On a cloud I saw a child...

So we went for a stroll to Oxford Street today, in search of shampoo. This is a thing which we can do because we're in London - jump on a bus and stroll off to this amazing shopping precinct in search of shampoo, and stumble across:

1) a plywood machine, endlessly creating random sentences that rolled down a roller coaster;

2) a concept shop in Selfridges dedicated to selling Words;

3) a stationery store selling a range of about six identical items in a dozen colours;

We passed by yet another Blue sign as we strolled, which caught my eye. What a lovely succinctness - "poet and painter". And of course because this is England, and perhaps more particularly because this is London, the building now contains a waxing salon. Somehow I suspect that Blake would have approved.

Near Bond Street Tube Station, off Oxford street, is a tiny entrance to a lane, no more than one person wide, that leads into St Christopher's Lane - apparently this is one of the preeminent fashion destinations in the world, and what we could see in the windows was definitely awesome. We'd strolled down into here again for a quick lunch, having passed through a few weeks ago, and went to Apostrophe. Which has one somewhere in the name. Bob found a huge hot chocolate.

One thing we've found is that there are a number of chains - Apostrophe and Pret A Manger being two of the most prominent - that specialise in flogging off really good, freshly made food (usually soups and rolls) at fast-food prices. I have no idea what happened to the notion of English food being stodgy, dull and bad for you. Apart from a dodgy pastie in Redhill a few days ago, all the food we've found has been really good, and the temptation to eat out every meal is hard to resist.

And this is the sort of thing we see all over London: a quirky little lane with interesting shopping, random art, and a slick restaurant with a huge queue out front directly across from the chain cafe.