I went to a friend’s hen night yesterday and whilst I have been forbidden from divulging any of the details or posting photos on my blog (how mean is that?), I think I am allowed to talk about the restaurant where we had lunch. It was the first time I have been to The Roof Garden. It is just off the high street in Kensington on the 7th floor of the building. The restaurant overlooks several gardens, one of which has flamingos in it. Unfortunately on the day I visited it was very cold so although I did step outside briefly to look at the view, I think I may have to go back in the summer to fully appreciate it.

The food and the service in the restaurant were excellent. The Saturday lunch menu costs just £16.50 for 2 courses or £19.50 for 3 courses. I tried the Golden Cross Goats Cheese with apple crisps, beetroot, baby red chard, wild honey and walnut dressing followed by plaice cooked in a beer batter and was impressed with both courses. The goats cheese worked really well with the beetroot and the apple crisps and the second course of plaice had a really good light fluffy batter which was good without being too heavy as batter often can be. The only negative thing I noticed about the restaurant was that the wine is a little overpriced but I would certainly eat here again and will probably go back with my husband in the summer.

A man in South Thailand shot dead eight of his neighbours because of their awful karaoke singing. Weenus Chumkamnerd had warned his neighbours about the noise and has threatened to shot them if they didn’t stop. His neighbours, however, ignored the warning and continued their party. Weenus later returned to the party and murdered eight people including his own brother in law. With this in mind I might have to turn the volume down next time I do karaoke.

If you find it hard to keep track of exactly how beers you have had, you might want to try this beer counting bottle opener. The gadget is called the Beer Tracker and records the number of times it is used to lift the lid on a bottle. It keeps track of the number of beers opened with a digital display, unfortunately though it only seems practical for the beers you drink at home, so won’t help for trips to the pub.

We have spent the last few days packing up as much stuff as possible to try and declutter our house prior to selling. The result is that I currently have a house full of boxes instead of a house full of clutter, not a vast improvement. We do have a van coming today to take all the boxes to the storage area so hopefully later on today I should be able to walk around my house again without encountering a box mountain.

This article suggests that balance transfer deals are disappearing in what appears to be a clamp down on easy credit. Research has shown that there are only nine credit companies offering a long term 0% balance transfer deal. This is compared with over 200 companies a year ago. The research which was carried out by www.fool.co.uk found there are now only 20 cards from 9 providers that offer a 0% balance transfer for a minimum of 10 months. It looks like it could be time to pay off that credit card balance.

Nationwide have increased the minimum deposit required to secure its best interest rate. Previously anyone putting down a 10% deposit could secure its best rate but this has now been increased to 25% of the value of the property. The move will mean that anyone with less than a 25% deposit will pay 0.2% more interest.

I thought I was seeing things when I came across the headline “Tony Blair launches artistic career”. It gets much stranger than that, however, when you learn that the Tony Blair to whom the article refers, is a rat. The artistic rat has been causing quite a stir in art circles with his masterpiece which is made entirely out of avocado. The rat has also produced another piece which features a gnawed four leaf clover which he calls “Am I still Lucky?” Tony’s owner says "I first noticed his creative potential when he walked across some clay tiles and left his paw prints and it went from there." I must see whether any of my cats are hiding an artistic talent.

A house in Kensington has sold for £80 million making it London’s most expensive home. The previous record was £67 million for a property in Kensington Palace Gardens. This property is five storeys high and has an underground swimming pool, a sauna and a gym.