Betty Blythe’s fabulous dress-up brunch

Shepherd’s Bush’s charming Betty Blythe

Ages ago Time Out Deals were offering two-for-one brunch for £14 at Betty Blythe. With Friend R and I both trying desperately to save the pennies at the moment but not wanting to lose out on style and fabulous days out, we jumped at it. It also happened to be in our old hood…

Oh Shepherd’s Bush, the place I’m sure all antipodeans end up at some point during their time in London, especially when they’re 25, like we were, and putting all their savings to travelling the world, again, like we were, and generally up for big nights out at the Shepherd’s Bush Walkabout and other very dodgy bars where the main aim was to get drunk, wake up with a rotten hangover and repeat the process again, preferably in a European city the following weekend, like we were.

How seven years has changed the two of us! Despite sharing a room with Friend C and living in a three bedroom house with five others, plus couch surfer/random cousin from home/new friends made the night before, and a giant slug that haunted our bathroom during this time, we still managed to survive with life-long friendship only solidified.

And so it was, two thirty-two year olds, wearing much classier clothes, glossier hair (thank you GHD, you lovely little lifesaver for 6 years now~), big professional jobs and certainly not sharing rooms/flats with at least six others, stepped into our old neighbourhood and headed towards Betty Blythe, a magical little vintage tea room between She-Bu and Hammersmith.

Fabulous table decorations

We were pleasantly surprised. After a bit of an annoying booking system (you have to email them, it took about five emails over the space of a week to get the right date and time, something that could have easily been saved by a simple phone call) we were impressed by the very friendly service and food that kept coming our way, along with the masses of vintage clothes and accessories on offer to wear while you’re chowing down. We were served the following:

Pastry (I went for pain au chocolat, R had an almond croissant)

Granola, fruit and yoghurt

Toast

Orange juice

Tea from a very good tea menu

and were also offered cereal but both declined as we were overwhelmingly full.

Yummy granola with white peony tea

I think the normal price for their brunch is about £15. I would pay this but I think I’d prefer to just order one or two things from the above list as by my first slice of toast I was stuffed; a pastry and the lovely granola would have been plenty.

I loved the tea. I went for my favourite, white peony, while R had chai which she very much enjoyed.

The highlight for us though was the massive dressing up drawer. We could have spent hours diving into it and taking loads of pictures. It was so much fun. We ate our brunch wearing feather boas and quirky head wear, while the table upstairs had gone the full shebang with dresses, top hats and feather boas (that was just the men!). I also want the screen with birds on (see top of this post) for my house.

The wonderful dressing table with drawers filled to the brim with treasures

R looking absolutely gorgeous

Aye-Aye Captain!

I’d love to go back to Betty Blythe for afternoon tea. I think it would be ideal for a hen party, and I also noticed that they do a good little cream tea for under a fiver. Should I ever live out West again, this would become a regular haunt for me.

Betty Blythe can be found at 73 Blythe Road Brook Green London W14 0HP. Nearest tube stops are Shepherd’s Bush and Hammersmith. We paid £14 for the two of us on a Time Out offer, normal price for a big brunch there is around £15. 

P.S. I’m currently featured on the Lime and Tonic blog with a post on Around the world in six foods - a follow-up to my Around the world in five foods post from last year. Thanks L&T!

Betty Blythe’s cafe counter

La Jolie Vie in Carcassonne

Carcassonne’s Sleeping Beauty castle

My beautiful friend Raja (abbreviated name, but doesn’t this sound exotic!?) is getting married soon. I can’t tell you how excited we all are about this wedding – she caught the bouquet at mine and when she returned early from Sri Lanka her very own Mr Man was waiting at the airport where he proposed (the story in full brings tears to most peoples’ eyes). They are planning what sounds like the worlds’ most awesome wedding. But first up, her gorgeous bridesmaid G planned what turned out to be one of the best hen parties I’ve ever been to with five of Raja’s best friends in the entire world.

R’s lovely ladies~

Turns out she has great taste in friends. We all got on like a house on fire – everyone quite laid back, quite girly with travel obsessions, all gorgeous and all who know how to laugh, a lot. This was the recipe for one absolutely fabulous weekend in the South of France. Off to Carcassonne for a three day weekend we went.

G chose Carcassonne for two reasons: that her friends went last year and said it was awesome, and that there was a cheap Ryan Air flight there at a really good time. For £80 each we flew from Stansted at 10:10am on the Friday, landing early afternoon in Carcassonne. The taxi was €15 from the airport to our adorable hotel, Hotel Aragon, which is by the castle walls in the heart of the town.

Hotel Aragon

The ladies who ran the hotel were exactly like us – really girly,  young, pretty, very friendly and really liked people (or maybe it was just us?). Every time we saw them they’d make comments like “tres jolie” and wish us well on our excursions. For €100 per room per night we had comfortable rooms and a brilliant location. I’d stay there again.

We spent the first afternoon (ok, most of our time actually~) eating and exploring the town, the castle of which is what Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s castle is based on.

The first meal, right in the centre of the castle grounds, was goats cheese salad and a litre of wine (between 6 of us) with plenty of baguettes and frites. This set the standard and was followed up with ice-cream/sorbet and plenty of walking after. It was so bright and sunny – our English skin was soaking it up. There was a bit of pool time before more eating out.

