Mrs Birks Blogs

Looking back over this blog, I find it VERY difficult to believe that I have never written about Harry Potter before.  In fact, I did start writing a post last year but looking back it only contained one sentence, so no wonder I didn't post it! Anyway, the daughter and I are HUGE fans of Harry Potter.  I couldn't wait until she was old enough to 'get into' Potter and now she is like a walking encyclopedia.  We have loads of the books - original, illustrated and Kindle in Motion version, plus house colours (Ravenclaw) and an American Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I have a Hogwarts and Slytherin 'goblet' from the original WB store and we were given the original Lego Hogwarts and Hagrid's Hut.  As I write this, I'm in my Hogwarts hoodie and I'm being to see how obsessed we seem... But before this turns into a list of stuff, this post is all about indulging in your Potter addiction by visiting some of the best Potter attractions.  Now h...

As I said in my previous post, I was a very lucky girl at Christmas (thank you friends and family). Aside from paper cutting stuff, my husband and I were given afternoon tea for two at The Shard - Aqua Shard to be precise (I think there are other restaurants there).  At £45 per person, it was a very generous gift, so we decided to make the most of it and also booked to go to a show while we were in fancy London Town. Our tea was booked for 5pm - possibly a bit late for a dull Saturday in January but having seen the London skyline during the day at the Sky Garden a few years ago (top recommendation for free things to do in London) I was quite keen to see the Skyline at night. It didn’t disappoint! The lights made London look magical and we had a great view having been sat by the window.  The darkness inside the building meant that you could see out really well, although at times it was difficult to see what was on the table in front of you! Now the lovely people that ...

As readers of this blog will know, I have developed a thing for afternoon tea.  So when a 'Pan-Asian Afternoon Tea' with 2 hours of unlimited Prosecco came up on Wowcher, I was the first in line, debit card in hand.  The price was £34 for two instead of £71 - bargain, I thought but I've since learned that you get what you pay for! I had never been to Gilgamesh in Camden but had walked past it and read about it online.  I was keen to try out a restaurant that sounded a little bit glamorous and the pan asian twist of a Great British classic was really tempting.  My last afternoon tea was amazing (read about it here ) and had set the standard incredibly high but I was not expecting the same, just something a bit different. To start with, booking was actually quite hard.  I tried several different Saturday slots but each time was told they were fully booked.  No matter I thought (I had left it until the last minute) I will try a week day in half term. ...

So readers of this blog will know that for my 40th birthday I went for afternoon tea with Mr Birks at Selfridges.  Well, last week I had an afternoon tea experience with my best friend Paula, which made the Selfridges one look highly boring in comparison even though it was served on a picnic bench!  On a Friday afternoon, we experienced the Science themed afternoon tea at The Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington.  The hotel's proximity to both the Science Museum and The Natural History Museum explains the science theme and it featured dinosaurs, fossils, planets and spacemen. When the afternoon tea arrived, I didn't think I could be any more excited, it had little jellies served in a petri dish, a chocolate spaceman and rocket ship, a planet balanced on chocolate cake and a series of test tubes with different toppings inside.  However, I was wrong.  When the waiter magically made the dry ice appear, I was like an uncontrollable child with excitement. ...

Afternoon tea is now a thing.  In fact, I think it has been a thing for a long time but, as usual, I've been late to the party.  But what a wonderful thing it is!  At the risk of becoming a 40th birthday bore, I wanted to tell you about my visit in March to Selfridges for a afternoon picnic tea. Afternoon tea is such a perfect thing.  Not lunch or dinner but an extra meal in between and it has a little bit of everything - cakes, savouries and of course tea.  With ours we also opted for a couple of glasses of champagne (did I mention it was a special occasion?) which made it extra decadent for a Tuesday afternoon.   We 'took' our tea at The Balcony, a restaurant at the top of Selfridges in the Bullring but we had done a significant amount of research beforehand and I also liked the look of the Gentleman's Afternoon Tea at Hotel La Tour which also threw a scotch egg and pork pie with mustard into the mix.  We found ...