi's blog here - and please join me in sending her all the Birthday love in the world xxx

Organic living

Bad bad Si. This time last week I whetted many an appetite by mentioning I was off for a lovely Riverford Organic dinner in a Yurt. I promised food porn and then got shy; apologies. As you’d expect from the Kings of Organic, the meal and the company were both delightful. I was (I'm thinking mistakenly) sat next to Guy Watson, Riverford's founder, who was lovely and totally un-worthy (thank the lord), and also caught a brief chat with their head chef Jane Baxter, who I'm very tempted to try and spend a lost weekend eating and drinking with! Anywhere, here it is - lots of pictures of lovely things – enjoy!

Oh – and for those who are still a little confused – a Yurt is a lovely big very posh tent!

The Yurt was housed on Freightliners City Farm in Islington - definitely the strangest dinner venue I've been to in a while.

See....it really was an actual farm....with, like, animals and shit (literally)! It was all very Darling buds of May.

Ta-da - The Yurt! See, all very civilised....in fact set me up a camper bed in the corner, and I'd call it home!

Lovely organic veg box centrepiece...which I later moved to the floor behind me so I could fully attack the food....and then later stepped on...and...made a really bad joke about 'making pesto'....yeah...cringe!

My plus 1. I thought it would be in-keeping with the whole organic English-countryside vibe, and it totally was - joy! It's one of my all time favourite bags; it was a gift from my Editor, and came from Koh Samui (as in the boutique in Covent Garden which sadly became a victim of the recession, not the Thai party Island).

Oh...so, this Yurt is a travelling Yurt...which means if you don't live in London it may soon be pitched in a field/ farm/ park near you! Check out the Riverford website for more details…trust me, you want to!