Love letters...

Lettering for the modern day...

Calligraphy has always been a rather daunting skill to learn and with all the scary contraptions needed to do it I've steered clear of learning... That is until I saw a 'Modern Calligraphy' class being taught through Quill London. Though still daunting, it had an element of 'freeness' that I felt more comfortable with. (you'd think I was talking about something way more serious wouldn't you?!)

So last week, I headed to West Elm at Tottenham Court Road (they do them at different venues) and prepared myself for the 2.5 hours class ahead.

Seated on actual furniture and displays in the shop, we sat at the individually laid out spots with our starter packs. For £44 per class, you are provided with a nib and holder, a pot of ink, numerous types of paper and of course the 2.5 hours tutelage of the designated teacher for the session.

Our teacher for the evening was Megan Riera who was just awesome. Self taught and having quit her day job to follow her interest, it was evident how passionate Megan was for her new found craft. The fact that she had taken up the craft in the past few years made her even more impressive and the whole process less daunting.

The class was broken up into 3 sessions - lines & shapes, letters & numbers and words/phrases. Megan demonstrated what we needed to do before each session then just let us have a go. She wandered around the space checking in on us but in such a friendly manner that it never felt like a teacher watching over our shoulders. She was on hand to answer questions or offer suggestion of bettering our pen hold or ink usage. Being a lefty adds extra challenges to the whole process but hey... nothing good is easy!

By the end of the workshop I had in no way felt like I had mastered the craft but certainly motivated and impassioned to keep going at home. Apparently 20mins a day should do it... Once I get that down pat... I'm definitely looking into the next level workshops - composition or coloured inks... or maybe both!

Now... to find that spare 20mins a day...

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Interested in taking a workshop?

Checkout them out here and be sure to get in quick as they do fill up! You'll see that most classes are already 'sold out' so you may need to put yourself on the waitlist.

An unfruitful afternoon tea...

In need of more bloom...

The other half's family were recently in town all the way from the other side of the world and there was no other 'English thing' I was determined to show them but and English afternoon tea. I didn't want it to be boring, crazy expensive or yuck so after much research I made a booking for Bea's of Bloomsbury in St. Paul's.

Bea's has been on my list of afternoon teas to try for some time as a friend and I were once denied the opportunity by a matter of 15mins. 15mins we had spent lining up in the bakery! Let's not go into that...

So one lovely Saturday afternoon recently we made our way to St Paul's in hopes of wowing the team with the quirky and delicious looking tiers Bea offered.

So what of the food?

So this is where the disappointment began... The sandwiches came on a chopping board which I can understand as there were 15 to bring out. The tier however left me a little sad as part of the reason for going was for the famous 'upside down legs in the air' tier photographed on the website. HOWEVER, I'm not all about the looks so I let it slide...

So tier by tier...

The sandwiches were delicious and plentiful but far from delicate. I'll be honest, I ate them all but the heaviness of them didn't leave much wrong for much else.

The bottom tier: scones

One scone and one mini jam jar per person which was fine. There was however 1 small pot of clotted cream to share amongst 3. Sure we could have asked for more but this is afternoon tea and they are suppose to be experts! You know you need more than that! The scones themselves were also rather disappointing being rather crumbly and chalky on the outside and quite dry on the inside. We mentioned this to the restaurant but unfortunately nothing was done about it.

The middle tier: cupcakes

These were nice and moist but nothing too special. The special flavours (strawberry on chocolate, nutella on vanilla and peanut butter on chocolate) were simply in the icing and we didn't even get to choose what we wanted!

The top tier: brownies, marshmallows and meringues

There were 3 flavours of brownies (double choc, blondie and plain choc) which were all nice but nothing show stopping. The marshmallows were lovely and soft and the meringue a typical meringue.

The St Paul's location isn't the best suited for Bea's as it's within the new and modern One New Change. Though it had some sweet teapots as light shades the overall venue lacked the charm and cosiness of the Bloomsbury location.

The service? The lady we had was quite funny and nice but we were all left a little disappointed with our incorrectly distributed tea. On a Saturday afternoon they had run out of their usual fun coloured teapots so we were all given matching silver ones. Our waitress made an effort and show of sniffing each one and handing them out only for 3 out of 5 of us to get the wrong ones and needing to reshuffle. She tried and she was funny so I guess we'll let this one go... It's just disappointing they didn't have enough clean teapots for their busiest time!

Would we go back? No... we were all left a little disappointed and me most of all at not being able to show our lovely tourists a great experience. At £24.50 per person it certainly left an even more bitter taste... Perhaps they were having a bad day but for that price I won't be taking the risk again...

Sad afternoon tea. :(

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Bea's of Bloomsbury can be found at:

Bloomsbury

Farringdon (take away only)

and

St Paul's

Checkout the individual links for more details for each location.

Moving into the modern world...

Hi, My name is Jesz and I'm an Instagrammer.

So after years of resistance, I've fallen to peer pressure and tried to join the cool kids.

I'm an Instagrammer. It's 4 days in and I'm already hooked. What have I become?

New button on the right there... but if it doesn't work, try the button here:

Otherwise, look me up!

HERE I AM!

Whether good or not, you'll get to see what I'm eating and doing sooner!

Like my dinner on Sunday evening...

Or when I see pretty flowers...

... and pretty sunsets...

You catch my drift... more updates and photos sooner! The reviews will still come of course but it's just another way to get more to you and faster!

See you out there!