The price of looking good for the big day and a few randoms~

Warning, I’m about to be really frank about my finances here, if you don’t want to know then look away now!  Apologies in advance that this is a bit of a random post.

It’s the final countdown until we leave. In 11 days time I’ll be finishing up work to jump on the tube and head to the Hilton for the night. Then it’s up at 6:30am to catch a flight to Colombo! Woot woot!

This has sent me into a slight panic, especially when I look at my bank balance. The scales are slowly getting there so I’m not worried but wow, do weddings drain you of all your spare cash and more? Yes, yes they do.

Here’s a rough estimate of how much I’ve spent on looking good for my wedding day alone: £1500 (when you see it on paper it’s frightening!).

I’m not going to go into specifics but in that figure includes:

• Dress: a bargain, especially when you consider that the maker of it designed and made it herself and it is beautiful.
• Make-up: being pretty much entirely Bobbi Brown and Benefit at least I know it’ll last me a couple of years; scarily the amount spent on my face alone is way way more than the dress!
• The world’s most beautiful shoes… see below.
• Three month’s Virgin gym membership and a brilliant 18 month stint with British Military Fitness.
• Hair cut and highlights this coming Tuesday: I’m probably going to need an extra mortgage for that appointment~
• Beautician appointments: Waxing (by the way, Benefit do the most thorough job I’ve ever seen~); Lash and brow tint + shape; Mani-pedi at Chelsea Day Spa (best deal in town, amazing service); Spray tan the day before we leave.
• New holiday clothes and bikini – my old travelling clothes have fallen apart after a long service, luckily H&M is your friend when it comes to holidays~
• All the other randoms along the way – like better fitting dresses that come with losing more than 10lbs…

A sneak peek: aren't they beautiful?

I could have done with a bunch of other things, I could have also done this all for less than half the price if I’d chosen to go a bit more budget but I think it’s all been worth it.

Little finds of late:

• Benefit Hoola – makes you look like you’ve actually seen the sun during this sunless summer London is having. It’s gorgeous and doesn’t make you look orange.
• No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara – I’ve come to the conclusion that this is THE best mascara I have ever used. And I’m normally a high-end girl when it comes to my lashes, having tried at least 50 types of mascara since I started using it as a teen. It’s a combination of a great formula and amazing brush: gets every single last lash, lengthens them and gives a lovely curl.
• Pedi-egg – for the at home pedicure girl. Clean, tidy and makes your feet super smooth and lovely.
• No7 Protect and Perfect Intense Eye Cream – another No7 gem which almost beats Clinique’s exceptional eye creams but is cheaper. It took about a month but now I’ve seen the results (smoother, less tired looking under the eye area) and can’t live without it.

Mr Man’s stag do is this weekend. I’m so thrilled to have a quiet one ahead. As I now have the wedding dress I’ll probably wear it the entire weekend… writing up this blog, having a few naps, practising getting the gel eye-liner thing right. My friend is coming down from Leeds tonight and we’re going to do a mock-up of my hair for the wedding. It’s all getting very real! Just need to finish up the next seven days of work and get through those with eating as few carbs as possible. Yikes!

I've had to put cake aside for the last couple of weeks - this is my current snack of choice.

W London (and the rest): Classy hen party, Part 3

After the Charlotte Street Hotel and the lovely Pixi it was on to the naughty part of the evening…

First stop: cocktails at W London, Leicester Square’s newest addition and a much needed dose of class and New York charm to the West End.

W London - Wonderful

How in love with a bar can one possibly be? I’m head over heels for this place.

I’m not sure if it’s the decor.

I’m not sure if it’s the ultra “professional” bartenders.

I’m not sure if it’s the atmosphere.

I’m not sure if it’s their phenomenal cocktails. Actually, I am sure. It’s their phenomenal cocktails. Though everything else comes close.

Their cocktails are out of this world. Up until two Saturdays ago I didn’t think you could beat Lounge Lover’s stunning selection but I’m going to have moment of disloyalty to my East End abode. W is giving it a run for its money. I wish they had a menu on their website – that way you could check it out yourself rather than having to rely on the below picture:

Divine cocktails. I swear gods made them.

We had two hours at W, and goodness that went by quickly. Yes, another one to go back to…

I would go on to write about the rest of the night – but the photos after W change somewhat! Let’s just say that the greatest friends a girl could wish for made sure I had the best hen party ever and we danced the night away to brilliant cheesy pop.

