The Met Bar Afternoon De-Light

Part II of Rache’s birthday present to me was afternoon tea with the girls at the Met Bar. The Afternoon De-Light at the Met Bar offers an interesting and modern twist on the traditional afternoon tea: promising a healthy alternative to the usual calorie-laden afternoon treat, the Met provided us with a selection of cupcakes, sweet and savoury, scones and ‘no-bread sandwiches’. Not a trace of unrefined sugar, flour or full fat anything was supposedly in site.

The afternoon tea started off well with our very fresh teas delivered to our table – so fresh that my ginger tea was literally bits of ginger in water. It was extremely soothing on the throat if not exactly sweet to taste. When we first arrived we were sat at a small table for four but were soon moved to a cosier booth table when one became available (although if you heed my advice our original table with ordinary chairs seemed much more comfortable for seating and eating.)

The food part of the afternoon tea was delivered all in one hit and whilst impressive looking we were disappointed to see that there wasn’t actually one of everything for everyone to try … which wouldn’t have been so much of problem had the “no-bread sandwiches”, cupcakes, cakes and scones actually been fairly easy to share. Additionally, though priced at a fairly hefty-ish price of £25, there were strictly no re-fills either which to me seemed a little on the cheap side. The waiter tried to explain it away as a logistics thing – claiming that the chefs had produced an exact amount based on the bookings only. I wasn’t impressed. Sure the sweets were more than enough for us but we probably could have done with some more of the savoury bearing in mind, as I mentioned earlier, that they weren’t particularly shareable. I wasn’t being greedy honest!

Overall, the experience at The Met was pleasant if not particularly striking experience though sadly this was one afternoon tea where we all actually walked out hungry and craving McDonalds!

Celebrity Tour of Notting Hill

Notting Hill has long been synonymous with celebrities so Rache thought it would be a nice birthday present for me to arrange for us to go on a celebrity tour of Notting Hill. The tour did not get off on the right foot as our tour guide was quite late and no one had let us know. On the plus side it ended up just being just random Russian guy, Rache and I on the tour so it was very intimate indeed. Lasting over two hours it was overwhelming the number of places that were pointed out to us covering celebrity homes, film locations, celeb hangouts and even spots where celebs had died! Unfortunately, no actual celeb spotted en route though our tour guide did have a flip chart of pictures to help us with association.

You can read the itinerary here for a full lowdown of where we went cause I actually can’t remember some of the places. Here are a couple that I remember.

Supposedly Jason Donovan’s place (also formerly Dire Straits ‘member Mark Knopfler’s residence) but to me it did look rather empty!

Denbigh Close where some scenes from the Italian job were shot

I think where Robbie Williams used to live:

Where many celebs stay when they’re in town

Where Jimi Hendrix died:

Elle’s former front door (though I’m sure you’re thinking that could be anywhere!) – Ladbroke Gardens

And just to show it was a lovely day, St Luke’s Mews, though I do also think it was the tragic site of Max Moseley’s son who died of an overdose:

For those into music, Sarm Studios is near All Saints’ Road. It was here that Take That’s 2008 album, the Circus, was produced.

And finally, this was THE door in the Notting Hill movie – only now the columns have been painted over in white!

Houses of Parliament Tour

The Houses of Parliament is the venue for the two houses of Parliament for the UK – the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament responsible revising and initiating legislation, and the House of Commons, where the true power lays. It is the House of Commons who the Prime Minister is answerable to.

Tours of the Houses of Parliament are open to the general public (that is, non-residents) throughout the summer only, when the Houses are out on recess, or on Saturdays. Residents can get (free) tours throughout the year arranged through your MP or a Lord. So popular are these tours that apparently they have to be booked about six months in advance!

On a lovely brilliant summer’s day Rache, Nic and I took the easier, but more expensive option, of buying tickets for a Saturday. The tour provided very popular and even though they limit numbers (I think approx. 30) there were at least three English groups that left in our particular time slot and each one was maxed out.

The whole process of how the Houses of Parliament works was explained from how members get their “agenda” for the day, protocols in the two Houses (e.g. voting, speaking, where people sit!), and the history of significant art/statues were explained. I quite liked our tour guide but the big group made it difficult at times to hear what he was saying. We were taken through the House of Commons (the green room) and the House of Lords (the room). Interestingly in the House of Lords votes are physical votes, where members leave the chamber and walk through a particular division to indicate their choice. No hiding behind paperwork in the House of Lords!

The tour lasts for approx. 75 minutes and is well worth experiencing … if just to get a better understanding of how the UK legislative system operates. Unfortunately no photos inside the actual houses though 🙁