Small hotel rooms and S Club 7

I am a massive S Club 7 fan. When I was younger I wanted to be Hannah Spearritt, so when it was announced they were getting back for a reunion tour, I had to go. Especially since I never got to see them first time round when I was younger. So I felt like I would be fulfilling a childhood dream. 

I went with my best friend Megan, who I also went to Disneyland Paris with last year. (Posts about Disneyland can be found here). 

She lives in Devon so we don't get to see each other an awful lot, so when we do get together we make it count. 

On the Saturday I met her up in London after she got off her coach, we were both starving so went in search for a place to eat. We ended up eating at Ed's diner, and American styled diners are my favourite.   

I had a banana milkshake with an American styled hotdog, Meg had chicken dippers, and we shared chips. 

Then we went to go and find our hotel. We stayed at the Kensington Court Hotel in Notting Hill. 

Let me just set the scene, Meg and I turn up both with fairly heavy suitcases, the lady on the desk gives us our key, and two wifi codes (which I thought was very good), she says we're in room 16. Ok, sure, fine. 

No. 

Defiantly not ok, little did we know that room 16 was at the top of the building, so we heaved our suitcases up the stairs (there was no lift), and when we reach our room we open the door, we look at one side of the room with the bed, 'ah lovely, comfy looking bed'. We continue to pan across the rest of the room,.. oh wait. Where is the rest of the room? The room was tiny. Then it hits us. Where is the bathroom? 

We fall down in fits of laugher, both because it was hilariously funny because the room was so tiny and didn't have any sign of a bathroom, but also because we'd just walked up God knows how many stairs to find a box room with no shower or toilet. 

Turns out I'd booked us a room with a 'shared toilet and shower', that were on the floor below us. So all we had was a sink. After we'd composed ourselves we headed to a local corner shop to get some drinks, then we started to get ready for S Club! 

This was what I wore- 

Glittery jumpsuit- Topshop
Bag- Topshop
Kitten heels- Dorothy Perkins 

We attempted to wear heels, but after we got halfway down the road we changed into our flats. 

Classy. Real classy. 

We arrived at the O2 in really good time. So I obviously got a program

And how can you go to a concert and not get a T-shirt? 

I do apologise for all the creases, it had just come straight out of the wash. 

We took our seats, popcorn in tow and waited for the show to begin. 

S Club's support act was a guy named AJ Lehrman, and he was a unpretentious version of Justin Bieber, (sorry Beliebers). He was really sweet, and had that boy next door essence about him. 

Then it was the moment we'd all been waiting for. S Club 7. 

They open the concert with 'Bring the house down'. 

And boy did they bring the house down, they were fantastic, all of them were on point. I especially liked how everyone got their little individual moment, like Rachel got to sing some of her solo songs from her album which was nice, and nostalgic, because I remember having her songs on CD too. 

They sang all the classics like, Reach, Natural, Never Had a Dream Come True, and Have You Ever. 

But a massive highlight for me was when they sang 'Uptown Funk'. 

I had the best time, and would relive it everyday if I could, but I'm just incredibly happy I finally got the see them live. 

After the show finished in an effort to avoid getting on a super crowded tube train, Meg and I decided to have a drink at one of the bars at the O2. While we were sitting there having a drink suddenly security guards turned up and started manning the stairs leading to the second floor of the bar. Next thing we knew the whole band one by one started turning up and going to the after party upstairs. Rachel even made direct eye contact with us and smiled. Best moment ever. 

After being starstruck we made our way back to our hotel (box) room. 

It wasn't that bad really. As we were getting ready for bed Meg decided she wanted to wash her hair, and understandably she didn't want to go down to the next level at 1 o'clock in the morning. So we washed it in the sink. Not one of our best ideas I must say. But we powered through. 

The next day we had planned a whole shopping day, and dessert at Ed's diner. 

We went down for breakfast and were greatly surprised with the turn out. There were even pain au chocolat. If that doesn't say posh I don't know what does. 

