The Dorchester's floral champagne afternoon tea and the Chelsea Flower Show 2016

Tuesday evenings aren't usually the most exciting evening of the week. Thursdays are often where it all happens, am I right?

But last Tuesday was without a doubt the best Tuesday evening I've had since moving to London. I wasn't planning on blogging about it, but then it was just so fabulous that I couldn't resist.

I scurried away from work a smidge earlier than usual and shimmied my way over to Chelsea for my first visit to the Chelsea Flower Show.

Like most ladies, I love a good flower, but I'm by no means a gardening aficionado. However, I was really excited. For the gardens, for sure, but mainly also because I'd been invited to try the Dorchester's champagne floral afternoon tea at the flower show. And let's be real here scones > gardens.

So with that in mind, we'll get to the flowers and kick off with a glass of Laurent-Perrier champagne, as any Tuesday evening should.

The Dorchester are serving their floral tea in the prettiest tent. I say tent, but it's not really a tent. Look:

A sneak peak of our pop-up restaurant at #RHSchelsea. 🌸 Doesn't it look just like The Promenade at The Dorchester? 😉 #dcmoments #thedorchester #chelseaflowershow

A photo posted by The Dorchester (@thedorchester) on May 25, 2016 at 5:20am PDT

And it's their first pop-up ever actually as it's so hard to take the whole kitchen, all the staff and the Dorchester quality and service out of the Park Lane hotel.

The flower arrangements are, as you'd expect, stunning, designed by the Dorchester's amazing 28-year-old florist, Philip Hammond (no, not that Philip Hammond). Tbh they're exactly the sort of flower arrangements I'd want at my wedding. And yes I am very single right now.

Alongside my champagne I sipped the Dorchester's Paris blend which I thoroughly recommend - it's a black tea but with sort of caramel undertones. I loved it.

So, finger sandwich time!

Egg mayo with shallot confit and shiso cress on white bread, roast chicken with pommery mustard on basil bread, smoked salmon with sweet mustard and dill on granary bread, and cucumber with mint cream cheese on caraway seed bread.

I often find with finger sandwiches that the bread is a bit dry on the outside, almost as if the sandwiches have been sitting around for a little while. Not these ones, ma dears. These babies were well, soft as a baby's bottom.

My friend Alicia from the fab About Time Mag and I asked for more of the chicken and cucumber ones. This arrived:

We were not disappointed.

I am in love with the chicken sandwich. If you like pesto (and who doesn't like pesto?) you're going to be a fan. So great.

And with the savouries aside it was time to move on to the sweets.

BUT WAIT!

Before the pudding, we were brought a pre-pudding. Duhh.

This was incredible. It was white chocolate mousse with a layer of strawberry, topped with dark chocolate crumble. You then poured raspberry coulis from the watering can on top. Even the convincing-looking pebbles were actually chocolate-coated nuts.

I mean, the creativity! It was ingenious! It was so detailed! But most importantly, it was delicious.

And now on to the main sweets. Scones first, of course.

With the scones, we were served homemade strawberry jam (full of big strawberries, which I loved), pear and vanilla jam, lemon curd and clotted cream. And the scones - both raisin and plain ones - were perfect. Neither dry nor too crumbly. Fab.

Now, I only wish I'd noted down what each of these scrummy treats was. As you can probably see, they were incredibly intricate but also stylishly designed, in keeping with the beautiful theme.

We had:

The Garden Basket - created in a chocolate shell with salted caramel sauce, a chocolate cremeux and roasted peanut top. Dressed with a green butter cream decoration, three sugar flowers and a chocolate lady bird. I know.

A strawberry rhubarb cheese cake with Marsala cream - crunchy biscuit base, strawberry cheesecake, rhubarb strawberry jelly and marsala vine mousse, decorated with a crystalized flower, wild strawberry and puff pastry crisp. And you thought it couldn't get more elaborate...

