Sugar and Spice

Back in London again where I spent a rainy Friday afternoon with the London gals taking in a delicious high tea at the beautiful Fortnum and Mason Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon which was inaugurated last year by the Queen, Kate--the Duchess of Cambridge and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall in conjunction with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

A dozen of us gathered there for a fancy girls' day out

which started with individual pots of tea,

and progressed to a tower of treats. Our table was literally cluttered with tea stands

full of sweets, scones, and finger sandwiches. The scones were light and fluffy and made even tastier with Somerset clotted cream, preserves and lemon curd.

Thanks to our menus we were able to identify our finger sandwiches which I'll list in case you ever want to duplicate their formula: Cucumber with mint butter, Coronation Chicken, Ploughman's, Rare Breed Hen's Egg with Mustard Cress and Smoked Salmon with Lemon Dill Butter.

And just in case you still had room, there were assorted pastries followed by

a trip to the Coronation Cake Carriage to select a slice of your favorite tea cake. We were delightfully more than satisfied, and spent the two hours sipping tea and catching up on the news of travels and playtimes.

Then we were off for the Spice of the day...

It was time to "spice" up our life with the new Viva Forever musical now playing on the West End.

A story of a young singing group and a reality TV show competition with the Spice Girls music to move the story along. And if what "you want, what you really, really want" is a fun musical with a great sing along at the conclusion, then Viva Forever is for you.

Spice it up!