Speaking of cheesy pop, Sister-in-law and I met Puck from Glee!!! Well, stalked him at 2:30am, took a photo with a flash and really irritated him, but whatever… that’s what you get for going to sleazy London nightclubs when you’re famous, you’re bound to be approached by hyper hens.

And with that my friends, I spend the next few weeks preparing for the big day. It is scarily close.

To my wonderful girlfriends, thank you thank you thank you for such a great weekend. See you on the beach in 29 days time!

The world's coolest hens.

Make-up at Pixi Beauty: Classy hen party Part 2

Charlotte Street Hotel was only the start of Queen Hens’ plans. Next stop was Pixi Beauty, a little treasure trove of girliness just off Carnaby Street.

That's our private party at Pixi

I’ve mentioned before how much I love Pixi’s products. After Bobbi Brown, they’re the product I have most of hidden in my make-up box, and the brand I use most on a daily basis. So you can imagine my delight when I found out we were actually going to the store to have our make-up done, post-afternoon tea, pre-big night out.

What I like about Pixi is that every product is hypo-allergenic, they don’t go too out there on the looks (you would never leave that store looking like a drag queen) and have make-up to suit pretty much everyone. With my friends having a range of skin tones this suited us well.

Pixi eye palates and liners

When we arrived we were treated so nicely. The girls who run this shop are always genuine and friendly but this time they went out of their way to make us feel super welcome. They brought out nice bottles of bubbles and took care of my heavily pregnant Friend K with a bottle of pomegranate juice. We launched straight into the make-up – three of us at a time – and spent two hours having massive girly chats, each of my ladies coming out one by one looking even prettier than when they went in. I have over one hundred photos of us all so here’s just a few:

Friend C (the legendary marathon runner) having her make-up expertly applied - such a nice luxury

Girly chats over make-up and bubbles

Friend R being made up all pretty

We all came out with quite different looks – all of my friends looking absolutely stunning. The Pixi girls weren’t afraid to suggest different looks for each of us and we all learned something different from them. I loved the way they applied my eye-liner whilst a couple of my girls went for big red on the lips, others with deep smoky eyes. We definitely looked ready for the rest of the evening.

At the end of our time there quite a few of us left having brought one of Pixi’s great products. Many of us fell in love with their Tinted Moisturiser and their Succulent Lip Twin. I’ve said earlier that the girls who run Pixi are lovely – so nice in fact that they gave me a gift too! One of their very pretty Eye Beauty Kits and their Vitamin Lip Silk (a nourishing gloss) that I’m in love with and have worn every day since.

So as with the Charlotte Street Hotel, Pixi is up there on London experiences I plan to repeat. I just really need to find a good occasion to get a group of us there again. In the meantime I’m going to have to stick with popping in there on lunch breaks to buy more of their gorgeous products.

My lovely ladies all dolled up - thank you Pixi!

Charlotte Street Hotel – Classy Hen Party Part 1

So the weekend of weekends finally arrived. After what I’m well aware has been a good six months in the planning, Queen Hens, R&G told me to turn up to the Charlotte Street Hotel at 2pm last Saturday.

There had been a lot of build-up to this big weekend – being a total control freak and having seen what debauchery goes on in UK hen parties I initially wanted to plan the hen do myself; but I decided to put some trust in two friends who I have known since we were little and sat back to plan other things. This was a big leap of faith.

In the end I was actually quite grateful that they took over as planning a wedding in the middle of the Indian Ocean plus a long honeymoon and buying a house at the same time is probably enough to take on…

Also, I’ve been told that trying to organise my big group of girlfriends was the equivalent to herding a bunch of sleek mischievous cats.

So they went for it and here we are:

Charlotte Street Hotel - simple and understated on the outside, a world of luxury on the inside.

I’ve never really paid much attention to the Charlotte Street area so this came out of left-field at first but WOW, am I ever glad they included this in the plans. It is a beautiful hotel. It’s serenely calm and the staff seem to be like swans – quiet and lovely on the outside, probably paddling like crazy below the surface.

Sister-in-law and Friend N were staying with me that weekend and when we arrived 20 minutes late (I am never late, thought this would be a nice opportunity to try it out, was great!) Friend R was waiting for us and sent Sister-in-law and N downstairs while she and I waited five minutes. It was one of the most bizarre five minutes I’ve ever had with R as she was keeping an exact eye on the time whilst I was nervous as anything – I was about to become the centre of attention for a very long time.

