So by the time Miss Freddie and I met up (there was some confusion as to where I was, I had hoped to catch her coming off the train, turns out that I missed her doing so!), we were both ready for breakfast. Rather than try and find somewhere to eat near King's Cross station (which, like many train stations, would benefit from more seating), Freddie suggested that we head to near where we want to go, and find something to eat there.

One quick tube journey to Piccadilly later, we're eating in some quiet little cafe on what turns out to be Jermyn Street. Plans for the day are made, the map is consulted, and we try to work out where we are in relation to Jermyn Street. As it turned out that we were on it, and just needed to head down the road to get to the shiny shops, so that made our journey for the rest of the morning a lot easier. We snacked on a fried breakfast and scrambled eggs on toast with smoked salmon (guess which of us had the fried breakfast) and fuelled ourselves up for the long day ahead of us.

Jermyn Street was, in my not very humble opinion, made of awesome and win. It's one of those parts of London that I really like, the street has a lot of interesting things lurking on it, I've never seen it full of people and it's fairly easy to find. With the help of Miss Freddie's notes on the day, we firstly went into Bates Hats to look at hats, which ended up with me purchasing a nice black Gatsby cap. And smiling a little at the stuffed cat with the top hat. For such a tiny shop, they've certainly got a lot of hats and hat boxes. It almost feels like you've stepped back in time when you're there, but perhaps that's just me.

Next stop; cheese shop. With the temperature starting to pick up outside, stopping off into the rather chilly Paxon & Whitfield cheese shop was a very good move indeed. The reason why it was so cold inside was due to the fact they keep a lot of cheese on the counter, with the staff occasionally popping out unexpecteldy from piles of odd-smelling, interestingly-shaped cheeses. It rather blows the cheese shop in Topsham out of the water, and if I were living in London, I'd be visiting once a week to purchase a different cheese to try. We also picked up some advice for people who're lactose intolerant (old cheeses are the way forward). They also do a "Cheese Cake", which are large, decorated wheels of cheese, stacked up like a wedding cake. I'm not sure it's what I'd want for my wedding (I like cake), but it's certainly an interesting idea. Especially if you like cheese. We came away with a bit of cheese, some Cornish Yarg and some King Richard III, which I shall be trying with some biscuits later!

We don't stop in any of the shirtmakers. One of the shirtmakers, Thomas Pink, had a fantastic window display, with mannequins holding umbrellas and blue light bulbs flashing on and off to be the rain. Very pretty things, very pretty shirts, though I don't think that my poor plastic card would've warranted loading up with shirts. Not to mention the fact I'd have to carry them around with me all day!

Just after the stroke of ten o'clock, we entered Fortnum & Mason's, which the Jermyn Street Association describe as "London's premier food and celebration emporium". I'd never actually been inside there before, and it was certainly a bit ofa shock to go into a shop where the male staff wore such formal clothes. Really formal clothes. I felt so sheepish after they opened the door to let us in (they opened up that entrance a bit later than the others) that I sheepishly took my cap off and felt a bit awkward. Nervousness aside, they had so much stuff it was unbelievable. Chocolates! Chocolates that looked so good, you didn't want to eat them. There were little, intricately decorated squares. There wer these round truffles that looked almost like marbles. They had Earl Grey truffles. We circled round then to the confectionary counter and eyed up some Turkish Delight and Marshmellows. It was decided that we'd get some, but the rest of the shop beckoned first.

There were books and clothes and and stationary and games and teas and coffees and.. well, it's one of those shops that you could look around for a good few hours. By the time we'd made our way up to the fourth floor, having stopped off to try a wedding hat, we were both ready for a sit down and something to drink. The cafe/restaraunt on the ground floor sold coffee and tea, so that's where we went. Miss Freddie had a pot of house blend coffee, while I had a "pot for one" of Assam Hazelbank. It was rather expensive (I think that must have been the most expensive pot of tea I've ever had!), but it was certainly the best Assam tea I've ever tasted. And the "pot for one" gave me enough for six cups of tea, with a fair bit of tea left over in the bottom of the pot. I liked the tea so much that I purchased three hundred grams of the stuff from their tea desk. Now I just need to find an excuse to drink it.

On the way out, we just happen to get a piece of raspberry marshmellow and a selection of Turkish Delight. Nom-nom-nom.