After we'd filed up on croissants we headed over to Oxford Street. Not before taking some Instagram worthy pictures. 

The whole outfit I wore was from Primark, apart from the bag, which was from Topshop. 

Ooooo London sign, so arttyyyy. 

After spending too much money in Primark, we then spend a lifetime in the Disney Store. It just had to be done. 

Obviously because of the new Cinderella film the whole store was decorated accordingly.  

Of course we had a picture in the carriage. 

Sadly there wasn't one in my size. 

Cute classic Disney 

 After braving both Primark and the Disney Store we were pretty hungry, so we had lunch at this cute English pub just off Oxford Street. Can't beat a bit of pub grub. 

Then we carried on shopping, and I'll be uploading a separate post of everything I brought in London, so keep your eyes peeled for that. 

We then felt like it was time to go to Ed;s Diner again. I mean it had been over 24 hours since our last visit.  

We both went for pancakes with maple syrup and ice cream. They were honestly the best pancakes I have ever had. 

It was then time to bid farewell to Meg, saying goodbye is never fun, but I just can't wait for the next fun thing we get to do together. 

I had such a brilliant weekend, and can't wait to be reunited with Meg again. 

Good friends are like stars. 

You don't always see them, but you know they are always  there.

Cheerio! 

Hannah  

Harry Potter Studios and the Hogwarts Express

I hope you're all having a lovely bank holiday Monday, and this is just a quick post showing you my recent trip to the Harry Potter studios tour. 

Friday the 15th of May myself and some friends went to the Warner Bros Studio Tour of The Making of Harry Potter. I've already been lucky enough to have gone before (previous blog post here), but you can never tire of the magic of Harry Potter, so here I am with another post saying how fabulous it is.  

I don't want to spoil ALL the magic, but here are a few of my favourite snaps from the day. 

Pinkie and I in the Great Hall 

 I think out of all the characters from the Harry Potter films, Luna's costumes are my favourite. I love how quirky they are. 

Costume dept 

50 Shades of Umbridge 

 Back in March the studio unveiled a new part of the tour, which was Platform 9 3/4 and the original Hogwarts Express steam engine from the films. I was SO excited to see this part, and we practically all fan girled when we stepped onto the platform. 

Luggage on Platform 9 3/4 

 Cute lil group shot of us. 

The gang with The Hogwarts Express 

Loving life on the bridge to Hogwarts 

Katie and I 

 There are sooo many hand held props there, sometimes its hard for your eyes to focus on one thing. 

Appreciating the art  

 How could you not fan girl over Gilderoy in the window of Flourish and Blotts 

Fan girling over Gilderoy Lockhart 

Possibly my favourite part of the whole tour, where you get to see the model of Hogwarts castle. 

After spending a good amount of time in the gift shop I picked up a Hogwarts Express post card for my wall, and a revolting, but brilliant cat tea cup. They had a few different designs, and I think they're meant to be takes on the ones that Professor Umbridge has in her office. But Mumma Drake hates it, but I think its hilarious and I just had to get it. 

I also got a picture of all of us in the flying car, a nice memento of the day

Post card- 95p
Cat tea cup- £14.95

All in all I had a wonderful day, we drank butter-beer and saw the Hogwarts Express. I laughed a lot and we all had a good sing song in the car. 

Have you been to the Harry Potter Studio tour, and what's your favourite part? Comment down below. 

Cheerio! 

Hannah

  

Mothers and Daughters do it best

Saturday 15th of November- 

It's 7:30 am and I'm astounded that my Mum and I are actually leaving the house on time to go to the station, because we are renowned for always being late. I guess it just goes to show how you can be on time if its to get cheap Wicked tickets. 

