Weight 13st8. CNPS numbers spotted 9 (668) - now over two thirds through. Took me a little over a year for the first 333, then four months for the next 333 - need to do the last 333 in two and a half months. What excitement.
If you live in London and want to impress a date and have a hundred pounds burning a hole in your pocket (though you might get away with fifty if you scimp on wine and dessert and pre-meal cocktails - though this will make you much less impressive), then may I recommend the restaurant at the top of the National Portrait Gallery. I hadn't heard about it til this week when one of my nerdy friends said it would be a good place to go. Considering he is a geek who has never ever had a girlfriend in his life because he prefers the companionship of comics (not comedians - you know, the magazines that he wrongly refers to as graphic novels), this was an amazingly good call.
The restaurant looks out over Trafalgar Square, at a height that is just below the feet of the freakish column-shoed Admiral Lord Nelson.
You can also see the Houses of Parliament. This gives you an opportunity to look like a smug dick in front of your date by betting them a hundred pounds that you won't be able to see Big Ben from the restaurant. When they get up there and say, "See there it is," you can give them a wry look and a superior smile and say, "Aaaah no, because Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the clock tower." Then insist that they give you the hundred pounds they owe you. If they laugh, tell them that you really mean it and then if they refuse to give it to you, scuffle with them and grab their purse and try and get the money out yourself. This will be a brilliant start (and possibly end) to the date.
It is very romantic eating dinner whilst the sun sets over old London town and it feels all the more special because I think the place is probably a bit of a secret. Then afterwards you can go down into the gallery and watch a video of David Beckham having a nap. What more could a woman (or man if you are gay or a woman) ask for?