A quick stop off at Prestat to gawk at and purchase some more sugary things ensues. Marzipan goodness, a dark mint chocolate for Miss Freddie and a piece of truffle for me. Nom-nom-nom.

As we wander back down Jermyn Street, we spot a sign saying that there's a barber shop above Alfred Dunhill's that do wet shaves. After some umm'ing and ahh'ing, mostly on my part, we go upstairs and make an appointment for one o'clock, giving us an hour to go out and have a look around. I point out that I've never really done the tourist-y thing and seen Buckingham Palace, we wander down that way via the park to see a large crowd gathered. Well, it was Saturday lunchtime, and the weather was fine, so it made sense that there'd be quite a lot of people there. It turns out that a Malaysian regiment was taking over guarding the palace for a while, and there were marhcing bands and what-not. It was all quite grand, and we were quite fortunate to just happen to turn up and see it happen! Afterwards, we retreated into the shade of the park to have a sit down and a drink, as well as to play around with the different lenses of Miss Freddie's camera. It turns out that the zoom-y lens is very good at zooming, but would benefit from the use of a stable tripod.

Then came... the appointment with the barber. I was more than a bit nervous, especially when the hot towels came hot, as they were very hot. I'm not naturally inclined to sit still for any length of time, but having a barber give you a wet shave with good equipment and a steady hand

is far better than badly mauling yourself with a dodgy razor in front of your own bathroom mirror. I'm glad I had it done, and I think I shall have a look at finding a barbershop in Exeter that'll do it. Looking at Miss Freddie's diary notes, she mentions "SOS Survival Creme" which, apparenly, is the "modern man's cure-all for shaving irritations, cuts, belmishes and insect bites". She also wondes how relaxing it is - well, the answer is "relaxing until the hot towels come out". The best bit is the cold towel at the end though!

For lunch, we had over the river on boat towards the Globe and Tate Modern. As we weren't sure where we were going to eat, but both of us seemed convinced that it should be somewhere nearby, we go to the Swan (a restaraunt attached to the Globe theatre) and order up some lunch. We both had steak and chips, but the chips were about the size and shape of Jenga blocks. And arranged like, well, Jenga blocks. As we were both tucking into our food, a group of Morris Dancers began to dance outside, so we poked our head out the window a few times to watch what was going on. I can't say that Morris Dancing is something I'd want to do, but it's nice to see people doing it and keeping a tradition alive, and it did make me wonder where Morris Dancing comes from. With all the "hitting sticks with other sticks", I'd like to think it has some kind of violent history.

We spent most of the afternoon, after lunch, alternating between walking about in the sunny weather and laying down on the bit of greenery near the Tate Modern. It was getting rather hot and muggy, and we both were suffering for it, so multiple stops for ice cream and drinks were in order. By the time we actually went inside the Tate Modern, it was quite late in the afternoon!

I've got to confess, I wasn't overly impressed with the Tate Modern. They did have some intresting things (a room full of Soviet propaganda posters, and "Whaam!" by Lichtenstein), but the shop was a tad disappointing, and the interactive things weren't as exciting as they should've been. Being a bit worn out and tired didn't help matters, most likely, but it's one of those places that you probably should at least visit once.

So after our brief encounter with modern artworks and a busy art-gallery shop, we started to head back towards our train stations, stopping off on the way at a Yo! Sushi for obligatory food-goodness. Their duck gyoza wasn't as a good as the one they serve at Wagamama's, but it was a good meal to finish off our day of wandering around London together. Sadly, our train journey back was marred by the fact that St Paul's tube station was closed for engineering works, as was most of the Northern line, so things were looking a bit stressful by the time we'd finally made it to King's Cross.

It wasn't easy to say goodbye, and I still get upset thinking about it. But, as I keep saying, it's only temporary. Things'll be getting better, and we've decided that the next time we visit London, we should make a weekend out of it, so we'd feel less in a rush throughout the day. I remain firmly convinced that the sleeper train is the way of the future, and look forward to our next trip to London (I'd like to visit some of the museums, I think, and ask awkward and annoying questions in the big London Apple Store).

Miss Freddie's pictures from the day can be found here, though it's a friends-locked entry, so you might not be able to see 'em.