This is the Christmas shopping season in London and it is an activity that many dread, mainly the husband / boyfriend, but others relish and tackle head on. London is one of the most popular Christmas shopping destinations in the world so with that come the crowds, big crowds! So when you have been on your feet all day, since 8am, stomping from Covent Garden to Oxford Street and back, there is always the need for a cheeky little drinks stop to recharge the batteries, reflect on hopefully a successful shopping session and sometimes build up the courage for your next session.

There are some fantastic hidden bars and pubs just waiting to be explored and that will not be on the tourist trail, full to the brim with shopping bags and the loud and obnoxious tourists. I will take you through some of my favorite spots for a Christmas shopping drink that will warm the heart and give you the energy and motivation to continue!

First up one of my favorite places for a classy glass of wine and relaxed environment is Chopper Lump, in the Bond Street area. This place has a fantastic selection of wines from across the world, has some delicious steaks if you already peckish, and an ambience that will sooth those sore feet and stressed mind. So you are out again on the streets, dodged push chairs, prams, taxis and Chinese tourists and have managed to drag yourself out of Selfridges albeit with a hefty credit card bill. You are feeling thirsty again as you approach Oxford Circus and are in desperate need of a G & T; T or a Winter Pimms to wash those shopping nightmares away. So where are the bars and pubs? Not even 5 minutes away lies one of my favorite cocktail bars in London, Aqua Spirit . This is a taste of Tokoyo, Asian décor and style, so never fails to transport you away to a far off place. Be prepared to splash the cash as drinks are not cheap but I think it's worth it for the rest and the tranquil environment.

You have done the Apple Store, battled through Hamley's and have ventured through the crowds at Piccadilly Circus. The sun is starting to set on a crispy winter's day and the mouth is feeling dry. You are in luck because the 5th View Bar is waiting for you. Set above Waterstones book shop, this bar overlooks Piccadilly Circus and offers some fantastic views of the city that you have just marched through. There is a strong drinks list and at happily affordable prices.

My final recommendation on your epic London Christmas shopping trip is a visit to one of my favorite pubs in Soho. You can not visit London without a trip to a Soho Pub and this gem offers up some fantastic ales and beers that will make that trip to London a little more bearable. Now for a little surprise, they serve beer for £ 2.27 a pint, making it one of the cheapest places to drink a pint in London! It is called Glasshouse Stores. and is a Samuel Adams pub. This is no Wetherspoon dive pub either, it is cozy, atmospheric and the perfect spot for your Christmas drink in London.

While women have always had a dazzling array of upper body covering clothing garments available to them men have been traditionally limited in their choices of items to cover their torsos. In fact there really are only two options available to men, you can wear a shirt or you can wear a t shirt. While shirts are generally plain (with some vertical stripes being as exciting as it gets) the t shirt has always offered much more in terms of choices. The t shirt is essentially a blank canvas, anything can be printed on it and over the past 50 or so years during which the t shirt has featured as a commonly worn item of clothing, pretty much anything has.

Despite the limitless possibilities of the t shirt the reality is that most people tend to wear extremely bland and boring shirts. Most high street shops sell very similar designs and as a result of this you tend to see many men roaming the streets dressed identically in uninspiring t shirts. At the budget end of things you’ll see many shirts sporting incomprehensible slogans, designs and random dates created by someone whose first language is clearly not English. Something along the lines of “Tokoyo 1972: The Spirit and The Glory” or often a fictitious sporting team “The San Diego Pythons: All Divisional Champions 1983” or imaginary academic institutions “Paris State University”. These cheap stores have tried to expand their range in recent years, you may now get a lot of witty and amusing slogan t shirts, often drink related, such as “I’m not think as you drunk I am”, “If found please return to pub etc”. Clearly you do not want to be the kind of person that wears a shirt like this.

