Following a quiet Bank Holiday Monday, I travelled down to London on Tuesday to meet up with my best friend. The train journey to Euston didn’t get off to the most positive start when the lady sitting opposite me started to work her way through a huge bag of peanuts. I have a peanut allergy and tend to avoid any contact with them. Even the smell of peanuts makes me feel nauseous, so I was really relieved when peanut lady got off at Coventry.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. I reached Euston, found a seat in the waiting room and sat reading a book while I waited for my friend. An hour later I realised I was waiting in the wrong train station – yes I am a muppet – so I followed the slightly dubious ‘green’ walking route to St Pancras International. I met up with my friend who was fortunately running late, and discovered that we were heading to Hythe in Kent.

Unfortunately, my friend hadn’t realised that the ‘beach’ in Hythe would be closed for some sort of beach management works. I found the whole closed beach situation quite amusing, my friend was less than impressed.

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside…

We checked into our hotel rooms and then met up in the bar for a bite to eat. Although the bar food menu was quite limited, I was happy because chicken Caesar salad was on the menu. As the beer in the bar was apparently “terrible” – I can’t say that I’d noticed and my friend was shattered, we headed back to our rooms.

The following morning I was woken by the rain and some noisy seagulls. I watched the weather forecast and discovered that while most of the UK would be sunny, London and the South East coast would be cloudy and soggy.  I guess the South East does need more rain… After a full English breakfast I was rather reluctantly dragged outside for a walk in the rain so that I could “fill my Brummie lungs with some sea air”. If nothing else it was bracing and I enjoyed watching the trucks driving up and down the beach.

At midday we made the most of a break in the rain, checked out of the hotel and walked the short distance to the Hythe Bay Seafood Restaurant where I knew I’d be able to order some Moules-frites. We shared some mackerel pate which tasted delicious, and a shellfish platter as a starter. After a short break I was presented with a huge portion of Moules-frites.

Just looking at this photo makes me feel hungry.

I managed to eat most of the mussels but couldn’t quite eat all of them, next time I’ll make sure that I leave enough room for all of them as I hate wasting food. Needless to say I still felt pretty stuffed when we arrived back at St Pancras International a couple of hours later.

My belated birthday treat got even better when I finally got to check out the new(ish) Lululemon store on Regent Street. I walked through the entrance, stood feeling slightly overwhelmed for a couple of seconds, looked to my left and spotted the shorts I wanted. I was in and out of the store in less than 10 minutes, definitely a Lululemon personal best.

I met up with my friend again and got to experience the delights(?) of Moss Bros for the first time. I got to witness some hardcore ‘bridezilla’ behaviour while my friend was being fitted for a hire suit, and was relieved when I finally got to escape the aroma of sweaty feet. After a couple of few too many pints, we were feeling quite peckish so headed to one of our favourite Italian restaurants; Casa Becci.

All in all I had a great couple of days celebrating my birthday. Sometimes it’s good to get away and to forget about job hunting and other stresses. The only negative was discovering that I hadn’t got the job in Newcastle. Next time I’ll ignore my ‘phone!

A rather random one but have you ever been to Hythe? Although the closed ‘beach’ was slightly disappointing, the Hythe Bay Seafood Restaurant was amazing.

Do you tend to stick to restaurants you know and love or do you like to try new places? In the seven years I’ve been in London, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been to Casa Becci. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal there.