The return of the tea shop!

A couple of weeks ago, Mr Plum drove us to Bluewater for a trip to John Lewis. Very exciting!! I have only recently discovered Bluewater - it is about an hour away on the M25 from our house and far less stressful (for me and Baby Plum, anyway!) than heading into the West End for a trip to the shops!

While having a wander around we spotted a shop which was due to be opened called "The Cadburys Cocoa House" .... oooh, thought I, a shop dedicated to wonderful Cadburys choc! mmmm mmmmm

Last night on the local London news there was a feature about the Cadburys Cocoa House ... it is a TEA SHOP!!!

And even more excitingly, a tea shop in the style of a Lyons Corner House. Obviously, being 33 and a bit years old - I have never been to a Lyons Corner House - but being an avid reader ... they feature so often in novels that I do feel like I have been there many a time! What a refreshing change from all the Starbucks and Costas which line our high street. The owners are planning to roll out more of these Cadburys Cocoa Houses ... hopefully there will be one a bit nearer to me!

Unfortunately Mr Plum is off work with a bad back ... but hopefully once he has recovered we will have another trip to Bluewater to have tea!

Another posting about cakes!

My Sunday tea party went very well .... every single cake, scone and biscuit was eaten up.  I thought I would use this as an excuse to post a picture of my cake stand.  I love it! It was given to me by Mr Plum's Auntie from Oop North....it's always a pleasure to find an excuse to load it up with goodies!  

And, could my Sunday get any better?  A new series of Lark Rise started on BBC1!  

Well, the Christmas decorations are down now ... and the living room is looking bare and bland and ready for redecoration! Me and Mr Plum spent Saturday going around DIY stores and have bought a lovely new fireplace!  Here it is ... Luckily we got a bargain in the January sales!  I can't wait to have it installed (to replace the awful fireplace we inherited from the previous owners of our flat). 

Plum's On Tour - Paris

We recently went to Paris with my wonderful family for the weekend, to celebrate Mummy Plum's birthday...it was lovely! The weekend was taken up with sight-seeing and eating - what more could you want?

One of the highlights was a trip to Mariage Freres a beautiful tea shop just off the Rue du Rivoli. Mariage Freres are the creators of the delicious Marco Polo jelly - served in Claridges with their afternoon tea.  We could have spent hours in the shop looking at the teas, jellies, chocolates .... it was lovely and old worldy!  We were very restrained and got some Marco Polo jelly and tea and some special Christmas tea and jelly ... which will be saved until Christmas of course!  

Have a look at the Mariage Freres website ... it has a very interesting "history of tea" and apparently the French drink on average, 100 cups a year ... I get through that amount a week!!

Don't think we can wait to taste the Marco Polo jelly, I'm off to bake some scones!!!