Our five minutes was up and into the elevator we jumped, headed into their basement, along a series of beautifully wallpapered corridors (with fabulously plush carpet by the way), through another corridor and opened a door. In there were my ten best friends in the entire world. I’m going to stick another WOW in here. It was quite overwhelming… There they all were smiling away, ready for one awesome afternoon and evening ahead.

Check out the room and imagine it with 10 very lovely ladies dressed perfectly for afternoon tea in it:

Our very own private room! (that's my gorgeous Friend R setting up in the background)

Not bad huh! They’d managed to arrange for us to have a private room where we could plug in an ipod and have our own playlist on (my friends chose the Glee soundtrack amongst other brilliant cheesy pop); included was a waiter who discreetly refilled our pots of tea and was amazing in terms of catering for our needs, topping up sandwiches and cakes along with extra water, tea and coffee, whilst leaving us to enjoy the afternoon in peace. Apparently there was an event manager assigned to us to make sure everything went seamlessly. I’m blown away by the level of attention to detail put into this place.

The girls went in earlier in the day to set things up. So when I arrived not only were all my favourite people in the Northern Hemisphere (except Mr Man) in one place, but they had arranged goodie bags with good things to get us through the day (band-aids, mints, perfume, maps, night bus routes, kit-kats to name but a few items, impressive!).

Goodie bags

And also a tiara for me… phew, not overly tacky.

Taken much later in the day - a tiara for a bride to be

But the highlight of the hotel was definitely the cake… oh god I love cake, and my friends had not let that part slip. It was one of those ultimate London afternoon teas: perfect cucumber sandwiches, macaroons (yusssssss), profiteroles, fruit tartlets, bowls of berries, Madeira cake and beautifully fresh fluffy scones along with plenty of jam and cream. Very nice Miller Harris tea was served too.

And there was champagne. My friends know Lady Cake too well.

Mouth watering yet reader? It was as good as it looks.

In terms of my long list of London afternoon experiences, this could well be at the top.

We spent three hours there eating and drinking and playing lots of cool games. What goes on tour stays on tour, so I’m not going to go into detail on the games we played (however, I was impressed at the quiz on how well my friends know me, competitive streaks came out!!) but they did give me some great gifts; most special of all was the photo album that Sister-in-law gave to me of Mr Man as a kid. Amazing. It reminded me why we’re getting married, and that is even though we have these great separate social lives, he’s always going to be there with his big personality, every step of the way, and it was so great to see who he was long before I ever appeared on the scene.

I’m going to save the next part of the hen-party for another post (make-up at Pixi in Carnaby Street) but let’s just say the Charlotte Street Hotel couldn’t have been more perfect a place for a group of classy ladies to spend the afternoon celebrating one of the biggest days in a girl’s life. The location is excellent, the service is outstanding, and the cake is phenomenal. If I could recommend one place to spend a special afternoon with your girlfriends then this place is it.

Thank you to all my wonderful friends who made such a great afternoon happen, and to the hotel for letting us take over your private room. I genuinely couldn’t be more grateful.

Hen weekend with a short stopover at Lounge Lover

I can’t believe that tomorrow evening I’ll be spending the night with my two best friends (we’ve known eachother an incredibly long time, one for 23 years, the other 15). They’re making me dinner and starting off what’s going to be a very exciting weekend – my hen do!

I’m well aware that they have been planning their derrières off for at least six months so I’m expecting great things here. If judging by previous nights out with them and the rest of the gaggle, this is going to be a weekend to remember.

Here’s where we went last week for dinner and cocktails:

The fabulous Lounge Lover

Lounge Lover is one of London’s hidden gems. The place is a complete assault on the senses – mostly visual and taste – but it’s amazing. Their cocktails are worth the trip there alone. I’m expecting that for the evening part of Saturday we’ll be heading to places similar to this. Apparently they’ve been using quite a few nights to go on “research trips” and from the sounds of their Friday emails these nights out were a lot of fun. Am I setting my expectations too high? I doubt it. I know for certain we’re booked in for afternoon tea at the beautiful Charlotte Street Hotel, followed by having our make-up done by Pixi before we paint the town red. I know nothing other than that; apart from needing to wear a great dress, bring a biggish bag and a fabulous set of heels.

