My friend M. found her perfect golden-hued dried maple leaf this morning.

She laid it on her desk and smiled with a glint in her eye.

There’s just something splendid about life’s little pleasures.

Sort of like the little glee in my heart when I found the new Marmite snacks.

I’ve told a Marmite story before, I haven’t always liked Marmite – it somewhat grew on me.

It was at the Clapham Junction Asda; whiling away time and waiting to go to dinner.

I saw a lady with a pack of rice cakes; the packaging was black with the visible yellow and red Marmite label.

I had a brief ‘is that…. ?’ moment.

Not sure where she got it from, I started following her.

I find that I’m braver when I’m alone, especially in a place where no one knows me.

I followed the lady for a few seconds, gave in and asked where she got them from.

She very excitedly tells me three aisles down, and asks if I’ve tried them.

I say no and that I’ve never seen them before.

Apparently it’s new, they (Unilever) put out a variety of Marmite snacks, and the rice cakes are her favourite.

She asks me where I’m from; she says I’m lucky when I tell her.

She offers to walk me to where she got them, she may have taken the last one – there’s none left when we get there.

We ask one of the store clerks, the kind man offers to check the back; I’m hopeful and excited again.

He has no luck, they’re sold out.

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Our final days in London were a bit of a whirlwind. There still seemed so much to do and yet time was closing in on us.

Feeling inspired after the Paris trip, we decided to fit in a little shopping.

It was long overdue, I’d been running around for days with a list of things I absolutely had to have and yet I hadn’t actually managed to buy a single thing.

Things I’d convinced myself I needed so badly and couldn’t find anywhere in North America.

We took the tube to Bond Street Station, walked a few feet west and found ourselves in every shopaholic’s dream.

Bond Street has the most luxurious, elegant and unique shops in London, it’s worth just the browse.

We set off from New Bond Street, I was determined to try on everything! especially stuff I couldn’t afford.

I tried on shoes, jewelery, clothes, perfumes and everything else in between.

Look who we found! ‘Allies’ Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, The sculpture is by Lawrence Holofcener.

I was almost talked into trying on an £18,000 wedding gown – but I had to draw the line somewhere.

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I went to see Anish Kapoor’s newest art piece ‘Tall Tree and the Eye’ at the Royal Academy of Arts’ Annenberg courtyard.

The sculpture is part of the ongoing Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy which ends on December 11th (He’s the first living artist to take over the Royal Academy!).

I’m a huge fan of Anish Kapoor for his often oversized, shiny/colourful and mysterious public sculptures.

Marsyas was one of the most fascinating installations ever, and I’ve always wanted to see the Cloud Gate and Sky Mirror.

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My great-aunt Felicia loved traveling. She and my great-uncle were diplomats who traveled the world over for work and leisure.

When we were kids, she used to say that every adult, at least once in their life had to visit these two places: Paris & Gbadolite, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo).

She said “go to Paris to be inspired and Gbadolite to learn the importance of being humble”.

I went to Paris bearing this in mind, prepared to be inspired.

Inspiration hit me the minute I landed at Roissy because everyone seemed so happy to be there.

Of course, they were in Paris!

Paris is a magical, mystical, and romantic place with extraordinary architecture, culture and history.

We started out at the Arc de Triomphe, it was still early in the morning and the city had just awoken.

Tourists started gathering, shops and cafés were opening and the locals were getting to work.

We walked under chestnut trees on Champs-Élysées, browsed luxury shops and people-watched from one of the many outdoor cafés.

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I missed the second series finale of True Blood.

My DVR got too full while I was away on vacation so it got deleted for newer shows.

I still haven’t watched it.

I saw this ad while waiting for the tube at Bank Station, and thought… cool True Blood is on FX here in the UK (I didn’t even know there was an FX UK).

I took a second look at the poster and noticed… ‘That’s not Sookie!’ that’s some random tall blond woman.

And who’s that behind her? Is that supposed to be a vampire? That’s not Vampire Bill, looks more like a zombie.

I wonder who it was that came up with that idea for the poster, wouldn’t be easier to just get a poster with the real characters?

In other True Blood news, I love, love, love the show’s opening credits.

The song in the credits, Bad Things is by Jace Everett, it’s become one of my favourite songs.

Take a look…

Cool eh?