Singin' In The Rain, Under the Stars!

I was fortunate enough to win two tickets to an outdoor screening of Singin' In The Rain, with musical accompaniment by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on The Dressing Parlour blog a couple of weeks ago.  Thank you so much to Alison for the tickets!  If you are not following her blog already, then head over there and show her some love.

My good fortune came just days after the bird poop incident (if you don't know what I'm talking about, then please refer to this post) so I am not sure if it was a coincidence or if it was continued caca karma.  Either way, I was super excited to win, as I just love the movie!

The screening was part of the Live by the Lake series, located on Hampstead Heath by Kenwood House.  The setting was beautiful, the weather was sunny and warm (until night time hit - at which point we got under a blanket!) and there were three screens set up in addition to the main stage, so everyone had a great view, regardless of where you sat.

We brought along a picnic, and snuggled up to watch Gene Kelly and that charming smile of his in this classic 1952 musical comedy.  Incidentally, Gene's wife Patricia Ward Kelly was also in attendance, and introduced the movie, as well as sharing some fun stories before the screening.

Did you know that when filming the famous rain scene, Gene Kelly had a fever of 103 Fahrenheit (that is 39.44 Celsius!!!!)?  Can you believe it?  If you watch the scene, there is no indication that he is in the slightest bit ill - he was a true professional, and it makes me appreciate the performance even more.

She also cleared something else up: there was no milk in the rain!!!

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played the music seamlessly with the film, and we found out that the original score for the movie ended up in a landfill under the 405 Freeway in California (!!!!!!), so was painstakingly rewritten by John Wilson, who listened to the soundtrack over and over again and reconstructed the score over the course of a few years.

We had a great evening, and even ran into an old school friend of mine during the interval, which was a nice surprise.  As you can imagine, we spent the rest of the weekend humming tunes from the film....Moses supposes his toeses are roses... 

A belated 30th on the 38th floor...

You may remember me mentioning that loverboy made dinner reservations for my birthday at the beginning of the month, which we missed, as we lost track of time(!!!).  Well, he re-booked, so I was treated to a wonderful belated birthday date night dinner earlier this week.

I was super excited, as I had been wanting to visit this restaurant for a very long time - and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

SushiSamba is located on the 38th floor of the Heron Tower, and boasts spectacular views across London.  I was a little nervous about taking the super fast lift, which is encased in glass on the outside of the building, but it was fun!  It added to the whole experience, although I will admit that the first couple of seconds of the descent made me squeal a little!

Arriving at the 38th floor!

Sunset when we were leaving...

Waiting for the lift to arrive...

Going down!

The decor of the restaurant is bright, clean and modern with bamboo arches encasing the room, and lots of lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling.  There are two balconies - one where you can dine al fresco, and another which is a bar, featuring a wacky orange tree right in the centre.

 Can you spot the cheeky monkey swinging in the tree?

The food is a fusion of Japanese, Peruvian and Brazilian, and it was all super delicious!  I have not had such visually pleasing, yummy and interesting flavour combinations at a restaurant in a long time.

These grilled Padrón peppers were a simple but very tasty little snack whilst perusing the menu.

Kuromitsu glazed pork belly wraps - OMG NOM!

Gotta love a gyoza - especially when they are stuffed full of wagyu beef.

A selection of seviches with really interesting flavour combinations, including watermelon, mandarin and wasabi peas together with the seafood. Doesn't it look like abstract art?!

The grilled miso Chilean seabass might just be one of the yummiest things I've ever eaten...

Samba London rolls!  A carnival in my mouth!

Warm El Topo rolls with salmon, jalapeño, shiso leaf, fresh melted mozzarella and crispy onion.

 Dessert! Organic red chocolate chili peppers, peruvian chili mousse, red pepper tuile, raspberry-red pepper sorbet, chocolate crumble.  It might sound strange, but the balance of flavours was so delicate, interesting and well-executed - we loved it!

The cocktails are also yummy, in case you wondered...

Our waiter for the evening was knowledgeable about everything on the menu, and was helpful and attentive without being overbearing.  The service really couldn't be beaten - they even refolded our napkins when we left the table briefly to take photos on the balcony!

The hubs made sure that the evening still felt like a birthday surprise, and made arrangements for a birthday macaron to be delivered to me during dessert - at which point he presented me with a gift!  A gorgeous Bakelite bracelet from a gorgeous, thoughtful man.

Belated birthday macaron - which I totally dunked into the white chocolate 'happy birthday'!

A coffee heart for a coffee-lovin' sweetheart!

It really was the most perfect evening and we enjoyed ourselves so much!  Our dinner date at SushiSamba was definitely worth the wait, and this restaurant has earned a place at the top of my 'favourites' list.

I can't wait to return for more deliciousness and breathtaking views across London.... 

Naked ladies, leopards and lei...

Firstly, I would like to say thank you for all the birthday wishes and lovely comments on my last post!  It's been a busy old month so far, and feels as though the celebrations just keep going!

Last week, loverboy and I had a date night, which started off with a bird pooping in my hair - a less than ideal start to the night, but seeing as it's supposed to be 'lucky' (personally, I felt that Aaron was the lucky one, as he avoided being the poopy-head) it was a good thing that we were heading to the Hippodrome Casino, where I could test out my status as Lady Luck.

 I was having a pretty wild hair day - seriously, my mane did not want to be tamed!

I hadn't been to the Hippodrome in years (since before it was a casino) and I have to say, the venue is beautiful.  Right in the heart of central London, this huge venue is super fancy (even if the patrons do not all dress like it) especially the Matcham Room Theatre, which is where we spent most of the night having dinner, drinks and watching a show courtesy of the Soho Burlesque Club.

Even the ladies' bathrooms were resplendent, with Hollywoodesque light bulb-framed mirrors.

Hosted by Miss Polly Rae, the Soho Burlesque Club put on a sexy, funny, cheeky and playful show.  The interaction with the audience was amusing and Miss Polly Rae is a fabulous compere who oozes old-school glamour and elegance.

All of the routines were super fun to watch, and there were multiple acts including Kitty Bang Bang, Laurie Hagen and boylesque star, Phillip Anthony (Phil InGud).  My favourite, however, had to be the reverse striptease by Laurie Hagen, where she starting off naked and ending up fully clothed.  A truly unique and clever idea, executed with precise movements.  I also loved Kitty Bang Bang's fire-eating routine performed to Alice Cooper's Poison - this woman is so fierce that she even got her claws into loverboy...

'Please don't break my glasses, please don't break my glasses...'

As part of our evening, we were given a complimentary £10 chip which I doubled on red before cashing out - I think I have the pigeon to thank for that.

On Friday we went to a new night, The Leopard Lounge, held at Hoot'N'Annies in Kentish Town.  This is set to be a new weekly do, where you can feast your ears on a mix of tunes from the 40s-60s.

Whilst there wasn't much dancing going on, it was a fun evening, and it's great that there's a regular Friday night event with good music, where we can go to meet our friends from now on.

Talking of regular events, we headed on down to Swing at the Light on Monday, for Hawaiian night.  This weekly dance night is super fun with a great atmosphere, but alas we do not make it as often as we'd like to, mostly due to Monday night laziness!  Well, we had a super fun time this week, and it was packed!  We got our dance on, we got our sweat on, and we got our Hawaii on!  Aloha!

Finally, apologies for all the slightly fuzzy pictures in this post!  I have been really lazy about bringing my camera out with me lately - that coupled with the fact that I am slightly obsessed with Instagram at the moment, and so I end up taking a lot of pictures with my phone.  Normal photo service should resume soon!