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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

A Green Park picnic, then a happy hour wine tasting at Hedonism Wine retailer in London's upmarket Mayfair

Go to Green Park station, which is opposite the Ritz hotel. If you come out of Green park station on the side by the park you emerge through a wall of green plants trained up the walls.

Drinking on an empty stomach is not good any time, especially if you are planning to drive home. We planned a picnic in the park. If you have brought your own picnic, you can sit on a park bench.

We sat down beside two strange strangers, decidedly odd characters. But when we took out our picnic, one of them limped away. The other one who was sleeping, woke up, and walked off. (Was it something we said? Was it something we ate?)

I murmured, "My mother taught me: Don't stare; and Don't eat in public."

My companion retorted, 'You worry too much. Get on with your life."

"What is life if full of care you have no time to sit and stare." That's a misquotation from the poet Davis, who was a tramp. He said stand. We chose to sit. And stare. 'People watch' is the polite word for it. In front of us were deck chairs you could hire. Joggers raced passed, followed by little dogs trundling along attached to leads trying gamely to keep up with their brisk owners.

A group who could have been dancers or gymnasts, wearing black tights and tight tops stood in a circle following routines directed by a man with ropes and equipment.

A stand sold coffee. We went  back to Piccadilly to a Pret Manger so we could avail ourselves of coffee, ample seats and ground floor toilets.

If you are more interested in Happy Hours than Happy Meals, maybe Hedonism wines is more your thing.

I suggest you look around the wines which are on sale and all the wineglasses and decanters and so on before you try a drink or two or more.

We walked to Hedonism from Green Park via Berkeley Square, which holds an antiques fair in a marquee every year for a week late in September.

Hedonism Wine shop has a huge display of wines for sale in grand surroundings, chandeliers and a grand staircase with motifs. See the Enoteca machines downstairs. You can pop in and buy a glass of wine from one of the Enoteca dispensers on the wall.


Get on their mailing list to be invited to a wine tasting - mostly priced about £25. You get to meet somebody from the vineyard or area or country or importers promoting a style of wine.

This tasting and talk can take about an hour, early evening, just drinks, no food guaranteed unless specified, not usually any food, so usually we plan to go off for dinner. We will spit out the wines, as is usual at a wine tasting when you get to try half a dozen wines, and then take the train and car home.

The human body is a pipe when when you put water or wine in at the top, the mouth, the liquid travel around until gravity leads it out again. That's why establishments serving drink need toilets.

Hedonism has the most amazing ladies toilet. (The only other one I've seen equally astonishing is at a restaurant in Beaconsfield.) If you don't like the food, drink and toilets in burger bars and coffee bars, or want a change, something upmarket in the evening or for a special occasion, London has wine bars and hotels offering luxury bars, restaurants and toilets, especially in Mayfair.

Hedonism ladies toilet
Firstly you  need to be directed to get to Hedonism's toilets.  Unmarked door. Inside the TV screen is dancing and blaring, like hotel bathrooms in top hotels in the USA. In addition to the toilet and washbasin there's a bidet. Out of the wall comes a white china hand - and a few inches vertically from that is the gel dispenser.




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