Afternoon tea at Choccywoccydoodah

Last Sunday was probably the most perfect Sunday in the history of Sundays. I had a bit of a lie in having drunk one glass too many of Côtes du Rhône the night before, then got the train to Clapham for brunch with two of my favourite ladies, Bess and B. After a delicious brunch at Honkytonk of waffles and pancakes we meandered the streets of Clapham on the hunt for a new home for Bess. The flat we visited was lovely, with a beautiful balcony perfect for the upcoming summer months and I was definitely feeling a little green with envy! To celebrate the lovely flat we found and make the most of the sunshine Bess and I headed to The Jam Tree for a large jug of Pimms and some people watching in their garden. So far, so perfect.

Feeling a little merry I headed over to Oxford Circus for the main event, afternoon tea at Choccywoccydoodah to celebrate a friend’s hen do. I’ve watched the Choccywoccydoodah show and followed them building their London store, so I was very excited to see we would be having tea in their secret garden. If you imagine a cross of Alice and Wonderland with her mad hatter’s tea party and Willy Wonka’s factory, you’d get pretty close to the afternoon we had.

The floor was made of grass, as we arrived the table was laid full of the all the good, teeth rotting treats you could imagine. Huge beautiful glass bowls full of smarties and dolly mixture, tea cups filled with dark, milk, and white chocolate, plates filled with biscuits, hokeypokey, marshmallows, strawberries, popcorn and more sweets. And that was just to start! Our host then bought us out the biggest platter of chocolate cakes, lemon cakes, cappuccino cakes, coconut cakes, rum raisin cakes, and topped with a mountain of ice cream. Understand why I was in heaven now?

We spent two hours in the secret garden playing Mr and Mrs, attempting our best chicken impression, and having plenty of laughs. I definitely felt two hours was enough and we didn’t feel any rushing from our host, in fact she just left us to enjoy ourselves which was nice. By the end I felt sick to my stomach with sugary goodness, which is definitely saying something for a chocoholic like me, but luckily we were all given goody bags to clear the tables of all the remaining treats! I filled my bag and brought it back for my housemate to enjoy.

I then spent the remainder of my Sunday evening with the windows open painting some shelves and watching Twilight in a bit of a sugar coma. I’m not sure I could ask for much more from a Sunday!

I’m not 100% sure how much it costs to do afternoon tea at Choccywoccydoodah as I paid a long time ago and I don’t know if we paid per person or towards room hire, but if you want somewhere special to go with a large group of girls who love chocolate, this is a pretty good bet!

A delicious weekend hanging out with the bestie

Last weekend my BFF Tara came to visit. It felt like we hadn’t seen each other in forever, so I was really excited for her to come up to Surrey and hang for a few days.

Friday night when she arrived we went out for a walk and a mooch, enjoyed a drink in the park, and had a super long catch up. We came back to my flat and got started on the wine before deciding where to go for dinner. We settled on Thai, and a restaurant I’d never tried before. It was seriously good and I am trying to work out when I can next go back!

We had crackers and dips to start whilst deciding what to eat. I particularly enjoyed the satay sauce. For starters we chose to share a couple of dishes, a good choice I think. We shared some fish cakes which were ok, and some really delicious prawn and pork dumplings. Oh I could have gorged myself on these delicious dumplings. Mmmmm!

For our main again we decided to share as we were both torn between a few different dishes, and again I’m so glad we did. I love having a friend who I can share a few different dishes with so I can try more things. We opted for the ‘weeping tiger’ which was chargrilled sirloin steak strips in a sweet and smoky dark sauce and again, really, really tasty. We also shared  chargrilled king prawns topped with a spicy chilli sauce. I loved the prawns, they were so fat and juicy and delicious with just the right kick of spice, although I would have been a bit gutted to just have four prawns as my main! On the side we chose some coconut rice, which was sticky and coconutty and yum. Wonder if I can recreate this at home?

We were so full from all this food we decided to skip dessert and just go home to watch tv, chill out, gossip some more, drink more wine, and snack on some chocolates. A really perfect Friday night with my BFF!

Saturday we decided to head up into the big smoke and go round all the big posh department stores. Attempting to do them all in one day was maybe a bit ambitious, but we saw a few and were pretty tired by the end of the day! We walked the length of the King’s Road, spending an inordinate amount of time in my new favourite shop Anthropologie, and sampling some yummy treats at the food market in Duke of Yorke square outside Partridges.

From the King’s Road we headed to Harrods in Knightsbridge, and went all the way to the top on the Egyptian elevator. We also spent a very, very, long time going round all the food halls and deciding which treat to buy, having decided we both needed to come away with a Harrods green bag! We both opted for a macaroon, and as is the theme with the weekend – they were delicious! We also spent ages in the Christmas shop in Harrods and I even went so far as to buy my first Christmas thing this year, a present for my Mum!

From Harrods we headed up to Oxford St and did Liberty’s and a quick stop in Choccywoccydoodah. I bought some chocolate (quelle suprise for the chocoholic!), and then we headed down Regent St for a mooch. There was a really strange festival on for NFL the whole length of Regent St, and I still don’t really get it, apart from being a pretty elaborate marketing gimmick.

From Regent St we headed over to Covent Garden for cocktails, a sit down and some dinner. We were both pretty knackered by this point! My favourite place to go in Covent Garden for drinks is Dirty Martini, a hidden away cocktail bar in the main Covent Garden square that does crazy good happy hours most of the time. Hailing from Plymouth I love a good gin cocktail, so we picked a Cherry martini and a raspberry prosecco fizz thing, both of which were really good.

After a couple of cocktails we headed to TGIs for dinner and more cocktails and that is where the photos end I’m afraid, as we just enjoyed ourselves.

I had a really super, delicious, weekend with my best friend and I can’t wait for her to visit again soon!