How I Spent My Birthday Treat Day In London

On the day this post goes live (14th January) it’s my 29th birthday and part of me can’t quite believe I’ve gotten to the final year of twenties already and the other part of me is freaking out just a tiny bit. This time next year I’ll be knee deep in gin just to stop myself from thinking that I’m in the next decade of my life, even though life will pretty much be the same. I say that but in January 2020 chances are we’ll either be hunting for our forever home or putting down an offer on said home which is pretty major, but I’ve got a year to get to that point. Back to my 29th and Luke organised a little jaunt out in London to celebrate so I thought I’d share what we got up to on the day.

My birthday outfit- Fashion World

Before I delve into the day I wanted to mention the beautiful dress I decided to wear out from Fashion World. It’s actually a Simply Be dipped back wrap dress* in the most beautiful floral green colour which comes to calf-length, it’s totally not the sort of dress I’d usually wear out for a day in London, more a fancy meal or a friends birthday, but I decided why not. It was my birthday weekend after all!

Thankfully a pair of cycling shorts stopped the awful chub rub as we wandered the streets of London and the capped sleeves of the dress meant I didn’t feel too uncomfortable taking my coat off and exposing my bare arms.

Swingers Indoor Mini Golf

Our day started at Swingers indoor golf just off Oxford Street where Luke had bought a package including two free drinks yet. As we were a little early for our 11 am booking we started the day off with a cheeky gin and tonic which went down a treat and then it was time to tee off.

Now I’ve never been particularly good at golf, or pretty much anything that involves co-ordination so I knew I wasn’t going to do too well. Luke, on the other hand, likes to play golf, although doesn’t play all that often so I knew he’d beat me, so my competition was more with myself than him.

Swingers have two different courses which have 9 holes and as we were so early we got to be the very first people on the course meaning there was no one ahead of us on the holes so no standing around. Although because of this it did mean we finished the whole course in about 20 minutes, the good thing about this was because it gave us a chance to sit down with another gin and tonic.

Swingers have some really good group packages which can include food from the vendors there (including my favs Patty and Bun) and additional drinks so I think we’re going to be coming back with some friends.

Brunch at Mables in Covent Garden

We decided to take a leisurely walk towards Covent Garden where we were planning to have lunch and it was an absolutely lovely walk. Despite the fact that I didn’t have tights on my legs were not too chilly! We walked on over to Mabels in Covent Garden which has been on my foodie bucket list for a while as I’d heard really good things about the food.

There were a lot of larger groups in Mabels when we were there including a baby shower happening in a group area at the back of the restaurant, so much so that Luke was the only male customer in the whole place and it was pretty much full. The atmosphere was really nice as they had a musician playing some acoustic music and as soon as he started playing Maroon 5 my day had been made. We were pretty hungry so had starters and mains and it was a really good price, including a soft drink my meal was only £15!

I’ll definitely be coming back here again, and next time I want to have some brunch as the breakfast dishes they were bringing out to people looked tasty.

Victoria & Albert Museum

Next up was a tube ride over to South Kensington to go to a newish exhibition at the Victoria and Albert about Video Games from the mid 00’s to the modern day. I had no idea the exhibition was on so Luke did a good job finding out about this, and despite it being very busy at the start of the exhibition the whole thing was so interesting as it talked overloads of different games.

There were some interactive bits earlier in the exhibition but most of those were left for the final room which had a number of games from the past 15 years or so to play. The whole thing was really interesting just to see how complex the planning and ideology behind video games is, it’s not just someone sat at a computer programming, there’s so much more to it.

Sweet treats at Maitre Choux to end the day

The final stop on our day trip was to a beautiful eclair shop just by South Kensington station which I had been meaning to visit for a long time, Maitre Choux. As you can see from the image above they are absolutely beautiful with so many different flavours, as a creature of habit I opted for Salted Caramel Butter and Luke went for a chocolate one.

We actually made it home with the eclairs uneaten and I indulged in mine later that evening after a beautiful day in London. I am a huge fan of days out in London especially when I get to experience something new like the exhibition and tick off a few places from my bucket list.

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