8.8.10 ~ 250 word diary (house trees & fried ice cream)

After a stressful start to the day, doing yet more laundry, being ignored by a moody Alyx and trying to get everyone organised to have breakfast and get dressed in time to Skype Mom & Dad before going out, things improved when we got to Kew Gardens.

After eventually dragging Jake away from the “pretty flowers”, at Alyx’s lead, we discovered and wandered into beautiful “house trees”, waited as the kids played in the new Plantastic play area, had lunch by the lake, fed geese, heard the odd laser-weapon sound of the Goldeneye duck, stopped and chilled out under some trees while Jake napped. Then began the trek for a Vietnamese restaurant (Pho for Jo – for medicinal purposes), which ended in us walking out of a Thai restaurant off Tottenham Court Road, then Paul, Jake & Alyx going home and me, Tony & Jo staying in Central London and discovering the fab Thai Metro restaurant on Charlotte Street and having a pretty darn good time. We ordered spring rolls and chicken satay to start, then Weeping Tiger (sizzling rare beef with chilli soy sauce) with rice, a noodle dish we don’t often find on menus outside of Thailand, stir fried vegetables and Tom Yum soup. For dessert, Tony had coconut icecream, Jo had chocolate and I had fried ice cream. Vanilla fried in batter and covered in cream and some sort of syrup. The first time I’ve ever had it, and probably the last. Delicious but so bad for me.

In the "house tree"