First of all thanks to everybody for their tips and recomendations.

My desire to go to Ronnies on Sun night was thwarted by the necessitity of dining with the neighbours - however whilst everybody else was having coffee afterwards I, on the pretext of scouting Soho, did manage to nip into the Dog and Duck for a pint. I had forgotten what's its like to drink in a quite unassuming atmosphere not disturbed by anything but the quiet murmurings of other customeers and the klinking of glasses - that was pretty much the highlight of my visit.

Not having purchased Jermyn Street shirts in Jermyn Street since my student days - the Internet is a wounderous beast, I popped into several places, like Lewyn, to admire the appalling faux-mahogany.

It's interesting to analyse the marketing of both Lewyn and Harvie and Hudson, both obviously cater to the younger professional as they have outlets everywhere and sales of 3 shirts for 25 pounds each, which shows both what kind of profit they must be making on a 70 quid shirt, and that their market is breaking down. The real shirtmakers on the other hand, Pink, Hilditch and Turnbull steadfastly remain at their pricing model - I wonder which will be the first to fall.

What is really disturbing is the ammount of white foreigners working in London. In the good old days you'd walk into a shop and the assistant would look at shirt, shoes, suit and then steer you to exactly what you were looking for nowadays - "Do you have these in 9/G's?" "No Sir" (at least I got the Sir), "Do you have these in 9/G's?", "No Sir" "Do you have these in 9/G's?", "No Sir"...

I walk into a traditional English barber's what do I get? a Polish woman (lovely woman she was too) - the whole bloody point of getting a hair-cut in London is because the Europeans can't get it right! (Well she didn't do a bad job in the end, a little conservative but OK)

Everywhere - traditional English service with all it's good and bad points has vanished.

You should have tried Geeves & Hawkes and Churches for the shoes (unfortunately the Jermyn St branch was being refurbished last week.)

We went to the Convent Garden Crusty Pipe for lunch: not bad, a mediocre bangers and mash at 10.95GBP but wasn't up to winedrinking at that point. I was going to sample the cheeseboard but we saw someone else havnig theirs delivered and it looked like one square inch of cheese and half a packet of water biscuits...

I had my usual Barnet-trim from Mr Toppers, by a young Spanish chap whom did an excellent job for seven quid.

T.M.Lewin do the 25quid shirt offers almost all year round, but their apparently extensive range is actually quite small when you rule out the extra long sleeves and Windsor collars and cufflink cuffs.

Pink are better and they have regular sales. For reasons unknown they tend to specialise in "Slim-Fit" shirts these days. Bizarre.

The best recommendation I can make for both shirts and suits is Alexandre of Savile Row. They also feature in House of Fraser both in Regent St and Deansgate Manchester. Last season suits can be had at half price.

Churches shoes are also on Regent St, and close to their main opposition Barkers (just down from the Apple Centre).

Pubwise we checked out Ben Crouches, The Green man, Salisbury's and a few others. All offered the good English pub experience, with no Oirish accent in sight. But we did find a great little pub called "The Toucan" which specialised in Grunge, surly service and good Guinness.

BigD

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www.shootingthecheese.ch
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Envy, thy name is Lesley. I think I may pop back to London (with the girl) for the weekend in the next couple of weeks. She hasn't seen her cousins since we moved here and I am longing to see my friends and I wouldn't mind seeing the exhibition at the National at the same time. Flights with either Swiss or BA are jolly reasonable and land about 5 miles away from where my sister lives.

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One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art.

Never liked Churches

I was there as well but not the kind of place I like to drink on my own so I left.

Mine cost 30 quid!


Pink are better and they have regular sales. For reasons unknown they tend to specialise in "Slim-Fit" shirts these days. Bizarre.

True - not for me the slim fits - but their shirts are more interesting than the run of the mill shirtmakers.

Barkers/Regent street is where I had my little exchange - shoping over the internet does have its advantages (Herring shoes carry Churches, barkers and Cheanys)

I did a short stint at the London Hospital many years ago. Close by was a place which advertised itself as the "First Silver Service Indian Restaurant in London". Not cheap, but not outrageously priced, and both food and service were excellent. I've no idea if it is still there though.

There was something else that bothered me - when I was a kid you collected stamps, painted Airfix models that you had glued together yourself, or soldiers, played with train sets, or action man, or scalelectrix or dinky/matchbox cars or whatever. - Brought the Dingbrats to Hamleys, dreadful, really small selection and mostly remote-control flashy toys.

How depressing.

I did like the radio control (actually IR) hovering illuminated helicopters and UFOs that would permit real ongoing antagonism of the guy in the apartment below. A snip at 30quid. I almost bought one for that reason alone.

They had a range of painted Hussair soldiers a mere 45quid each, and an Action Man Scorpion tank (that I had in '77) that was too small to be real scale with the Action Men themselves. Really odd.

BigD

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www.shootingthecheese.ch
The place for fun and chat in Switzerland.

Digbat, life has moved on. I was born in 1964 and nobody I know made airfix models (except David Shrimpton and he was odd). Our girl who was born in 2001 plays with electric things and has done since she was small. She had a full range of wooden toys and educational stuff, but chose the flashing noisy gifts over our wholesome ones. Luckily for us she isn't interested in things like that now, she would rather read a book than watch telly, but she does have an MP3 player and a DS. Neither of which we bought her I should add. Life does progress.

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One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art.

I don't think she is typical, I have just been reading about the prospects for ebook-readers: one commentator pointed out that most US kids for example have read one book or less in the last year, so a dedicated ebook reader is a nonstarter.

I should qualify this by saying I am desperate for a tablet netbook/ebook device, as I have reiterated on so many occasions. Instinct tells me Apple will produce one soon, although I am amazed it is taking so long in an empty segment...

BigD

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www.shootingthecheese.ch
The place for fun and chat in Switzerland.

Noisey flashy kids toys are never bought by parents, they are bought by relatives, it almost gets competitive how annoying you can get them. My sister is currently in the lead with Harold the Helicopter, this is one step off scratching nails down a blackboard. Second place is the early learning center steering wheel for the buggy complete with engine noises.