Living It Up

I'm a major proponent of living it up. I enjoy the finer things in life, and I work so that I can live, and I work hard so that I can live well, doing lots of fun things and spending nice times with family and friends. Yesterday was an example of my propensity to live it up, when my Mother and Aunt took me to Afternoon Tea at The Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair, London.

Tea, perhaps?

It was a very pleasant experience, tea and sandwiches and Champagne and scones and the lovely company of my Mom and her big sister, Iris, who I don't see often enough.


The Champagne in the picture above was complimentary from our waiter, Javier, as we found out yesterday morning that I had passed everything I had attempted in my Masters degree and my extenuating circumstances claim has been supported wholly by the University board. It was much a time for celebration, and indeed we did. My Mom and Iris were very proud of me, and proceeded to tell all of the waiters that served us how clever I am and how well I've done, resulting in many congratulations and free Champagne! It was definitely the nicest restaurant experience I've ever had.

As I'm obsessive, I will now detail my whole tea...

Rossini Cocktail

Chedder and Mango Chutney on Walnut Bread
Egg Mayonnaise x 2
Cream Cheese and Marinated Cucumber
Smoked Salmon
Chicken and Wholegrain Mustard x 2

Lemon Cream Dessert

Raisin Scone with Clotted Cream and Blackcurrant Jam
Plain Scone with Clotted Cream and Strawnerry Jam

African Autumn Tea - Rooibos with Orange and Cranberry - delicious!

Laurent Perrier Champagne Brut

Chocolate Mousse

Apple Slice

YUMMY.

Mom and Iris had much of the same, except no meaty sandwiches and no cakes. Silly women. We all had a lovely time and we had enough time to go up to Regents Park and walk through the Queens Gardens. We saw and smelt beautiful scented roses and saw a couple of frisky ducks having a fight.


So, now I've got quite the taste for posh hotels, particularly The Dorchester, and I'd quite like to have another Afternoon Tea there, and maybe even stay a night for my birthday... Looking at the prices, I am in great doubt it will be for a birthday within the next decade!

Racing For Life

On June 25th, a balmy Wednesday evening, I took part in a 5k run, for which I sought sponsorship in aid of Cancer Research UK. This is a very important charity to me, because without them, my Dad wouldn't have had experienced the quality of life he did in the final 7 months of his life. Their work involves researching treatments, making advances on diagnosis, prevention and cure. Their work didn't help to cure my Dad from the cancer he had but he did undergo a full course of chemo which helped him to see in 2008, 7 months on from his initial diagnosis. My Dad was very unlucky, as more people do tend to recover from their cancers. More than ever before. And that is largely thanks to Cancer Research UK. So in February, I decided to run the Race for Life. 5 kilometers. 3 miles. Not a long way, and I professed to undertake a training routine with vigour. But life got in the way. I was doing a Masters degree, my Mother was living 120 miles away from me, and for the first time since we started going out together, Ben and I were living in the same city. So I didn't do as much training as I wanted to but Wednesday came and I nervously pulled my running kit out and donned my trainers and set off to Cannon Hill Park to just do it™. I completed the 5k in 43 minutes, which isn't great but isn't too bad either. I guess I was at the midway point, as there were hundreds of women behind me. I ran for the most part, probably 2 of the 3 miles. And I've raised £245. And I did it to commemorate my Dad. To celebrate his life in a way that he would have found hilarious. Me, running = funny stuff.




And I feel really proud of myself for that. It would have made my Dad laugh, but I proved something to myself and to people that know me. I can do it. Doing it made me think some very sad thoughts but more than anything I felt proud and like I was doing something positive. I felt like I was a good person, putting myself through that pain (seriously, I'm injured now) with my only objective being to raise money for a charity. So it got me thinking about myself too... I'm hard on myself a lot of the time. I'm very busy most of the time and I always have things to do. Usually stressful things, like work and studying. So I don't think about myself in a good way very often, and I certainly don't look after myself like I should. So when Gala Darling posted this, it pushed me into thinking positively and thinking about my good attributes and good attributes that I want to have. And then I made this...

... and I felt really good about myself. So now when I'm feeling awfully low and a bit useless, I have something to look at to remind of my good points and be enthusiastic about them, and my low mood will just float away, as , very egotistically, my low moods are often generated by myself. Now, head off to http://www.wordle.net/ and make one yourself!