The Dorchester and the Giant Peach - a spherical peach mousse with peach and verbena insert on a rice crispy biscuit. (In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Roald Dahl).

A lemongrass praline - lemongrass shortbread and almond praline mousse with white chocolate lemongrass cream.

The chocolatey peanutty caramel one (garden basket) was perhaps unsurprisingly my fave. I was less keen on the lemongrass.

We'd stuffed ourselves silly with deliciousness and with just 45 minutes until the show was to close for the day, we hot-footed it round the gardens. Here are a few of my faves:

As you can imagine, it all smelled AMAZING! And I was seriously wowed by all the gardens. The gardeners are so clever and talented.

I loved the new Princess Charlotte flower:

And of course, I couldn't not stop to marvel at the spectacular display of almost 300,000 hand-knitted poppies honouring our armed forces. It was incredible.

The Chelsea Flower Show is one of those thoroughly British affairs that I love. And now I've been once, I may have to make a habit of it. With champagne afternoon tea, natch.

What are your thoughts on Chelsea Flower Show?

Balinese luxury at Anumana Hotel, Ubud

Anumana in Ubud may just be the loveliest hotel I've ever had the pleasure of staying in.

It's a boutique hotel of just 39 rooms, with traditional Balinese style that is simultaneously chic, modern and luxurious.


And after nearly two months backpacking, I was certainly in need of some luxury! I didn't even break the bank either - firstly, hotels are cheaper out here compared to what you'd pay for the same standard back home, and secondly, I got a fab deal with Agoda, which I could not recommend more.

OK, let's break this down.


Location and Arrival




While not in the very centre of Ubud, Anumana is located on a great street full of interesting little boutiques and restaurants. It's also a mere four minutes walk to the famous Yoga Barn (and their amazing Garden Cafe - more on that to come!) which I was thrilled to discover.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to walk from the hotel to the palace in the centre of Ubud, but the whole walk is past interesting shops and restaurants and the hotel provides a shuttle service too, although at once every two hours it's not the most frequent. However the shuttle driver even took me directly to a restaurant that was a little out of the centre which was great.


My first impression on arrival at Anumana was as wonderful as I'd been hoping: I was greeted by the friendliest of staff who took my bags for me, gave me a delicious refreshing cool drink and a cold wet towel, and informed me about everything I could possibly need to know.

I had accidentally arrived a lot earlier than the check-in time, but about ten minutes later my room was ready. Eeeeee!


My Room and the Pool


Oh, this room. [insert emoji with hearts for eyes]

For just a few pounds extra, I'd decided to splash out on a Superior Lagoon Access room (fancy!), and it was so worth it. #treatyoself

Come on in...



The bed was huuuuuge, super comfy and the pillows were perfect. The bedlinen was crisp, clean and perfectly smooth. And let me tell you, after some of the places I've stayed in over the past however many weeks, boy did I appreciate that beautiful pristine bedlinen.

There was a welcome fruit basket and a note from the manager, a very useful hotel directory with an Ubud guide too, sockets and light switches by the bed (always handy), four bottles of water which were replenished each day, tea- and coffee-making facilities (yay!), a safe, dressing gowns and slippers which are definitely not made for western people with big feet but oh well, and a minibar with complimentary Coke, Sprite and an intriguing orange drink. I have to say I was slightly disappointed when told I couldn't swap the Coke for Diet considering they're the same price on the hotel's menu but I struggled through.

The aircon worked a treat and the wifi signal was good too. No more waiting 45 minutes to upload one photo to my blog, hoorah!

There was a shiny flatscreen TV with a selection of international channels, albeit no international news, and a few magazines by the bed. It was only when I sat down by the pool and opened one that I realised it was in Indonesian but it was a nice gesture all the same.

OH YES, let me tell you the best thing about the room! Lagoon access, baby!







My doors slid open on to a private balcony with a private little staircase down into the pool where I had my own loungers under a sun umbrella. Pool towels magically appear each day and as soon as you leave your lounger, your old towel is whisked away and replaced with a fresh one for the next guest to use. Unfortunately I did find a stain on one of my towels but it didn't bother me too much.



