A year older….

Well the day has arrived: I am 25 (plus 3)! The morning started just like any birthday morning should: with loads of presents!

After chatting to friends and family on the phone Blair and I were ready to venture out for breakfast. Le Pain Quotidien (www.lepainquotidien.com/) was the obvious choice and once again we managed to order way more than we could eat.

The weather was again fabulous so we went for a little walk in Holland Park before going to Olga and Geoff’s place for lunch (and yet more presents!).

By the time we finished Arielle had woken up and it was time to cut my cake (Blair’s final surprise for the weekend!).

When there was no more chocolate to be had we all moved to their communal garden for a game of football with Arielle.

This has truly been one of the best birthdays I’ve had, thanks to Blair’s efforts and organizing! (I guess I’d better start thinking about his birthday now!)

And the destination is....

Today I knew Blair had planned for us to go on a little day trip out of London but had no idea where.

All was revealed with my third surprise envelope this morning: Blair and I were off to Royal Tunbridge Wells! Neither of us had ever been there before and we were keen to visit.

The trip was surprisingly smooth, given the usual Bank Holiday weekend engineering works, and we arrived there before lunchtime.

Royal Tunbridge Wells (http://www.visittunbridgewells.com/) is a spa town founded around the Chalybeate Spring, discovered at the beginning of the 17th century. The water was believed to have healing properties and the town developed as a spa town; a bit like Bath but on a smaller scale.

The most famous attraction is the Pantiles, a colonnaded walkway where the gentry once promenaded and took the water at the Spring.

Today it houses a wide range of shops, cafes and restaurants. Visitors can still taste the water which is dispensed by the “Dipper”!

After some serious walking around to explore the town we decided it was time for lunch. We chose a nice Italian Delicatessen, Gastronomia, at the Pantiles which had tables outside and we were able to enjoy the gorgeous weather.

After lunch we walked around the Common, a substantial area of woodland across the road from the Pantiles. We managed to spot the compulsory squirrels but also some bunnies to my great delight!

Back in London the anticipation for my birthday started to build up but yet again I failed to discover where my presents were hidden. I guess I will have to wait till tomorrow….

28th Birthday Extravaganza! Saturday:

This Monday is my birthday and for weeks now Blair has been quietly plotting a weekend full of surprises to celebrate. Despite my best efforts (and believe me, I tried!) I did not manage to find out what he was planning.


Finally, this morning I received an envelope with my first surprise: Blair had arranged for me to have an hour long aromatherapy massage at Relax (http://www.relax.org.uk/) near Piccadilly Circus at 11am.

So off I went for an hour of utter bliss! The past couple of weeks at work were pretty hard and this was the perfect way to start the weekend. After my massage Blair and I got some sushi and had a picnic in the park.

The weather was glorious so we decided to walk back to High Street Kensington crossing Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

Once there we met with our friends Olga, Geoff and Arielle (who can now say my name, I am really chuffed!). By 5pm it was time to head home and receive my second surprise envelope of the day.

I was cordially invited to a dinner for two at a mystery location!

For once, I managed to get ready on time which was a minor miracle. Unfortunately, as soon as I closed the front door we realised that I had locked us out of the flat! Olga and Geoff came to the rescue with a spare set of keys so the evening was back on track!

To my great surprise Blair had booked us a table at the Notting Hill Brasserie, a place I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time but thought was closed due to the Carnival.

It turned out that they were open on Saturday and Blair had a secured us a table. The Brasserie proved to be as excellent as its reviews. The food was amazing and the atmosphere (with live music!) was brilliant.

Blair and I had a wonderful evening, the perfect end to a fab day.

I just can’t wait to see what tomorrow’s surprise will be!

An 'Innocent' Day at the Park

And that’s exactly what it was..!! ‘Innocent’ smoothies http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/ held their annual summer ‘village fete’ over the weekend and we went along on Sunday to bask in the glorious sunshine and enjoy some smoothes of course!




The ₤5 entrance ticket was a real bargain especially considering that the nice folks at innocent gave 50% to charity.





The village occupied a corner of Regents Park and was a nice place to taste many of innocent’s flavours, local farmers’ produce and numerous naturally healthy food brands.







With games (such as sack race), dog agility, theme park for the kids, food and drinks for the adults and great bands it was very much a party atmosphere.



Despite Grigoria being under the influence of …smoothies (of course) I still couldn’t convince her to get a photo with one of Innocent’s strolling drinks but instead she decided to pull the cow’s (innocent van) tail!






All in all we had a great day at a well organised event; it was obvious that the people at Innocent pulled some big strings to stage such a fantastic event.