Afternoon Tea and Pimms

To celebrate Emily D and Lindsay's birthdays, a group of us planned to go to The Chelsea Teapot for afternoon tea. This wasn’t any regular tea. It was a fancier tea than what we have had. We had tea at 1:30, so it basically served as our lunch. Even though we have declared not to waste a single moment, we decided to sleep in this morning. I think the exhaustion of this entire trip has begun to catch up with me. I can’t wait to sleep for hours upon hours. Since this tea was fancy, all three of us in the flat needed to shower and get ready. Two showers, one hairdryer, and two straighteners. It gets a bit complicated. We also wore sundresses and heels to mark the occasion. Lindsay did not know this was for her birthday, so we had to work around that, although there were several times where we almost gave it away. So we get all dressed up, with newly clean hair and wedges and we go to the tube station. And people are looking like something big is happening. Seriously people. It’s just a dress. I can’t win with my outfits in this city. We make it to Chelsea and now all we have to do is find the place. Little did we know that it was a 30 minute walk! Thirty freaking minutes. In wedges. My feet are still in pain. It was so far away.

Despite the damage I did to my feet, who may never recover, The Chelsea Teapot is a lovely place. It’s decorated all springy with purples and greens. We had our own private room downstairs with a beautiful table set up. Each person had their own unique tea cup and saucer. It was precious. When you ordered your tea, you got your own tea pot as well. So adorable. I got the Earl Grey tea, and it was delicious. For our meal, we started off with tea sandwiches. There was a cucumber and cream cheese, a salmon, and an egg one. They were quite delicious and there were enough that everyone could try one of each. Our next course consisted of scones and clotted cream, which is the best thing ever. Mom start looking for clotted cream and scones, because I’m addicted. I will also need tea. I would buy a tea cup, but I don’t know how to bring that back. But I kinda want one. Thoughts? This course also came with little fruit tarts and strawberries. Delicious. Each of our little courses came out on three tiered porcelain stands, which were so precious. The last course was something sweet, of course. To celebrate the birthdays we had cupcakes!! There were two kinds to choose from: chocolate or vanilla. The birthday girls had fondant decorations on theirs as well. I had a vanilla one with pink icing. And the icing had glitter in it. Let me tell you, it may have been one of the best cupcakes I have ever eaten. Better than Gigis. I know. I said it. It was such a wonderful time, and it was also a way to celebrate the end of our trip. I’m addicted to tea now. It’s great.

We were not about to walk all the way back to the tube station, which was 30 minutes away, so we hopped a bus. We haven’t taken a bus here before, so that was a new experience. We were all a bit giddy and didn’t know how to signal the driver to let him know when we needed to get off. It was great fun. We rode the bus to the tube station then hopped that to return to the flat. When we were on the tube, there was a family, who looked like they had had a super long day and the two kids were sound asleep in the seats. The girl had her face pressed up again her mom’s shoulder and the boy had his knees up at his chest under his sweatshirt. The mom and dad even closed their eyes at some point. When the little girl woke up she had a huge red mark on half of her face from the mom’s sweater. It looked like half of her face had tire tracks on it. And you could tell her eye was having some problems adjusting to the open position. They made it to their stop before we reached ours so they had to wake up the boy. It took a few moments to get him up, but when they did and attempted to hop off the tube, it was clear his legs had fallen asleep. He essentially had lost all feeling in his legs and they were of no use to him. He looked like a baby giraffe who didn’t know how to use his legs. Thankfully, his dad was quick enough to catch him to try and steady him. Well, he didn’t have use of his legs for the next five minutes. They were going everywhere and eventually his dad had to pick him up and carry him. It was too funny. I’m still laughing.

After getting changed, we made our way back out to go shopping. I don’t know why I always go back to Oxford Street. It’s always insane and there are always a million people and yet I keep going back. We just had a few stores we needed to pop into to complete some shopping. I got a British Pandora charm! It’s so great. For the Olympics they have a special British collection with double decker buses and royal coaches, etc. I’m in love. I got a double decker bus with and enamel union jack on the top. I’m in love. I added it to my British bracelet, which also contains a tea pot and tea cup. How appropriate! We also went to Forever 21. Yes, I know we have those in America, but this one was three stories. I got a few cute things. Since we got a late start, the rest of the stores we wanted to go to were closed. Places close so freaking early here! For dinner, we continued the American theme and had some good ole McDonalds. Lauren also met up with us, so we had a great flat-mate dinner. Oh, but the adventure doesn’t end there. We were all waiting for the tube, giggling and in a good mood, when Lauren’s scarf is blown off her neck and goes onto the tube tracks! What were we supposed to do?! A train was coming in one minute, so we didn’t want to risk our lives. We waited and missed that train. After it had gone by, Lauren got on the ground and leaned in and got it. The scarf was saved but did suffer some battle wounds. We wanted to see if we could get tickets to see Rock of Ages tomorrow, but sadly the box office was closed. Soho is another area that I dislike, yet somehow we always end up over there. I suppose because that’s where all the theaters are located.

Our night continued with a stop in The Green Man pub. A very traditional British drink is Pimms and we had not experienced this yet. It’s some type of liqueur with soda water and fruit in it. Kelsey met up with us, as this was on her bucket list as well, and we shared a pitcher. It was good, but not the best drink I’ve had. We stuck with the traditional Pimms that had strawberries, oranges, and limes in it. It was good experience, but I’ll stick to my cider. It was a really fun and busy day, and we plan to pack in more things tomorrow after work. I’m so gonna miss it here.

Week Five: Day Seven: BLC 25