Meandering Through Mayfair

I was back down in Westminster yesterday, this time to meet up with my friends Chris and Gordon for lunch and do a bit of paperwork. Gordon is one of our referees for citizenship, so like Sally he had to sign a paper attesting that Dave and I are who we claim to be. We got that out of the way and had a good vegan lunch at Mildred's, which is possibly one of the most popular vegan restaurants in London. We got the lunchtime prix fixe menu, which was very good.

Then I went for a wander through Soho and Mayfair, taking photos all the way. I've photographed this dramatic lamp shadow (above) before, way back in 2014. This time a bird flew into the shot and placed itself just so, as if the shadow were some kind of laser beam blasting that pigeon from above.

In Mayfair, echoes of mid-century media at the Time & Life Building, now the home of Hermés. I wonder if the passing teens and 20-somethings know (or care) why the building is called that.

This little pub, the Coach & Horses, used to be crowded on all sides with buildings, but now the ones behind it have been torn down for some grand project or other. It makes the pub seem even more oddly isolated.

At Berkeley Square, home of the famous nightingale, I re-created yet again my photo from April 2000, which I first blogged about and re-created back in 2011. It's hard to believe that more time has elapsed between that blog post and now (14 years) than between the first photo and the post (11 years). The scene hasn't changed much.

I popped in to a Pret and ordered a coffee and some chocolate-covered almonds, and waited with other patrons in a rather disorganized group as the coffees were produced. When the barista called "white Americano" I stepped forward to take it -- not because I am a white Americano but because that really is my usual coffee order -- but she said it was with hot milk and thus belonged to a nattily dressed older gent behind me. I stepped aside and said to him jokingly, "I didn't take a sip from it, I swear."

"I wouldn't have minded if you did," he said to me, rather suggestively. Whoa! Was I hit on by a nattily dressed older gent in Berkeley Square? I believe so.

Hedonism Wines was bursting with springtime color, adorned with huge clusters of tulips, trees of Easter eggs and larger, graffiti-covered eggs down below. As the sign says in the window, "Have an eggcellent day!"

From there I walked to the Bond Street stop, took the Jubilee Line back up to St. John's Wood and stopped at school to scan the documents Gordon and Sally had signed. I uploaded all our supporting docs last night, so now the application is complete except for our "biometric meeting" on April 30. After that, it's just a matter of waiting.

The wisteria around the corner from the school, which I've photographed in years past, is once again in full, flourishing bloom. It smells heavenly.