I Am Only Making One Post Today,

as there are quite a few photographs,

and as we used Diana's telephone as the camera the pictures took a long time to download and play with, so first some good news from the Philippines,

the house is coming on really well,

the interior starting to look like a proper house,

it all looks to be on schedule, which is more than a little pleasing,

in the morning Diana was at work, so for myself I made my way out of the park,

arriving at the antique shop by the number 54 bus stop,

which is almost opposite Kingfisheries where I pick up my RO water,

some news from the shop, the new invertebrate aquarium is up and running,

the first new inhabitants,

settling into their new home, the photographs look blue, but it is the way the camera sees the light, in the shop all of the colours are normal,

underneath the aquarium, the filter, the U.V. and protein skimmer all working well,

all looking good,

whilst here I decided to pop out to the rear of the shop and have a look at the outdoor coldwater section,

lots of fish for garden ponds to chose from,

for myself no garden is complete,

without a water feature,

whether it is stocked with ornamental fish,

or left as a natural nature pond,

for me it is the appeal of seeing water and the life it contains,

but certainly if you want ornamental fish,

this is the place to go to,

the koi in this pool were a little camera shy,

then a few came out of the disturbance the waterfall was making,

it was easy to photograph the water lily's!

a last look at the outdoor area and I was home,

as was Diana, work finished it was a change into glad rags,

for both of us,

I have not bought Diana a birthday present, which is on Monday, but I did want to treat her to a slap up meal instead, as it happened months ago we tried to book up for Monday, her birthday, but they were fully booked so we chose Saturday as that was the nearest to her birthday,

and this is where we are going, the Shard,

I should say the Oblix restaurant on the 32nd. floor,

we waited for the lift,

and made our way past the open kitchen,

to our table, 32 floors up, I was almost going giddy!

over looking London,

'Cheers!', with a white wine for myself,

and one from Diana who chose a watermelon spritzer, 

we decided to change seats,

'Cheers!', from both of us,

on to our starters, Diana decided on a crab cake, which was crab covered in bread crumbs and baked with a few herbs and just a touch of spice,

for myself salmon flatbread, with a layer of cream cheese,

it all looked and was delicious,

time to tuck in,

the caviar making it a little more special,

what a view,

I just did not want to get too close!

our main courses arrived, 

seabass for Diana,

a fillet steak for myself, 

for our sides spiced broccoli, triple fried chips, creamed spinach and a hasselback potato, which was rather nice and completely different,

on to the dessert,

Diana was so happy,

we chose a croquembouche to share, and rather nicely had drizzled 'Happy Birthday' in chocolate on the plate, all of which you could see, until we poured chocolate over the 'Happy'!, what a nice touch,

 

another 'Cheers!',

and a close up before we tucked in,

a last view of St. Pauls before we left the west side,

and made our way to the east side cocktail bar,

where Diana chose a white choc pina colada,

which she pronounced to be delicious, on this side of the building instead of the view of St. Pauls we had a view of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London,

 

for myself a vintage port,

Diana's cocktail was surrounded by toffee, 

which after trying the drink, I started to eat,

another pose from birthday girl,

I kept looking at Diana's cocktail it was a work of art in itself,

a quick selfie of us both,

a last sip, and we were on our way home, what a wonderful meal, 

we are there, somewhere!

we waited for the lift,

and were soon back outside,

and that is where we were, some where up there,

we were both just so happy,

a final selfie before we arrived home where it was feet up for Midsomer Murder, and the cost of the meal? just over £320. well it was a special day, and I did want to give Diana the best that I could, and with that we were off to bed.