There’ll be 11 of us, including my sister in law and Friend R who are coming down from the North of England, Friend C coming in from Cambridge, Friend N who’s joining us from Switzerland, my heavily pregnant Friend K who’s likely to drop at any time in the next few weeks (eek!), my marathon running amazing Friend C who recently ran the Edinburgh marathon in 3 hours 20 mins (LEGEND), my old flatmate S, Friends M & N, and my Queen Hens, R&G. It’s going to be so great having most of my best friends in the entire world all on a great day/night out together. What’s even better is that apart from Friend K who will be changing nappies by then, we’re all going to get a chance to repeat the event in Sri Lanka in 6.5 weeks time.

Will report back next week once I’ve recovered. The blog might go quiet for a few days, but that’s because I’m anticipating a long recovery period… knowing all of my Hens, this is going to be quite a weekend.

I guess I’ll see you on the other side!

Flab burning update and countdown which just gets shorter

Gosh it’s getting close to the big day. Am I going to reach my goal of losing 7-8kgs over the last 10 months?

Well, I think I’m getting there!

I’m down five, two to go. I think it can be done, especially with the stress of everything that still needs to be sorted out (not just outside of work, I have a massive autumn to prepare for in my day-job). A bit of stress is a good thing sometimes.

It’s noticeable now; for ages it wasn’t but I think the magic number five makes so much difference, as has my routine of the following:

Monday – Spin

Tuesday – Run (sometimes I can’t always use Tuesdays to exercise as that’s when I’ve been fitting in various appointments)

Wednesday – Pump

Thursday – Spin

Friday – day off but making sure I walk loads. If I can get out of bed I try really hard to make it to Spin, this has happened twice in the last two months.

Saturday – two classes: Pump then Spin or Zumba

Sunday – rest but usually ends up with Mr Man and I going on a big day out, hence lots of walking.

I’m making it to five classes a week, six during less-busy weeks and it’s working. Alternating cardio with toning has done absolute wonders, like making most of my clothes loose on me now. I’m so happy! Mr Man even said to me last night that I should continue with this routine after our honeymoon since I seem to be loving it so much.

I’ve cut down treats to once a week; luckily it’s summer time in the UK (apparently, not that my trench coat has actually been put in a cupboard yet) so all of England’s summer fruits are out. Hello Marks and Spencer’s strawberries, hello nectarines. Isn’t it amazing how everyone’s mood changes on nice days too?

Still keeping up with the lunch time routine of salads with a small amount of carbs, dinner salads with grilled chicken, halloumi, chickpeas or chorizo, and very little carbs, no carbs on non-workout days. Snacks consist of one daily greek yoghurt (I get calcium no other way through food) and one or two pieces of fruit; on workout days this also includes a bircher muesli for a snack. I’m never too hungry as I eat enough food to keep me going – I’ve always thought that diets which make you hungry won’t work out long-term as you end up binging or eating all the food you’ve deprived yourself of as soon as the diet’s over.

Mr Man gets a bit bored of my salads so I’ve been trying to vary them up by adding pomegranate, chillies, seeds or whatever I can into them. He seems to like the grilled chicken done with loads of spices so we keep running out of cumin.

Breakfast is the same every day – 100 grams of wheat free muesli, 365 calories. I’ve tried less before, I just end up eating terrible stuff before lunch.

A couple of randoms here…

This month’s Glamour Magazine has a  decent sized sample of Benetint, Posietint or my favourite, High Beam – well worth the £2 as all of those last for ages. I’m now obsessed with High Beam, such a great product.

At lunch the other day Mr Man randomly told me exactly how many days to go until our wedding. I was so impressed!!

Countdown:

9 days – the hen party!! Can’t believe it has come around so fast. My amazing girls have put so much planning into it, I just hope I can be the best hen ever for them.

27 days – my final dress fitting.  D-day basically. You might see the number of gym sessions creep up over the next couple of weeks.

37 days – Mr Man’s stag.

41 days – My hair gets highlighted – thank goodness as the re-growth is driving me batty

48 days – We leave for Sri Lanka

54 days – I become Mr Man’s Mrs… eep.

How have you guys been? Life treating you well?

