Things I Love Thursday (17.04.2014)

source

Things I Love Thursday (just about!) brought to you, after quite a few weeks, by a very happy Cat on the eve of a 4 day weekend... If that's not something to be happy about, I don't know what is. This afternoon I spent about 3 hours trying to make sense of an old accounts ledger whilst an outraged wasp flew angrily around the room. I could not be happier that today is over! In fact, this week hasn't been great so I really wanted to focus on some good things before the long weekend begins.

source

I can eat chocolate again on Sunday! I've managed to give it up completely throughout the entire period of Lent, without even a guilty Sunday nibble or trying to say that "chocolate cake doesn't count". I plan to celebrate by eating my body weight in chocolate, welcoming the day with a Cadbury Creme Egg for breakfast...

♥

source

Blossom everywhere! The weather's getting warmer, my winter coat is banished to the suitcase of winter clothes (even if the mornings have still been quite chilly) and I've started planning picnics with my friends for the summer months. Doesn't the sun make everything better?!

♥

source

Pugs. Just because. Don't they make everyone happy?!

♥

Adventures and catch-ups with good friends. The mister and I visited Chartwell House with some friends last weekend and I loved it so much that I'm going to do a little write-up on here because it's completely worth visiting. I have a few dinner catch-ups planned over the next few days too - isn't life great when work doesn't get in the way?!

♥

And a few links that I've bookmarked over the last week or so...

♥ 10 foods that make you glow. An excellent excuse to eat more avocados!

♥ This recipe for quinoa burrito bowls.

♥ I'm a big fan of smokey eye makeup and love this quick routine - the easiest smokey eye.

♥ I can eat chocolate again on Sunday and I've been waiting to make this gluten free recipe for Millionaire Shortbread since the FreeFromFairy first posted it!

♥ How to handle criticism.

♥ A surprising look at what sleep deprivation does to your body.

♥ A Thrifty Mrs' round up of £12 and under pastel kitchen essentials - love the bird measuring cups and the mint scales!

♥ Watercress and walnut pesto with garlic-rubbed flatbreads - how delicious does this sound?!

Here's to a fabulous Easter weekend!

Review: Champagne Afternoon Tea at the ME Hotel, The Strand, London (gluten free)

I had been counting down the days until Saturday for a long time. 'Afternoon Tea' was written in my planner and shone out at me, with glittery promise, throughout the dark, busy days preceding it. (Honestly, I changed departments at work this week so things have been more than a little stressful.)

ME Hotel's
Gluten-Free Afternoon Tea

The glorious opportunity to spend a whole afternoon drinking tea and eating cake was in celebration of a good friend's birthday (Happy Birthday for Tuesday, LT!) and I was also quite curious to see inside the ME Hotel, which has quite a prominent position on The Strand, close to Covent Garden and Waterloo Bridge. 

My friend found a deal for champagne afternoon tea at £25 per person, which is quite reasonable for London, and we were allotted a quiet corner in the Marconi Lounge, with plenty of room to chat and enjoy the experience. The hotel itself was a little cold and modern for my taste - I prefer a little quirk and tradition - and more than one of us almost wandered into one of the shiny black bathroom walls (not because of the champagne, I hasten to add!) 

I chose the Palace Brew tea, which according to the tea booklet is, "a full-bodied and spicy blend of Assam, Nilgiri and Kenyan teas." I do like quite a strong tea, which I can then adjust to taste with milk, and this really didn't disappoint. The second pot was very gratefully received!

As a coeliac, I of course had the gluten free option and, for the most part, it was very delicious. The sandwiches disappeared far too quickly, with the salt beef and pickle sandwich and the smoked salmon and cream cheese being particularly good. Some forward planning on my part meant I had saved these options until last (does anyone else do that with the items they're particularly looking forward to?!) and they were truly lovely.

The scones were also wonderful - light and not too crumbly, which can be an issue with the gluten free version. The small pots of jam were just enough for the two scones, with a lavish amount of clotted cream. I always spread my jam first, then dollop the cream on top - it just seems to work better that way!

My only criticism would be with the top layer because, as you can see, there were no cakes! I was given a small cylinder of vanilla custard with raspberries on top, which is lurking in the back of the photo, and some fruit flavoured gummy lollipops and strange marshmallow creations, which were stuck in pink sugar. They were very pretty but incredibly disappointing and, considering how easy it is to make gluten free cakes (and good ones at that!), a bit of a let down. 

The staff were all very friendly and attentive, without being overbearing. They started clearing away the bottom tiers of plates as soon as we'd finished them, which I found a little unnerving, but we didn't feel at all rushed other than that and we were able to sit and chat for a while after finishing. I find that very important after eating a lot of sweet treats - having to dash off would be disastrous! One difference to other places I've been for afternoon tea is that they didn't offer us additional sandwiches etc. afterwards. Going for afternoon tea is such a treat and often quite expensive, so it would have been nice to have been offered the chance for more of certain options. 

ME Hotel's
(non-GF) Afternoon Tea

So, all in all, I'd give it a grand 3.5 stars out of 5 - lovely attentive service, delicious scones and sandwiches, but lacking an important element (in my case) for an afternoon tea. Coeliacs need cake too, you know!

I didn't hear any complaints from the others though and their cakes looked wonderful, so I've included a picture of the gluten-filled afternoon tea too for your visual delectation. 

Hope you all have a lovely week-ahead - have some cake for me!

