Afternoon tea with a slice of theatre and fort building

Yesterday my beautiful friend, Emily travelled all the way from Cumbria to visit me in London for less than 24 hours. 

Emily is my wanderlust friend, if I ever want to go on an adventure, it's Emily I call. 4 years ago we'd travel the country spontaneously to see bands that we loved (Oxford, Bingley, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff to name a few) 2 years ago we road tripped to Exeter and visited Paris for a week for my 18th birthday. After Paris we went almost 2 years without seeing one another again, life got in the way, but neither of us gave up on the friendship, and more recently we've been having monthly Skype dates and met up in Preston in January. 

And a week ago, we were on one of those Skype dates, and Emily was suffering from a particularly severe case of wanderlust, and I, being the good friend I am, convinced her to come and see me the following weekend. 

We started the day in my home, catching up and hugging a lot, then we rushed to the theatre to see a matinee performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Considering most of the cast were made up of children, the show was incredible, although I was saddened that none of the classic songs were included - until the very end that is, when Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket performed Pure Imagination together; but it was the set design that really stood out for me. I studied set design at university for a year and still have a huge passion for it. 

Afterwards we went for afternoon tea at Ladurée.The weather was beautiful, and so it was the perfect place to visit, as the store in Covent Garden is all seated outside. 

                                                                                           

The food was, honestly, incredible. At £21 the afternoon tea is one of the cheapest in London, and also one of the best. 

However, although the company and food were the best I could have dreamed of, the service was awful and ruined the experience, after taking our order the waiter did not return to ask us if everything was ok, nor did they bring milk to the table for my tea, they didn't even offer. After the deliciously filling macaroons and finger sandwiches, plus other desserts, neither Emily or I could finish the absolutely Ispahan, pictured below, we asked for them to be boxed up so we could take them home, something I have done often at other restaurants. They told us it was illegal to do so and completely refused. 

In the evening we had planned to go into Camden to see Frank Turner's DJ set in Underworld, however we were both exhausted and instead decided to build a fort made of sheets and a dozen cushions with a home made picnic, diet coke in champagne flutes with a children's film playing. Both of us are adults, and both of us know how to do adulthood properly. 

Thank you for a wonderful weekend, Emily - I can't wait to see you again soon!

Until next time,
Stay Beautiful.
Jessica 

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