You can even order food and drinks to be delivered to your lounger too. The pool is of course for all hotel guests but it was awesome to be able to pop in and out of my room so easily, super dreamy and so worth paying an extra tenner for the lagoon access room in my books.

The bathroom in my room was equally lush. It was so clean! (Sorry, I just appreciate cleanliness so much now.)




I was given ALL the toiletries, as well as a hairdryer and multiple towels and flannels.

The shower itself was wonderful. And get this: there's a big glass window between the shower and the bedroom. I'm sure that's very sexy if you're there on your honeymoon or whatever, but I just thought it was cool as I could watch TV whilst in the shower. Awesome, much? I also enjoyed having the second towel for my hair, both teabags for myself and a whole giant bed to roll around in. #single4eva

On my first morning in Anumana I woke up early for no reason, snuggled up in my giant cloud of a bed with a cup of tea and watched Home Alone. It was perfection.

Swimming in the pool later on, the thought occurred to me that I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt so happy and relaxed.

It helps that there's chilled-out spa music playing everywhere you go in Bali and little flowers gently falling down from the trees and floating over the water but I really did feel very Zen.

The gentle breeze plays the wind chimes hanging from the trees and you feel like you're in an oasis of calm.


The Food

The main reason I wanted to come to Ubud was for its many healthy restaurants and cafés, and I have no shame admitting that (we'll get to them, worry not), however with breakfast included at the hotel, I'd actually been a little bummed that I wouldn't be able to justify going out for breakfast.

That was until I went to breakfast at Anumana.


I chose a table by the lagoon (well, pool), my chair was pulled out for me and the napkin placed on my lap. I could get used to that.

Rather than a buffet, there's a choice of three breakfast menus, as well as an à la carte menu and the option to swap parts of each, so it's very customisable.

On both mornings I went for the "healthy breakfast" and it was SO DAMN GOOD.



First up, a dreamy mango smoothie and tea, followed by a fresh fruit salad with yogurt, grated coconut and peanuts.


There was pineapple, papaya, watermelon and melon and all were wonderful except the melon which was a tad on the crunchy side. On my second morning there was mango too which was a definite improvement.

This was followed by - prepare to be excited - MUESLI! I KNOW!


Alright, alright, calm down.

The thing is, I hadn't had oats for weeks and boy, had I missed them.



Slightly crunchy toasted oats (you could choose toasted or natural), full of almonds, dried fruits and coconut, served with milk, yogurt and honey, and topped with fresh strawberries. The bowlful was huge but it was so tasty I demolished the lot. (I say that like I don't always clear my plate/bowl, HA!)

Another nice touch at Anumana is the complimentary afternoon tea served between 3pm and 5pm every day.

Just like at breakfast, everything was served in beautiful china.


It may not have been Yorkshire Gold but the tea was actually a good cuppa (a rarity out here) and I got a good two cups out of my personal teapot.

With my tea, I was treated to a different traditional sweet Balinese delicacy on each day of my stay. The first time, it was banana in palm sugar syrup.


It looked very pretty, however I'm tempted to say it looked better than it tasted. Perfectly pleasant though! On the second afternoon, it was, well, I'm not entirely sure. Banana encased in pancake maybe? I dunno but I ate it anyway!





The Staff and Service

Throughout my stay at Anumana, the staff were a delight: friendly, obliging, attentive and helpful, they really made me feel welcome.


I was always served with a smile and wished a pleasant afternoon/day/night. There's a personal touch too - on my way to breakfast one of the reception girls cheerily called out "Good morning, Miss Hosie" as I walked past, which was a lovely way to start the day. I imagine you don't get that at bigger hotels and resorts.


So in short I thoroughly recommend Anumana - it was just perfect for my stay in Ubud, and I'd definitely go back. Keep your eyes peeled for a couple more blog posts about Ubud!