So after catching our train and having a shortish journey we arrived at Liverpool Street, and went straight off to catch the tube to get to Victoria. Now several hilarious moments happened throughout the day, one of them occurring on the tube. Where me and Mum were so busy nattering I wasn't paying attention to what stop it was, and I looked out of the doors and saw 'Circus' and thought we were at Oxford Circus, turns out we were actually at Piccadilly Circus. So I go to step off the tube and in my Mums efforts to stops me she grabs my hood from my jacket, and this was a detachable hood, so it just popped straight off into her hand. We were cry laughing, well I was, for a good 3 minutes. It was just so funny, I'm sure people around us thought we were insane. 

So we finally get to Victoria tube station and after a quick walk we're at the Apollo Victoria, (the theatre for Wicked) and there is already a few people waiting outside, but I still had high hopes. It was only 9 am, so we still had an hour until the box office opened so Mum popped over to a nearby McDonalds and got a tea and a hot chocolate, and some snazzy ginger bread men from M&S as well. 

The wait went surprisingly quick and we soon found ourselves at the front, and the guy at the box office said he had two front row stalls left and asked if we would want those. Well it took me a nano second to think about that, Mum had no say in the matter before I was replying 'YES PLEASE'. I mean it was front row stalls for £29.50 each?! How could you have to think about that. 

After buying our tickets I was literally on cloud nine, nothing could dampen my spirits. So we made our way back to the tube to go back to Oxford Circus to do some shopping. 

It was around quarter to 11 now and all we'd had was a hot drink and a biscuit, so we were feeling rather peckish and decided to go straight to Selfridges to get something to eat, before starting our shopping bonanza. 

So we make our way to Selfridges, popping into the Disney Store on the way, in hope of finally tracking down an Elsa Christmas decoration. No such luck though. But anyway, on our travel to Selfridges we got to admire all the lovely Christmasy window displays. But I have to say Selfridges was one of, if not the best. They've gone for a fantasy/ fairytale theme which is right up my street and it was so beautiful and unique. 

We also had to take a few selfies, because why not? 

We went inside and it was literally like a maze of cosmetic counters, we found our way to a map and went in search for a place to eat. Amongst all the posh frocks and shoes there were a couple of restaurants, but after looking at the menu we thought that it was far to early in the morning for lobster, so decided we'd go else where. We managed to find a Starbucks, which was more our kind of scene (and price), so settled on two panini's, which were delicious. 

After feeding and watering ourselves we felt that it was time to begin some serious hardcore shopping, and made our way to the Christmas department.  

I was literally in Heaven with all the Christmas decorations, there was so many gorgeous decorations, and some not so gorgeous ones... But to each there own.

While wandering round the Christmas department we then managed to find ourselves amongst all the cuddly toys, which was when hysteria started to set in. Selfridges is a fancy shop, therefore they had fancy large animal soft toys, like a giraffe for £1000 (total bargain), a tiger and an elephant. Now after looking at all the toys for a good 5 minutes I didn't realise but some of the bigger toys, like the elephant and the giraffe, had plastic bags on their feet something which after noticing I found incredibly funny. So I stood there cry laughing amongst all the toys with plastic bags on there feet, apart from the tiger, he didn't have plastic bags...

After eventually paying for our two Christmas decorations, which were adorable wooden bunnies, we made our way back out into Oxford Street and shopped until we could shop no more.

After a slight paddy in Primark because they apparently buy stock from a place where size 4 doesn't exist, we made our way to New Look and had a further boot search. After purchasing the most perfect pair of boots, and refusing to pay £17 for a super flimsy top we had to leave, otherwise we feared our brains would explode from the terrible brain numbing music they were blaring out.

After going around a few more shops we started to lag a bit and decided we needed some sugar, and decided to have a snack and a milkshake at Ed's Diner just off Oxford Street. I opted for an Oreo milkshake, while Mum had a chocolate one, and we shared a bowl of chips, the milkshakes were so delicious and were served in silver jugs, which was different. Cue next hilarious moment, while we were sitting there chatting a waitress walked by with a mug of tea, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her deliberately slosh some out of the mug and onto the floor. It struck me as really funny because I could then just imagine her taking it to a customer and it just really made me laugh. It was the fact she did it deliberately, and not by accident that made it even funnier. Mum didn't see, so through the tears and gasps of air between laughing I managed to tell her what I saw. We were also laughing because I had said that she had her hair in 'teddy buns', I think the proper term might be 'double buns', but either way Mum found the words teddy buns hilarious also. So all round it was a rather funny dinning experience.

