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Friday, April 6, 2012

Ice Cream Truck = YUM!

During the recent warm spell in Birmingham Andrew and I were sitting outside...I was marking (puke) while he was studying (even bigger puke). After hearing the sounds which are supposed to draw in young children I discovered that they also draw in adults (as I am told that is what I am now supposed to be). Andrew, pretending to play along with my childish desires which I am positive were actually very close to his own, found some spare change and ran down the street with me to find the beautiful thing which I now refer to as my ‘new best friend’ aka the ice cream truck! As I had never enjoyed the delights of said truck I had assumed that it was full of pre-wrapped ice cream bars etc. I was wrong, oh was I wrong! I am sure you can only imagine my delight as I found that they actually have soft ice cream, prepared into many different sundae delights! I had a simple cone with a raspberry sauce (I am told that this is a special ice cream truck treat) with a piece of chocolate for good measure. There is only one was to describe this discovering. DELICIOUS. 



Kelly and Alicia play 'posh' for a day

On the 31st Kelly and I woke up at the crack of dawn (for a Saturday that means around 10 am give or take), suffered through the heart-wrenchingly painful task of choosing the perfect dress to which disguise our commoner upbringings, arranged every last hair on our heads into its perfect position and glided (yes, glided as we were clearly playing the part of an upper class lady taking part in a regular daily activity) onto the train to London. 
Upon arrival we took the tube (okay, let’s face it, playing rich for the day is costly, some more ‘common’ activities just had to continue) to Park Lane for our cream tea. After we located the Four Seasons Hotel which may or may not have involved a map, gps AND a phone call, during which Andrew told us to simply cross the street and go in as we were standing in front of it, we changed from our ‘travelling shoes’ into our ‘play posh for a day heels’. On a side note, these were the first pair of heels I had worn in 2-3 YEARS. I am still proud of myself for looking what I hope was ‘natural’ in them. 
Part of my ‘posh for a day’ outfit did not include my watch as it cost a mere 10 pounds and I thought it may ruin the rich aura I hoped to be alluding to. This meant that when we arrived at the hotel I simply assumed that it had taken us the planned 45 minutes to get from the train station to our destination. Therefore when I said that “we have a reservation at 3:15 but we may be early” with a rather large smile on my face I thought that this was a reasonable statement. After checking my phone in what may be the cutest bathroom in the world I discovered that no, we were NOT early. We were the exact opposite. It had taken us 1 hour and 30 minutes to do a rather simple tube journey. We were 45 minutes late....aka Alicia looked slightly insane to the lovely waiter. No surprise there, even the most perfect dress in the world can’t hides ones inability to tell time (or location for that matter)!
We started our cream tea with a glass of champagne and then a mango oolong tea, followed by (each) 4 scrumptious sandwich fingers, 2 scones with clotted cream and jam and then a whole platter of mini desserts of which I attempted to take at least a bite of each one but failed. To complete the atmosphere of all things indulgent there was a man playing a pink grand piano all the while we were ‘lunching’. It was wonderful.



We completed our day by walking around Harrods (isn’t that what rich women do after tea??!?!?!) and looking at purses that cost more than my rent for half a year. Side note: I was still wearing my heels!! Mom, you better be proud!! We then had some regular food to eat as the high sugar content of my stomach was causing an ulcer and then took the train back to Birmingham. A perfect way to start our Easter holiday :)