Mother's Day

source

It's Mother's Day here in the UK and we have la famille coming to ours for Sunday lunch. The mister's making coq au vin and we're planning to extend the French theme to a little Françoise Hardy playing while we eat... I was up late last night making a pavlova and when I peeked inside the oven this morning, I saw that it hasn't even slightly cracked! C'est parfait! 

But for now, I'm listening to The Archers on Radio 4 and doing the frantic kind of cleaning that is the precursor to a visit from one's mother...

I think it's supposed to be a deliciously sunny day (in London anyway!) so I hope you all have a lovely day, whatever your plans.

♥

PS: I hope you all remembered to turn your clocks forward one hour last night/this morning! My gosh, the lost hour hurts every single year but at least we don't have to deal with the shock first thing on a Monday morning - that would be far too much to deal with!

The Grand Budapest Hotel

We went to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel at the weekend and it was wonderful; truly, perfectly wonderful. I have a horrible habit of falling asleep in cinemas - they're dark, warm, cosy...I work hard, don't judge me! - but I was totally gripped by this film. I was so disappointed when it ended and I realised I wasn't actually in the sumptuous world of the Grand Budapest Hotel itself.

Fast-paced, hilarious, shocking in places and oddly-moving, I adored every minute of this film. I don't want to say anything specific about it because I'm not sure how to without giving things away, and I think it should be seen for itself.

Go and watch it!

Follow this link for a neat little video showing how centering plays a key role in Wes Anderson's films. They are always beautifully, perfectly shot but this takes it to a whole new level!

London Calling

(I don't know the source for this image - I pinned it here and it originally came from Tumblr. 

Please let me know if you know who I can credit!)

Oh London, you're fantastic. There's always something to do on a sunny (or not so sunny) day. I'm particularly fond of London's museums and galleries - so many wonderful exhibitions, a lot of which are free. I thought I would do a little round-up of some current and forthcoming exhibitions that I want to go to...partly as a little reminder for me but also to provide a little food for thought for anyone looking for something to do if they're making a trip to this part of the world any time soon. I may make this a regular-ish feature to keep up with up-coming exhibitions...

Current Exhibitions

BP Spotlight: Syliva Pankhurst - Tate Britain - until 6 April 2014 - FREE

An exhibition focusing on Syliva Pankhurst's artistic skills, focusing on her artistic skills in the fight for women's rights, designing badges, banners and flyers, and recording the lives of working women.

The Cheapside Hoard: London's Lost Jewels - Museum of London - until 27 April 2014 - £10.00 (adult ticket)

"A major exhibition investigating the secrets of the Cheapside Hoard. This extraordinary and priceless treasure of late 16th and early 17th century jewels and gemstones – displayed in its entirety for the first time in over a century – was discovered in 1912, buried in a cellar on Cheapside in the City of London.

It will also explore the mysteries that remain, lost among the cataclysmic events of the mid-17th century: who owned the Hoard, when and why was it hidden, and why was it never reclaimed?"

UK Picture Editors' Guild Awards - Museum of London - until 11 May 2014 - FREE

A collection of some award-winning press photographs, and a chance to wander around the Museum of London at the same time!

Ruin Lust - Tate Britain - until 18 May 2014 - £11.00 (adult ticket)

A guide to the mournful, thrilling, comic and perverse uses of ruins in art from the seventeenth century to the present day. An oddly beautiful collection and they're usually stunningly presented at the Tate.

Bailey's Stardust - National Portrait Gallery - until 1 June 2014 - £14.50 (adult ticket)

"Bailey’s Stardust is presented thematically across a series of contrasting rooms and illustrates the extraordinary range of subjects that Bailey has captured: actors, writers, musicians, filmmakers, designers, models, artists and people encountered on his travels; many of them famous, some anonymous, all of them unforgettable."

Vikings: Life and Legend - British Museum - until 22 June 2014 - £16.50 (adult ticket)

According to the British Museum website, it will feature "Swords and axes, coins and jewellery, hoards, amulets and religious images show how Vikings created an international network connecting cultures over four continents. At the centre of the exhibition will be the surviving timbers of a 37-metre-long Viking warship, the longest ever found." I'm VERY excited about this exhibition! 

And two Future Exhibitions that are on my future must-do list...

Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 - The V & A - 3 May 2014 to 15 March 2015 - £12.00 (adult ticket)

An obvious choice, considering I'll be on the hunt for my own soon! The V & A's exhibitions are always full of gorgeous details though and this one looks to be no different. From the exhibition's website - "On display will be the most romantic, glamorous and extravagant wedding dresses from the V&A’s superb collection and will include some important new acquisitions as well as loans including the purple dress worn by Dita Von Teese for her marriage to Marilyn Manson and the outfits worn by Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale on their wedding day. The exhibition will highlight the histories of the dresses, revealing fascinating details about the lives of the wearers and offering an intimate insight into their circumstances and fashion choices.".

Sherlock Holmes - Museum of London - 17 October 2014 to 12 April 2015 - £12.00 (adult ticket)

I've loved Sherlock Holmes since I first picked up a copy of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' as a teenager. This exhibition will look at why he remains so popular and how he has transcended literature, as well as depicting Sherlock Holmes' Victorian London. A must-see for me :)

Very excited about these! Now to start working my way through the list... What's also worth mentioning, for anyone unfamiliar with London, is that you can enter all the above museums and galleries for free and browse their various collections - you don't need to purchase any of the above tickets in order to spend a happy few hours (or more!) lost in the various rooms. The V & A's sculpture rooms are particularly fantastic, and I could happily spend hours wandering around ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome in the British Museum.

I'd love to know if there are any exhibitions you've been to recently or have in the diary that would be worth going to!