When I first moved to London, I never knew what exciting things this wonderful city would have in store for me. Little did I know that all my dreams would come true; that I would develop into someone I was proud of being, my blog would grow beyond the ten readers I had when I first started it and my best friends would be made through blogging. Four years later, this city has become my home, my oyster and a place I owe a lot to.
If you follow me on social media and are a regular reader of Fresh And Fearless, you would know Binny, Angie and Emma were all taking me on a surprise night away for my birthday. The whole matter had been kept under the wraps with a box that was chained with a sign saying “Don’t Tell Aftab”. I spent months trying to figure out where we could be going, but none of the girls were willing to leak any of the secrets.
All I knew was that we would be leaving from Paddington station at 11am on Sunday morning. With the majority of the morning free, I decided to ask the girls if they wanted to meet up for breakfast prior to our travels. I’m the sort of person that will go all out if we’re doing something and since I didn’t know much about our trip, I wanted something to look forward to that I did know about.
In true Angie fashion, she wasn’t able to join us because she had to make a trip to the salon to get her hair done in preparation for our trip. However, Binny and Emma were totally up for it. Whilst we were in the process of booking, we added in other special guest who wanted to catch up with us prior to our trip. Christina is someone I have followed closely on social media for the past few months after hearing so much from the girls about her, so it was a pleasure to make new face to face connections with my ‘internet friends’.
I booked us a table of four up at Aqua in the Shard. I mean surely there is no better way to start an exciting two days with a boozy breakfast up in the sky, overlooking my city. Right?
We all arrived in a timely manner, greeting one another before being seated at a window table with a perfect angle to see London from its best side.
Starting off our breakfast with Parisian pastries, sipping on fresh orange juice and strong coffees to jump start our early morning, but having the sun shining in full force with a stunning blue sky definitely helped too.
There was a selection of fresh flaky croissants, pain au chocolat and pain aux raisins. I love nothing more than a naughty pastry with my morning coffee, definitely a guilty pleasure of mine.
It was not long before our caffeine fix kicked in and we were wide awake and ready for our cocktail fix.
Christina and I ordered the Vanilla and Blackberry bellini, which was perfectly sweet and fruity. Emma ordered the Pear and Cinnamon bellini and Binny ordered the Peach and Thyme bellini. We are definitely a quad that loves a good champagne cocktail, even if it was 9:30am.
For the main part of our breakfast, Binny and I ordered the vegetarian full English, which was made up of crispy sautéed potatoes, grilled tomatoes, spinach, flat Portobello mushrooms, white bean home-made baked beans, avocado, along with two poached eggs served on brown toast. It was absolutely divine and extremely filling, setting us up for the day ahead.
Leaving us with a beautiful spread of coffee, juice, cocktails, pastries and mains. This is how Londoners do breakfast – remember, go hard or go home! Overall, a delicious breakfast with the most breathtaking views and the best company – bravo Aqua Shard. I couldn’t think of a better way to start a Sunday. I definitely need to try the weekend brunch next…
Stay tuned to find out where the Angles took me on my birthday surprise trip and see what antics we got up to.
Until next time…
