Before – or after – you  spend some days enjoying all the pleasures and scenes of Notting Hill , I can absolutely guarantee that you will have a LOT of  very different fun in Chelsea.  This chic, lush, louche, luxury area of London, between the river Thames and Hyde Park, is where young people come to sport, middle-aged English men and women come to remember what sport they once had, and where – if you’re lucky to still have your teeth and your pension – you can die in style during the Chelsea flower show. 

Why else did Bill and Hillary Clinton call their daughter Chelsea ?  Probably because they had fun conceiving her – during sunny or rainy days sauntering among the shops and cafes along the King’s Road, and amusing evenings with friends in the many wonderful restaurants and pubs tucked away in the elegant little streets which fan out from Sloane Square. 

We walked out of lunch at Zen Palate on Union Square about 1:45 today. As we approached the W Hotel , Kristen Johnston was crossing the street coming down Park. She's tall, yes, but she's also MUCH fitter than the camera has ever shown. She was quite strikingly sexy in her wire-rimmed big shades and a slinky faux-silk top, which fit her lovely features very well. I was happily surprised. Very. I'll never watch The Flintstones the same way again.

Koln is surprising. I'd sat on the train all day and wondered if I'd ever arrive. There's a great modern arcade in the station with a bit of everything you need...extra underwear, a fattening panini , the earrings in the colour you've been looking for...very clean and nice loos - with matron in charge.. I ambled towards the exit and the sunlight...

Most people coming to Geneva know about Hermance and Ivoire on the south side of the lake... Hermance - with the charm of its small streets,the apple grey colouring of wood work and stone...a peacefgul untouched quality...and Ivoire - medieval and restored (not without a certain sensitivity...) and crammed packed with tiny shops and houses, higgley piggley ruelles climbing up and down and full of tourists. (Well why not - it used to full of fishermen and their families, buyers and sellers.. it's all animation..) But many dont know the secret of  Nernier, quiet little old fishing village between the two of them on the lake. The houses are either tiny or rather stately on the waterfront with their high sloping roofs . There is an adorable church. And there are restaurants tucked about our especial favourite being right on the edge of the water (Dont feed your bread to the swans - it's very bad for them !!) Choose the perches from the lake, and Meunieres rather than au vin blanc for some reason...and they have a nice choice of simple rosés..You couldn't spend a nicer time anywhere.

Park Slope wasn't only made for Smug Marrieds with perfect babies.

Me, bitter?!

As a thirty-something with delicious man but no children yet, I am like a pig in mud here. And maybe not for all the same reasons others review "The Slope".

Austin and her bats at sunset

It is very accessible without a car. We stayed in some charismatically-challenged executel on South Congress. But its location gave us immediate access to the awesome sunset bat-fest under the South Avenue Congress bridge, a quirky and unique experience in itself.

But the anaemic yet thoroughly functional hotel is also situated abut 5 blocks from the very groovy, trendy South Congress shopping area. Home to a handful of great bars and mexican resturants, the uber-neat Austin Motel (with its 41 rooms all decorated in different themes from French Provincial to Chinese to hot Mexican.)