A typical French meal – yum.

The French just do everything better, especially bread.

Our first night meant a five course meal at a restaurant in the heart of the city walls. I can’t remember the name of it (must remember to get cards in future~) but most of us had salad followed by the local speciality, cassoulet, cheese with honey and dessert. Of course, served with the local sparkling wine, Blankett, which is the original sparkling wine that local monks discovered in the 16th century.

After dinner it was onwards to Le Bar a Vins which we went to both nights. I think it might be the only bar inside the walls of Carcassonne which has good music and a nice drinks selection, also a good young crowd. By the time we’d finished with two more bottles of Blankett it was time for bed in our adorable quirky hotel.

Blankett – a lot of this was consumed.

Saturday we were in for a big day – up at 10:30am for breakfast at the town’s Saturday market which is a must do in Carcassonne. Think big fresh fruit, vege and deli food everywhere. We ended up at the same Patisserie twice where we bought baguettes and mille feuille. The ladies who ran the place kept correcting our pronunciation of mille feuille and we spent most of the day saying the word after scoffing it and wanting more…

We also bought R a cake in the shape of a love heart, coeur fruites rouges, which she loved.

Lunch back at Hotel Aragon was a giant baguette with comte cheese and mille feuille before being picked up by Jean Michel Sobler – our host for the afternoon’s wine tour.

Proper cake love going on here.

Blimey…

Carcassonne Market

A recipe for happiness: mille fuille, comte and a fresh baguette finished off with Orangina..

My god did we have a great time on this. He took us to the abbey where they first discovered sparkling wine (a bottle of wine exploded in a cellar, then they were determined to find out how to recreate it) followed by a few too many glasses consumed at Robert vineyard where we had absolutely divine Blankett and another tiny place run by a husband and wife who specialised in Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Jean Michel was like a character out of a French movie – dressed perfectly with a delightful French sense of humour who kept us entralled with stories about his fascinating life and tales of his family. I think he quite enjoyed our company too – who wouldn’t though – six gorgeous ladies!

More Blankett at Robert Vineyard

The other vineyard in the Landouc region that Jean Michele took us to – this would be my dream life.

Jean Michele and his ladies (minus me, I’m taking the pic).

The rest of the time was spent consuming more food, more Blankett and perhaps a few cocktails. But what happens on hen tour stays on hen tour so I will leave you with that. One thing I know though – I definitely plan to take Mr Man back to Carcassonne and I would LOVE to spend the weekend with these ladies again. Thanks G for organising and thanks Raja’s Mr Man for proposing and giving us a great excuse to take our friend away.

Our beautiful bride to be… who we can’t thank enough for the perfect excuse to get away!

Cheerio 2011; hello 2012 and Merry Christmas!

2011 - a year of celebrations and a lot of fun.

And so we’ve almost reached the end of another year readers. What a magic year it has been.

2011 has been one of the most challenging yet best years of my life. Looking back I’m struggling to comprehend just how much we’ve packed in. Here’s a few highlights:

It started with a rockin New Year's Eve ice-skating at the Natural History Museum, then popping open a bottle of champagne watching the fireworks on London's embankment; whilst we sipped away on bubbles we sat in anticipation of a great year ahead.

There were plenty of big birthday parties (most of my friends turned 30) and these were celebrated at places like the Langham Hotel for afternoon tea and the Candlelight Club amongst other big nights out.

The Candlelight Club

Tea, cake and cocktails were had. I visited a record number of London's cafes/bars.

Mr Man and I bought a tiny apartment in the East End which we adore. We made a lot of boring spreadsheets to deal with this, our mortgage-bound finances and an impending wedding. We also learned to cook with the ultra cool Henry Dimbleby, one of the owners of Leon (pictured).

Friends galore visited London and I had a lot of fun showing them my adopted city.

We had hen parties and baby showers!

We took a month long holiday to Sri Lanka and kind of got married there...

I lost 8 kilograms thanks to injury forcing me to change what I was doing completely. I'm thanking Spin, Pump, Zumba, lots of green tea, and saying bye-bye to carbs in the evening (not my macaron addiction).

Picnics were had in Regent's Park and beautiful Kew Gardens.

I took up a journalism course. I also had many a heated conversation over changing my last name - which in the end I kept because I just wasn't convinced enough that all the paper work and correcting people would be worth it, and I realised I'm more attached to my name than I thought.

And there were some incredible times with some of the best girlfriends one could ever ask for, many of those included cocktails.

Thanks everyone for a stunning 2011. Let's bring on 2012 - if it's even half as good as 2011 then it's going to be a bumper year. Ain't life just grand?

P.S. I'm taking a few weeks off so see you sometime in January. In the meantime, have a happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year's Eve.

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!

I think this is such a good idea.

London Chocolate Ecstasy Tours discovered on Twitter this morning:

http://www.chocolateecstasytours.com/brides.htm

And no Hens, this is not a hint! Though it would be very fun…

The internet ads that have popped up since I changed my status

This popped up in my gmail this morning (in the ads section). Looks fun but I’m not sure with my level of coordination that it would work out so well:

http://www.burlesqueandcabaret.com/learning-burlesque/hen-parties/

Somehow I think we’d end up more this:

Definitely on a hen night there...

than this:

The infamous Dita von Tesse