A bride shops: Bobbi Brown’s “Be your own make-up artist”

The bank holiday was an incredibly busy weekend and I’m not really sure where to start. I could start with the trip to a new beautician but there’s not much to say there, she was cheap and good. Saturday meant big time gym session then eyebrows being shaped and tinted  at Benefit (amazing how good brows can improve a face), followed by a trip to Prufrock coffee to meet a friend, ending with a manicure and pedicure on the other side of town.

Here’s where the fun starts.

On Sunday I was booked in for a one-hour bridal make-up session at Bobbi Brown. They’ve got this great marketing campaign going at the moment enticing you to “be your own make-up artist”. Essentially what it means is that they want to help you make you look like you, but better! As someone who generally hates other people doing my make-up as I always come out looking like a drag queen, this was music to my somewhat skeptical ears.

They have loads of different lessons on offer at the moment. Here’s a selection that came into my inbox last night:

A selection of make-up lessons on offer

Anyway, I got to John Lewis right on opening and was greeted by a very friendly Malaysian lady – this is important – as my wedding is in Sri Lanka I didn’t want to stress over and over that my make-up would need to be humidity proof and being from a very similar climate she knew exactly what I need.

The session lasted an hour with her making up my face bit by bit, very slowly so I could ask questions at each new point i.e. can you show me how to apply gel eye liner once more?  She was super patient but happy to help out. I came out with my face looking amazing having learned quite a few new techniques in the process. Some were really obvious (like only applying blush to the apples and tops of your cheeks, not under like our mothers taught us in the early nineties), some I would never have thought of (applying lip liner AFTER lippy and gloss). I also came out nearly in debt but that’s my fault and to be honest, if I’d bought nothing she probably would have wished me well. Everything I bought can be used well before and beyond the wedding (pretty much daily) for up to two years so when you put it down to price per wear it’s hardly anything!

Having spent the last 5-10 years constantly saving for travel make-up has tended to be something I don’t spend a lot on (skincare is a different story). It’s been last on my list of priorities – as long as I have good skin and a great coat of mascara on I’m generally not bothered by what brand it is. However, this lesson might have changed me – subtle changes can make such a difference and that gel eye liner… well, let’s just say I’m a huge fan already.

I’m going to spend the next eight weeks practising over and over to make me look like me but better. Let’s hope that come 9 August I can recreate that wow-factor that Bobbi Brown did.

There’s plenty more to come about the bank holiday weekend, I just thought I’d be doing a public service by letting you know these fabulous lessons exist and won’t cost you a penny unless you want to spend one. You can find out more here: http://www.bobbibrown.co.uk

Flab burning update

Hi.

Is anyone still out there?

I know it has been a while but Mr Man and I have finally made the move to our very own East End abode and we were without internet for some time. I must admit though, it has been quite refreshing sitting down and talking to eachother in the evenings rather than just sitting on our respective laptops in our own little worlds or watching i-Player. In my evenings I’ve taken to having long baths while listening to the radio (who knew, what a pleasure!), cooking up healthy little storms, going to Zumba classes, catching up with friends and even just sitting by our Juliet balcony. It has been nice.

Anyway, back to the title of this post…

This blog has been due a flab burning update for some time. I don’t know if I’ve been putting this off for a reason or it’s just that I’ve filled the page with much more interesting items than the size of my derrière but here we go.

I’m so ashamed to admit this but here goes.

I have suspended my membership to BMF. Basically my shin has kept on causing me grief so when I was going more than once a week it was causing issues in being able to keep up with the group. If it wasn’t my left shin that was annoying me, my left ankle would decide to play up. After several months of this I realised it’s not normal to have pain for so long and just put up with it. I also felt like after 16 months of attending I had plateaued, even after seeing my fitness getting to levels I’d never seen before in the first year. So I’ve decided to take a break from it until winter and focus on different exercise, much of it less high impact. I plan to return in September – quitting BMF for good is not an option as I genuinely love it and don’t think you can get a better workout in London; plus, I’ve made some very lovely friends and would miss the social aspect if I quit for good.

This is not goodbye BMF, it’s see you later, soon hopefully.

What’s the plan now you ask?

I have sold my soul. I hate to admit this after prattling on for so long about the benefits of exercising outdoors, but Virgin Active has an amazing set of classes, is less than 10 minutes to get to from home and is on my way to work. It even has air-conditioned changing rooms so you’re not sweating like you’re back in that spin class as soon as you start blow-drying your hair. So far I’m quite impressed (perhaps because I know this is a temporary measure so am making the most of it) and think the higher than average cost is actually worth it.

