A friend of mine from school is now living and working in London, so I spent this afternoon with her, walking the streets of London and catching up on where life has taken us since graduation, doing a bit of shoe shopping and Mark's and Spencer, and stopping for a pint and a chocolate cake.

I love the residential side streets of London, with their cobblestones and luscious gardens everywhere you look. It seems this city has gotten really good at balancing new, fancy, "city life" with historic buildings and neighborhoods and infusions of the natural world all over the place. I guess that's what happens when you've been around as long as London has!