But at the high end of the t shirt market things are not that much more inspiring. We can see countless men and women sporting t shirts bearing the brand name of some company with which they have no real connection with (other than the fact that they paid them a considerable chunk of money to advertise their brand). Why do people do this? Is it because they want to fit in, to be similar to other people and by wearing the same tee shirt as other people they believe this will help them do so? Or is it because there is a lack of alternatives?

But what if there was an alternative. What if you could find a place where you could buy well designed, interesting and (in some cases) genuinely amusing t shirts. These would be limited edition t shirts so not everyone would have the same shirt as you and you would have a wide variety of shirts to choose from.

The answer lies in the internet and specifically in the form of a recent phenomenon, that of the daily t shirt site.

On a daily t-shirt site artists and designers from around the world submit designs for t shirts. The designs vary hugely, some will be artistic, others will be funny or parody shirts of famous films, people etc the possibilities are endless. That said, the quality of the design will be excellent as, these designs are being submitted by hugely talented artists, designers and illustrators. Community members of the site vote for the designs they like best, this process is sometimes referred to as crowd sourcing. The most popular designs are then chosen to be printed, but here is where the process differs from more basic t shirt sites. The shirts on the daily t shirt site are put on sale for a limited time only, normally 24 hours or until the design sells out. While they are on sale for this limited time you can buy the t shirt for an incredibly low price but once the shirt is gone it is gone forever. Thus you have a chance to buy a highly original and limited edition t shirt that you can be sure very few people will own. Not only this but you get a high quality product for an incredibly low price.

This is the daily t shirt site, finally an option that will allow men (and women) from around the world to own interesting and unique t shirts at a very low price. There is no excuse for bland t shirts any more!

Long ago, in ancient Japan, a samurai called Oribe Shima had run askew of the favor of a local lord, and was banished to the far away island of Kamishama. Left behind was his eighteen year old daughter Tokoyo.

Tokoyo had a broken heart and decided to find a way to venture to her father’s island so that she might spend the rest of her days with him. She was well instructed in matters of the sea, and so she sold all of her possessions and sailed off into the ocean in a small boat.

After many days she reached the island. But he was nowhere to be found. She climbed to a promontory and fell asleep. A few hours later she awoke to the sounds of a young girl crying. At the edge of the cliff was the young maiden dressed in white and a priest muttering incantations. Seeing the intentions of the ritual, she rushed to the girl’s aid.

“Stop!” said the priest, “You do not comprehend. This is the inevitable course of things. Deep at the bottom of the sea is a terrible dragon named Yofune Nushi who has us all in his grasp. You see he controls the climate of the ocean, and as fisherman, we have no choice but to comply with his demands. Every year, on this day, we must give to him the purest virgin our village. Today is that unhappy day.”

Tokoyo listened with sadness. But then she had an idea. She had no will to live and offered to replace the shivering young girl. The priest accepted her offer and she donned the girls white garment and jumped to the ocean below.

She swam down to a cave glittering with the finest of pearls. This was the cave of the dragon. As she entered it she passed by a small wooden statue in the likeness of Hojo Takatoki, the lord who had banished her father! Further up she swam and reached the lair.

She saw the terrible dragon. Shining like a snake with many legs in gleaming iridescent scales Yofune Noshi smiled at her.

But hidden in Tokoyo’s teeth was a dagger. And as the dragon moved toward her, she reached between her teeth to take the dagger and stabbed the dragon in the right eye. The dragon wretched in pain, but taking this opportunity she slit the underside of his neck killing him.

With one hand she grabbed the dragon’s corpse and grabbed the statue with the other and swam to the surface.

The people of the island heralded her as their savior and word spread about Tokoyo’s heroic feat, even so far as to the ears of Hojo Takatoki, who had long since been possessed by a curse. Hearing about the statue in the cave, he instantly knew its cause. So grateful was he that he ordered the release of Oribe Shima, who had been locked away in a secret prison.

The reunited father and daughter spent the rest of their days in happiness.