TALES FROM THE CHAIR - NEW YEAR

Your monthly round up of everything I’ve been discussing and discovering straight from the salon chair . . .

December swept me away and I ran out of time to write up ‘Tales’ before the year ended so here’s a New Year edition from the month gone by.

Local:

We finally got around to checking out recent addition to the Richmond restaurant scene, Scotts during the slow days between Christmas and New Year, enjoying a lovely lunch while things still felt fairly festive!

The Yoga Bar in Twickenham are offering a 4-week beginner yoga course to kick start your yoga journey. Every Sunday in March beginning Sun 5th at 10.45am, £50 for the course. Such a great idea if you’re a complete novice wishing to start from scratch!

Have you heard about Hampton Court favourite The Mitre Hotel’s Settle In Sundays - Stay for free?!!

Spend £200 on food, drinks or spa treatments and get a complimentary classic bedroom for the night! (Room upgrades available at an extra cost)

*Image credit: themitrehamptoncourt.com*

Further Afield:

Just before Christmas I headed out of town to Seer Green in Buckinghamshire for lunch at one of my all time favourite country pubs The Jolly Cricketers. Nestled in the ‘cherry pie village’ so named because the area was previously surrounded with cherry orchards back in time and the fruit was grown to be sent to market in Covent Garden. It’s super cosy, the food is exceptional every time (including the roasts mmm) and there’s plenty of gorgeous walks nearby in the surrounding Chiltern hills. Highly recommend!

Beauty Bits:

Still mourning the loss of make-up brand Becca and their cult under eye brightner, I’ve been trying out the Beauty Pie dupe, Superluminous Undereye Genius with approval! Not to be confused with concealer, this product is applied first to brighten and hydrate before further adding concealer if you wish (personally I don’t, so it’s optional depending on how dark your under eye area is) Available in 2 shades light and medium, it’s an instant wake-me-up, visibly reducing the look of tired skin. You can test this out in my edit of faves by booking in for a Complexion Club Enhance Session.

New on my radar up North:

Ophelia Gosforth, from the team behind The Patricia, brings a menu of comfort food and over 100 wines inspired by a love affair with France.

Currently Reading:

Determined to up my reading game in 2023, I’m starting with taking some inspo from What Writers Read - 35 Writers on their favourite book, edited by Pandora Sykes. ‘A love letter to reading - a collection of titles they hold most dear, that they return to time and time again and that helped make them the writers they are’

In My Ears:

I’ve been listening to The Wallet Podcast from Vestpod, the site designed to financially empower women. The podcast offers inspiration to help you take charge of your financial future with episodes covering how to deal with the rising cost of living, how to make the most of what you’ve got and whether you should pay down your mortgage or invest. The blog also has helpful posts about looking ahead to retirement, how to make extra cash without taking a second job and how to de-clutter and sell your unused stuff online.

Over To You:

Have a bag or shoes that have seen better days? Victoria was telling me about The Restory repair service within Selfridges and highly recommends it. From removing tough stains to restoring scuffs and scratches, your treasured items can be restored to their former glory with TLC. She also gave me great foodie pub recommendation for The Baring (N1)

Aisling was telling me about an upcoming stay at Whinyard Rocks vineyard and holiday cottage on the Welsh borders that looks absolutely dreamy! (20% off stays in Jan & Feb using code NEWYEAR20)

Milly recommended Core LDN in Sheen, a new concept bringing together the worlds of physiotherapy, pilates and wellness.

Miriam recommended The reading room at The Wellcome Collection Museum as a fave secret spot filled with books, artworks and objects. I had never even heard of this museum, which aims to challenge how we think and feel about health.

Through exhibitions, collections, live programming, digital, broadcast and publishing, they create opportunities for people to think deeply about the connections between science, medicine, life and art (there are some interesting recorded discussions you can watch back here)

Thanks for reading this month’s Tales , I hope you discovered something new and interesting!

Hx