Life of Late: Christmas countdown

It's only December 3rd, but I've already sorted out several Christmas presents and we've put the tree up, a gorgeous real 6ft one. I'm feeling very festive and organised, and I have an advent calendar for the first time in YEARS! I'm very jealous of all those people who have beauty advent calendars, but I've gone for a good old-fashioned chocolate one. Do you have an advent calendar this year?

At the weekend, we paid a visit to Kensington and had dinner at Sticky Fingers. Sticky Fingers is a BBQ place I've been to many times, and it's always yummy. Serving a full rack of ribs wider than me(!), I highly recommend you pay Bill Wyman's restaurant a visit if you're in the area.

The reason we were in Kensington was to go to the Royal Albert Hall to see Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra play. Olly has always wanted to see Jools and his band, so I bought him tickets for his birthday. Joss Stone and Marc Almond were two of his guests, and the powerful-voiced Ruby Turner also belted out a few numbers. Jools was marvellous, of course, as was his orchestra - I'm glad we got to see them play! RJ Thompson opened for them, and I loved their song The Numbers.

It's taken me a while, but I finally got round to eating at Big Easy, before a trip to the Vaudeville Theatre to see The Wind in the Willows. If you can get to Big Easy in the week between noon and 6pm, or after 10.30pm, they have a brilliant value lunch/pre-theatre/post-theatre deal where you get two courses and a drink for a tenner. I highly recommend their pulled pork! 

The Wind in the Willows was an interesting take on Kenneth Grahame's classic with lots of dance elements to the performance and (heavy) narration from Alan Titchmarsh. (It's a Royal Opera House production, which explains the dance!) If you're a fan of twee family productions with warmth, give it a whirl - we picked up tickets in the stalls for a tenner. It astounds me that you can sometimes see theatre in Central London cheaper than you can see a film in Central London!

How is your December going? Are you all set for Christmas? x