This week I'm dedicating my reasons to be cheerful post to a great 24 hours last weekend spent with my Mum in London, belatedly celebrating Mothers Day. We've done this the last few years and it is a really nice treat to look forward to.
We start the weekend off with me heading over to meet Mum at Waterloo and enjoy a good cup of coffee at Costa, of course having a right old natter to catch up on what has been going on since we last spoke. The weather is then far too nice to head down to the underground so we walk along the South Bank and take in the street performers and the great atmosphere on the way to Westminster tube station.
There we pick up the tube to go to High Street Kensington as we are staying in the Holiday Inn just off the High Street and only a few minutes walk from the tube station. It proves to be an excellent hotel and I'll write up a review, even though I paid for it as my Mums Christmas gift.
Once in Kensington we head into the shops and I use some discount vouchers I have and Mums staff discount at M&S, coming away with shirts for my hubby, socks for JJ and two cardies, a top and a bra for me - all in the sale, result! I do love M&S, their clothes tend to fit my shape and flatter me.
Lunch is Italian, as Mum and I are creatures of habit. We opt for the Fans menu at Prezzo which gives you two courses for just £11.50 and I'm stuffed after an enormous calzone and honeycomb smash cheesecake, which is my best dessert ever. It is so good to just have this time together without any interruptions from little people.
More shopping follows and then we both have aching feet so head to the hotel to check-in. The foyer is enormous and quite glamorous and it is great to see a 24 hour Starbucks in the lobby, so we can get a good coffee fix later in the evening. Mum opts for a bit of a snooze and I just relax with some TV and catch up with what is going on on social media.
In no time at all, it is time for us to head over to the Strand as we are booked in to see Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre. I paid £85 for two tickets in the second row of the Dress Circle, so we have ace seats and the price is good. I always check my TodayTix app on the day to try and get good price West End Show tickets. When my husband and I went last November we paid £50 for 2 fabulous Stalls tickets for 42nd Street, so there are amazing deals if you are able to wait to book on the day and are lucky enough to get what they call rush tickets.
I paid for my own TodayTix tickets and I'm not being incentivised to promote them, I've just found the app ace and I got an email to share a referral code - TGYOA. If you use that you get £10 off your first order (£30 or more I believe) and I get £10 credit too, so it's win:win.
Sadly neither Mum nor I were bowled over by the show. We knew that Dreamgirls was loosely based on the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes, but there was none of their music in the show and this felt like a real let down. In the whole production, I only knew one song and normally I love to sing along. There is no denying that the leading ladies had amazing voices but it felt a bit too loud and sometimes shouty. I think we might have been alone feeling like this though as we heard loads of people talking about how much they loved it.
On return to the hotel, we enjoyed our late night coffee fix and then slept like babies in the most enormous super king-size bed and boy was it comfy. Sadly we awoke to snow and this put paid to our plans for Saturday as it was just too cold and miserable to spend too much time outside and seeing as I needed to get home 100 miles away by train we decided to head straight off after breakfast. So it really was just 24 hours together in London but when it is just the two of you without interruptions, it can feel like its much longer.
Thanks, Mum for an ace time, same place, same time next year?
Come and Join In!
I'd love to read your Reasons to be Cheerful and it is as easy as 1, 2, 3 to join in -
1. Link up a post about something that is making you super happy/ grateful. It can be in this style or it can be anything you like - a recipe, a tutorial, a from the heart, a list - it's your blog, you choose
2. Add the #R2BC badge onto your post or blog so that people can easily find the linky and join in too if they fancy
3. Share the love. This is the really important bit. Please don't just link and run, comment on at least a couple of posts and why not share with #R2BC too?
I'll stop by all linked up posts to comment and I'll share on twitter too
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for reading, if you have enjoyed this post and want to stay up to date then
Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or
Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or