In terms of workout, I’m going back to what last seriously worked for me when I wanted to keep a very tiny figure having lost a lot of weight in India: working out every week-day morning plus squeezing in a couple of evening sessions when my muscles aren’t killing me. Cardio will feature most days and weights/toning at least a couple of times.

It’s only been a few days but I’m enjoying the morning workouts so much more than I thought I would, though it does help if I have a shot of Matcha before I leave the house so I’m half-woken up by the time I arrive. Doing spin at 7:15am doesn’t feel as masochistic as it sounds, nor does boxing. I know this makes me sound like a complete nut-job but I have actually done this before and I know my body can handle it. Let’s hope this hard push over the next four months really works.

In the past few weeks I’ve started to visibly notice my weight drop. I’ve cut carbs out as far as feasible after 2pm after listening to Jillian Michaels say that carbs at night are like little sponges that soak up any fluids then just sit in your tummy for ages. As a known carb addict I thought cutting down on them would be rather hard but it turns out that it’s actually very easy. Dinner now consists of low-fat curry without rice (but more vegetables added in) which is much tastier than it sounds, lots of grilled chicken, prawns and haloumi, fresh home-made hummus and salads which I’m getting more creative with. Pomengranate has become a regular feature, as have mangoes and toasted seeds. We’re still eating out occasionally but probably are a bit fussier than normal. With just 15.5 weeks to go to the wedding I’m happy to see some cheekbones back and the surprise sign of my collarbone. I think UK size 10 (6 in America) is almost on the horizon!

I will talk about the other things I’ve tried (including Bikram Yoga and Zumba) in another update soon.

Weight loss to date? About four kg, half-way there!! As the fable says: slow and steady wins the race, but hopefully in a great dress this time.

What’s new with you world? How’s life?

I will get there but it just takes time to do some things properly.

Temptation

Every time I walk to South Kensington tube on my way home from British Military Fitness I am confronted with this:

Le Pain Quotidien window

It drives me batty, especially since I would have finished burning around 640 calories only 10 minutes earlier. Le Pain Quotidien does beautiful tarts. Their lemon ones send me into a total head-spin (I nearly ate two once, pre-bridezilla, during half-marathon training where I managed to gain, not lose, 7kgs). So I’ve had a strategy in place to avoid this temptation. When I see those delightful looking tarts I either lie to myself and say they’re not real, or remind myself how far I’ve come in terms of moving this spare tyre off my waistline.  The other thing is to either avoid it completely by walking in the tunnel under South K (not the most pleasant of options when Spring is here) or walk super fast, pretending the cafe doesn’t exist.

This blog is due for a flab-burning update soon. Watch this space.

What are your food weaknesses?

Brunch at Kopapa

Recently my friends and I heard about a new New Zealand style cafe opening in Covent Garden, up at 7-Dials. As loyal kiwis who are chained to our flat whites it was a must that we at least try it. The time came on an outstanding Spring day which put everyone in a cheery mood, perfect for brunch with the girls.

Kopapa was good! Not as great as I’d been lead to believe but still ok for a nice coffee and reasonably priced lunch. The service is nice enough, the ambiance is friendly and not too loud, and the food, taken from a very extensive menu, is lovely. To be honest, the place didn’t blow me away but if you’re in the area looking for a good place to go for coffee and a nice afternoon snack then I’d recommend it, if anything purely based on my friend’s meal of ricotta fritters which were outstanding.

A very good flat white (not mine, but my friend who has worked in cafes her entire life rated it)

My genmaicha tea - it was nice and good to be on the menu, a rare find in London

Fruit salad - I'll be honest here, I didn't think it was worth £6. There was something missing in it which I still can't put my finger on.

Ricotta fritters with pistacio-caramel sauce. One of the girls had these and they were outstanding. Like a rich pancake yet complemented with avocado, rocket and figs. I'd go back just for this dish.

Overall we enjoyed ourselves. One of my friends had this amazing French toast with tamarillo, streaky bacon and orange vanilla syrup. Unfortunately my photo came up dreadful but by the look on her face as she was eating it, and her sheer silence, I’d say it was rather tasty. I think if I’d ordered something other than fruit salad I would have come away thrilled with Kopapa. A definite one to go back to, perhaps when I’m not trying to squeeze into a wedding dress though.

Have you had any good cafe finds in London recently?