After our rest stop we then headed over to House of Fraiser in search for some Yankee Candles, but no such luck, so we just enjoyed the Christmas section instead, and Mum found this fabulous black felt reindeer. We were then served by the slowest man ever at the till, whose brain seemed to have disappeared, perhaps he'd been to New Look and the music there had numbed his brain cells.

We then spent a while in Next admiring all the Christmas jim jams, and I also found an orange jumper that helps me channel my inner Cilla Black, and a lovely Christmasy top too.

If you either haven't seen the John Lewis Christmas advert, or haven't heard of Monty the Penguin then WHERE have you been, but I for one love the advert and Monty. So seeing loads of London shoppers with John Lewis Monty carrier bags made me feel like I 'needed' one, so we headed into John Lewis. They had a whole section dedicated to Monty and Mabel, which I found amazing and of course while I was there I had to take a picture with Monty...

Mum very kindly treated me to a Monty pillow, which has taken pride of place on my bed, and when we paid I made sure we got a Monty carrier bag... How much of a loser am I? But Penguins are just so adorable.

John Lewis' window displays were also adorable, I guess the whole world has just gone Monty mad?

We then headed back to the tube and made our way over to Victoria to get back to the Apollo Victoria, because it was nearly time for Wicked!

After waiting at the bar for a life time we finally managed to get some drinks and I, of course, had to get a program, and a Wicked bag for life, because how couldn't I? I'm practically making my way through all the memorabilia. We then made our way to our seats, which were amazing! We had such a fantastic view! I thought that because we were seat numbers were 30 and 31 we would be much further over and have more of a side view, but we were literally just off the centre of the stalls! So I was very happy.

This was my seventh time seeing Wicked, but as I watch Elphaba (Jennifer DeNoia) fly up during Defying Gravity it still gives me chills and brings me to tears, its just such a powerful and moving song I can't help but cry. I have to say that Jennifer may be my favourite Elphaba that I've seen (along side Rachel Tucker). I loved the fact she kept her American accent, even though everyone had British ones, I felt it really worked for the character and her portrayal of the character was just brilliant and I felt the American accent really worked well with that. Not to mention her voice is absolutely incredible! Savannah Stevenson was also wonderful as Glinda, her version of Popular was just hilarious, she gave the right amount of ditsy blonde, with heartfelt moments too.

After the performance had finished, and we were about to head off  I noticed the stage door and  gave Mum a look as if to say 'I really want to wait'. I've waited stage door with Mum a few times now, one time to meet Danielle Hope and another time to meet Idina Menzel, and just like Idina, Jennifer is American, so my reasoning to Mum was that because she's American this is a once in a life time opportunity. So we waited. Mum also made mercy dash over to the shops in search for a sharpie as we both realised neither of us had a particularly decent pen. But we needn't  had worried because when the two leading ladies themselves came out they were both equipped with sharipes.

Me and Jennifer DeNoia- (Elphaba) 

Me and Savannah Stevenson- (Glinda)

They were both so lovely, and it was great to meet them both and to have pictures with them. 

After our encounter with the stars we then headed back to Liverpool Street to get a train home. I was absolutely knackered and was dying to have a little snooze, but the train carriage was quite full and it made me feel un-easy closing my eyes and not watching our bags. So I came up with a solution... 

I thought I would literally cradle all the bags until me got off the train, good idea huh? 

We then got home and went to bed. I had such a brilliant day and I'd like to thank my Mum for making it so funny and special. 

Love you Mum! 

Hannah