Sometimes the nicest thing about my kind of work is that I can just stop and really look at the flowers.

It doesn't happen often. It's so easy to get bogged down in deadlines and to forget to let go. I don't remember what it's like to work in an office and to take lunch breaks. Working for yourself brings with it a lot of challenges and commitments.

But every now and then something happens that forces you to stop just for a few minutes.

Luckily for me, I had a good "let go" moment this week: my very close friend Richard came to visit from South Africa. I took some time off work to go have breakfast with him, and to catch up on how we've all grown and become people.






















Richard and I have been friends forever. We met in primary school, I can't remember exactly when, and we've stayed friends for - oh, about 17 years. He'd probably correct me on that number, and he'd be able to pinpoint it to the correct date and possibly even the correct class. He is now a computer programmer.

Many of our friends are now married and have careers and families - there was no way that my ten-year old self would be able to imagine us here. Isn't it strange to consider how people just grow up?

















We went out and had breakfast at Bill's, in Covent Garden. Bill's is meant to have the finest breakfasts in London and I firmly believe that you can judge the quality of a restaurant based on its vegetarian breakfast options.

You can see mine above: two slices of toast with guacamole, hummus, mushrooms, poached eggs, tomatoes and sweet chilli sauce. Yum. The coffee was cold, as it usually is at Bill's, but we both enjoyed sitting outside and enjoying a bit of sunshine with our mid-morning natter. Sunshine seems to be a bit of an indulgence this summer in London, so we took full advantage of it!






















I love Covent Garden. It's one of my most favourite London places: filled with tiny boutique shops, huge glamorous stores and knick-knack-y markets. And the window displays. Ah. They invite you in, as a window display should, and ask you to pick everything up. I love this little doorway: it leads into the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers.

Richard has lived on and off in London before I moved here, so it's wonderful to be able to take all the back roads as we walk - and we both know where we're going. Isn't it wonderful how people be so far away, yet so close in just a few hours by 'plane? I miss my family - and my friends who have all scattered to the corners of the globe - and visits like these just make the world seem so much closer than it was before.

Starling's Cafe is a quirky little coffee shop at 94 Belvedere Road in Claremont, Cape Town. From the outside it looks like any other house, but when you walk inside you see beautiful white-washed wooden panels, a selection of pretty tables dotted here-and-there, and shabby chic décor replete with mis-matched roses, watering cans and chalk-boards. It was the ideal escape from the torrential rain outside!



We (myself and my wedding-dress-making-and-expert-baker-aunt Robyn) went there at around 11am midweek, and I was alarmed at how very busy it was. We joined the queue at the door and waited to be seated. I've been here a few times before so I know already to look out for the muffins on the table (banana and dark chocolate is a particularly good flavour, and I hear that their savoury spinach and feta muffins are equally good for those who don't lean towards sweet treats). I also know that their coffee is fab, and their tea is equally lovely and served in beautiful glass pots - and there is a large variety to choose from, too! We had a lot to consider as we waited for our table.

















We were finally seated at a charming little table in the middle of the coffee shop. It was formerly a house and, as such, it comprises various rooms that have been converted for coffee-shop purposes. Everything is very charming: the art work on the walls is vaguely oriental, each table has its own vase for roses and olive oil jars, and there are lots of things to see - the chalkboard menu, the suspended watering can used as a pot for white roses, wicker-woven hearts.






















There is a standard menu available every day with additional extras on the cake stand area and advertised along with today's specials. It is quite dark inside the main 'room' of the cafe, so after getting very acquainted with the menu up-very-close (and promptly setting it on fire for getting it too close to the single tea light candle on the table!) we had decided on our order. Unfortunately banana and dark chocolate muffins were all gone so we opted for something a bit more traditional: I had French Toast Brioche with cinnamon and sugar, pecan nuts and syrup.

















Robyn opted for the traditional breakfast with two poached eggs with parmesan, basil pesto and wholewheat toast, and added in a side of button mushrooms.
















Dining at Starling's Cafe is always a pleasant affair but this time it was very rushed and we felt that we had to leave almost as soon as we had begun. Ordinarily the beautiful outside area is open and full of tables but, as I mentioned earlier, it was positively thunderous and rainy outside so that wasn't an option. It's good to see that this little cafe is still doing so well - almost two-and-a-half years since I first visited and had my pick of the tables! Nowadays it's a little pricey and very busy, but if you're lucky enough to get there at a quiet time and find a nice nook, you're in for a treat.






















You should definitely pop in if you're ever in Cape Town and be sure to get there early to take advantage of their slow-brewed teas and comfortable sitting rooms. Do try and get a table in the outer room offering up views of the garden, and be sure to keep a look out for the banana and chocolate muffins. If that fails, I'm sure we can find ourselves a delicious recipe somewhere.

