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...

I have finally eaten Street Food!  Obviously that sounds incredibly uncool for those who eat Street Food all the time or for those who have the sort of job where Street Food for lunch is the norm.  For me and Mr B it was something of a novelty and we enjoyed it very much. On a quick trip into London recently, we visited Spitalfields Market.  It seemed a real mix of traditional shops and stalls and completely unaffordable shops and stalls.  It made for a colourful and exciting atmosphere providing lots of opportunities for people watching.  As well as having lots of nice chains to eat at, there were lots of yummy looking food vans, with food from across the globe.  The smells from some of the vans was amazing and the queues were testament to the quality of the food.  For my first taste of street food, I opted for The Duck Truck - a company which specialises in guess what? Duck!  I had a traditional duck salad for £7 which was delicious.  I...

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. ...

So, it's Summer again. Readers of this blog will know that the summer fills me with joy! It doesn't matter about the weather or what we get up to, just the feeling of having free time and being able to cuddle the children when I like is enough...although the odd bonus nap is always appreciated too! We have been lucky this year in that family members have treated us to several weekends away - Centre Parcs (my goodness, I was excited!) and a lovely stable conversion in Ross-on-Wye - so I don't really feel like we're missing out by not going away for weeks on end, despite all the hotdog leg pictures on Facebook! (Ok, maybe I am a bit jealous).  What we are doing is spending a very exciting week in London being total tourists.   We are staying in Greenwich, house sitting for my Sister-in-Law whilst she is away (not that she really needs us to!).  From such a fantastic location we should be able to get out and about without having to make sure we get back in time to ...

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 ...

As many of you know, I have moved house quite a lot.  And not just moved house but moved counties several times.  I think my friends and family probably think I'm addicted to moving house (I'm not - who would be?) but actually, I've just moved to be closer to work - even if that work has been all over the country.  Anyway, my husband and I have decided that we won't be moving again for quite some time, so it's time to find out more about the County where we intend to settle for a while. Before we moved to Norfolk, neither of us had visited it or really even considered it as a holiday destination but the town where we live has loads of attractions on the doorstep - beaches less than an hour away, forests and nature reserves and nice easy cycle tracks, plus lots of events for kids and train connection to the big cities - what more could a family of four want? One of our first adventures into the local area was to Thetford Forest.  We were looking...