ロンドンからも書いたように、今回のロンドン行きも主な目的は前回と同じでお友達に会うためでしたが、お買い物をするのも楽しみでした。前回は例の頭痛が続いていたときで体調が悪かったのでお買い物は余りできなかったのです。
As I blogged from London, the main reason why we went to London this time was to see friends like before, but I was also looking forward to doing some shopping. The last time we came up to town I had that strange pain on my scalp and I wasn’t able to do much shopping.
到着した水曜日に、少し大きなお買い物をしました。日本を出て１１年住んだ香港では一応冬もあったのでコートが必要な時もたまにはありましたが１年に１、２週間のことですし、その後１０年住んだシンガポールは夏服しか必要ではなかったので、コートが必要なのは寒い時に寒いところに旅行に行く時だけ、なのでずっと安価で軽くて暖かいダウンコートですませてきました。今も住んでいるところでは同じコートで十分なのですが、ロンドンではもう少し良いものを着たいので、かなり久しぶりに長く着ることが出来そうなクラッシックで上質のコートと上質のスカーフを買いました。そういうちょっと特別なお店は、今住んでいる村の近くの街にはないのです。運良く気に入ったものが見つかって良かったです。他に、やはりこの辺りでは買えない美味しいチョコレートも。
I did get something special on Wednesday. We lived in Hong Kong for 11 years after Japan, then 10 years in Singapore. Hong Kong does have a short winter and you need a coat but only for a week or two, if that. In Singapore you never need a coat. This means it was only when I went somewhere cold in winter that I needed a coat, so I had been wearing an inexpensive and warm down coat for all this time and haven’t bought a good one for 20 years at least. The down coat is still good enough where we live, but I wanted to wear something more smart looking in London and I found one I liked very much in the first shop we went in. I also bought a good quality and warm scarf in Liberty. Both are high quality and very classic, so I can wear them for many years go come. We also bought a box of very special chocolate. In the towns and cities near we live, you don’t find any of these.
今朝は、宿泊していたホテルの近くにあるインテリアのお店をぶらぶら見て（家に欲しいもの、発見！）キングズロードまで歩き、カフェ”The Slone Street Deli”でランチ。焼き野菜とフムスのフラットブレッドサンドとモッツァレラとトマトとペストのサンドイッチを夫とシェアーして、デザート代わりにクロワッサンの生地をマフィン型で焼いてカスタードを詰めた、クルフィンもシェアー。どれも美味しかったです。わたしはフレッシュオレンジジュース、夫は白ワイン１杯とカプチーノ。お会計４６.６９ポンド（６７００円、８４シンガポールドル）。ディナーに比べて軽いランチの割に結構なお値段ですが、ワインも飲んでいますからね。
This morning, we walked from the hotel we were staying at and went in a couple of interior shops to see if we find anything we like for our home and we did, we’ll probably order them online. We walked to Kings Road, had a light lunch in a cafe called “The Slone Street Deli”. We shared 2 sandwiches – Mozzarella & Tomato Foccacia sandwich and Grilled Vegetables & Hummus Flat Bread Sandwich – both very nice but I specially enjoyed the flat bread sandwich. I had fresh squeezed orange juice, my husband had a glass of wine and a cappiccino and we also shared a little pastry-like thing called Custard Cruffin (croissant dough baked in a muffin tin filled with custard). The bill was 46.69 pounds (6,700 yen / S$84), which seems a lot for a light lunch comparing to dinners but wine was nearly 10 pounds.
チーズものこ辺りでは品揃えが僅かなので、ランチの後でMaryleboneにあるLa Fromagerie に行っていくつか住んでいる辺りでは買えないチーズを買い、まだ少し時間に余裕があったので、ジャパンセンターにも行ってみました。２階が改装中で１階のみの営業になっていて、日本のお野菜はほんの少ししかなかったのが残念。そろそろお好み焼きをしたいと思っているので山芋を買って、他にのど飴だとかどうでも良いようなものをちょこちょこっと買って来ましたが、やはり品揃えはかなり寂しい感じ。香港やシンガポールでどれだけ恵まれていたかを痛感します。
We don’t have a very good selection of cheeses where we live, so we went to La Fromagerie in Marylebone and bought a few cheeses. We still had time so we went to the Japan Centre, but unfortunately it was under renovation on their 1st floor so not a lot of fresh vegetable section. I’d like to cook some Okonomi-yaki soon, so we bought Japanese long yam and a few other snacky things. I have to say that the selections there didn’t excite me very much, we were very spoiled for Japanese stuff in Hong Kong and Singapore.
この時点で２時過ぎ。４時の電車に乗る予定だったのですが、時間が気になってギリギリまではお買い物を楽しめませんし、どうしても買いたいというものがあったわけではなかったので１つ早い３時の電車に乗って４時半ごろに帰って来ました。
It was about 2.00pm then, so we decided to take a train at a little after 3.00pm rather than the one little after 4.00pm that we had been planning to take. There wasn’t a lot of time to do much else if we were to take the one just after 4.00pm, and we’d have been be worried about missing it if we started on another visit somewhere. We got home around 4.30pm.