We went to the Punch & Judy Pub in the lovely Covent Garden.

40 The Market,
Covent Garden,
London,
WC2E 8RF






















It's situated inside the market hall area ('The Piazza') over two floors with a large balcony outside, and a lovely inside terrace area downstairs next to Candy Cakes. We got there at about 10.30am, and we were just in time to see the crowds gather around the pub area to watch the paella-sellers set up store. The outside seating area of the pub has an excellent atmosphere: you can hear the opera singers who are performing in the next piazza, the sounds of everyone shopping on the level above, and the general hubbub of the market is really very pleasant. The patrons are a combination of ultra-trendy and interesting (a few seemed to have drifted down from Camden Town) and the food was particularly good.

















Although not extensive, the menu offers breakfast basics at generally reasonable prices: we paid exactly half the total of our breakfast bill from Bill's (also in Covent Garden) for two large breakfasts and two coffees.






















G knows that he's not allowed to tuck into any treats before I've photographed them! It's becoming quite a family joke.

















This is his Full English Breakfast. I really appreciate generous pub food, especially when the servings look like they're so big they have to compete for space on the plate.

















This is my Vegetarian Breakfast. The sausages look bizarre, but they were actually rather impressive replicas of sage-and-onion stuffing with a delicious crispy crumb. My eggs were cooked perfectly (that is to say, the chef complied with my egg-request to make them rubber - the only way I'll touch an egg!), and generally the meal was really very well cooked. The coffee was quite awful, potentially having been dispensed from a vending machine, but they are forgiven as this is England and you're supposed to drink tea. By the time we were done finishing up our toast, the paella-sellers were in full swing, people were filming them, and there was a queue stretching up the staircase. A popular choice, it seems.

All in all, this is the perfect English Breakfast location when you want a market-day out and about, looking at beautiful things and listening to the fun of the artsy crowd around Covent Garden. The food is good, the service was good the atmosphere, outside, is excellent and the prices are pleasing to the pocket. The only downside was the disappointing coffee - we'll try the orange juice next time.

Bill's is a beautiful little shop tucked into a charming courtyard in Covent Garden, in London. The courtyard itself is positively wonderful - you want to sit in the centre and look at all of the beautiful store-fronts with their oh-so pretty names and their oh-so pretty displays.

















And look! A chic little bicycle with a pretty wicker basket filled with flowers. How very bohemian.

















Directly opposite the lime green store front, there's this one - a little more rustic, perhaps, but the same idea. Only, this one really is a flower-seller and I think that bicycle really is for deliveries. Charming.

It's the perfect setting for produce-selling Bill's, which, by the way, is supposed to have the best breakfasts in London.






















So we went there for breakfast on Saturday. With bells on. It was pouring down with rain but Bill's didn't mind: the tables were pretty and inviting, the restaurant was bustling, and the coffee seemed to be free-flowing.

It's very, very pretty inside.

















Colourful tissue paper and sundried chillies and tomatoes hang in bunches from the exposed industrial-style rafters. The walls are lined with Bill's produce (which you can take home in a Bag of Bill's if you like, although it is very, very pricey) and the charming chalkboard signs and menus make this really cosy.

















Here you can pick up jams for £3.50, olive oil for £9 and tea for £3.50 with plenty of other items too. They don't only serve breakfasts, although we were there at 11am which means that you have to order from the breakfast menu or choose one of their pretty cakes or pastries.

















Tempting. We ordered orange juice (which was really good) and coffees which arrived twenty minutes after we ordered them, cold. There were more waitresses in the restaurant than they could possibly need, but they were very, very inefficient which was an awful pity.

Here's G's breakfast:

















It's a very 'farmhouse' style of breakfast (also known, on the menu, as 'Bill's Breakfast'). Bacon, tomatoes, eggs, toast, mushrooms, sausage and baked beans for £8.95.

This is my breakfast:

















The vegetarian option with toast, tomatoes, hummus, guacamole, mushrooms and two poached eggs (which, by the way, were down beautifully - even for a non egg-eater!). Mine was £7.95. As with the breakfast above, you can add on bubble and squeak or beans for an additional £1.00.

The breakfast was really good - I mean, really good - and I'd definitely go there again for the food. The service, however, was exceptionally bad and the only time we were really attended to was when we put a bank card on the table and made annoyed faces. The people all around us were also generally annoyed which created an unpleasant atmosphere, but after they cleared out and we'd had our breakfast, we quite easily could have sat down and had another coffee. My overall verdict is this: go to Bill's to experience their breakfasts, they're worth it, but expect slow service and do try to nab a seat near the bar (bottom level) because then you could get up and fetch your coffee yourself.