As promised weeks ago, a post telling you all about my lovely 21st birthday! The day of my birthday itself was fairly uneventful as I was snowed in, but I did have a lovely cake to make up for it...
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| My beautifully wrapped presents and birthday decorations, all thanks to my lovely mum! |
I got some lovely presents, but most exciting of all were the surprise tickets I got to go and see
The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre in London the Saturday after my birthday (which I had booked off work months in advance in anticipation!) After a nervous wait to see how the weather and transport would pan out, we luckily made it to the show, and it was brilliant. I'd seen it twice before when I was very young and my mum explained that she wanted to bring me back to see it so that I could re-live my childhood! It was such a touching surprise, and needless to say I was a bit of an emotional wreck from beginning to end (I can't even sit through the film without crying my eyes out!) The production is absolutely as magical as I remember it, and we had amazing seats, only a few rows from the front of the stage.
Then, the week after my birthday, my best friend
Sarah and I went along to The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, to indulge in their
Prêt-à-Portea; afternoon tea with a fashion twist. The hotel itself was so luxurious and we both felt extremely sophisticated! The food was served on Paul Smith designed China, and everything was stunningly presented. The sweet selection in particular was delicious, and I tried Vanilla tea for the first time, which was a lot more palatable than I was expecting!
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| The Menu (which may have sneakily found its way into my bag as a souvenir!) |
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| Sarah with her tea! |
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| Yummy sandwiches. |
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| The sweets, with savoury spoons at the bottom. |
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| Me pouring my tea. |
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| Alice Temperley apple and pannacotta mousse with Manolo Blahnik high heel tuille, topped with golden blueberries (this was lovely!) |
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| Alexander McQueen pale green pistachio dress biscuit with silver belt. |
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| Anya Hindmarch cassis sponge tote covered in baby blue icing with iconic bow. |
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| Philip Treacy chocolate hat cake with Monarch butterfly, probably my favourite of the lot! |
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| Christian Louboutin sparkly high-heeled ginger show biscuit with signature red sole- how cute it this? |
Every time we finished a tier from our cake stand, it was replenished with more, so it's fair to say that we both waddled rather than walked out of the hotel, each carrying our little souvenir bags with three treats each from the menu inside.
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| Goodie bag! |
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| Sarah and I. |
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| The hotel. |
If you love your cake and fashion in equal measure, then I'd definitely suggest a trip to The Berkeley for their Prêt-à-Portea, although I'd advise fasting for about a week before hand as you can literally eat as much as you want. Sarah and I have now made it our mission in life to work our way through as many sittings of afternoon tea at London's poshest hotels as we can!
All in all, I had a wonderful birthday and got some amazing presents, including 21 that were individually wrapped from Sarah, some beautiful jewellery from my family and so many other lovely thoughtful surprises:
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| A selection of my lovely presents! |
In spite of the snow, I really do think that this was probably the best birthday ever. It's just a shame that you only turn 21 once!
What's the best birthday you've ever had?
(Image credit: Sarah Farrell, please do not reproduce without permission.)
