I was super excited to spend my Friday evening in the company of some wonderful ladies at the beautiful Somerset House. The weather had been nice earlier in the day, the marquee was up and the picnic blankets had been spread out; and then in classic British summer fashion the heavens opened and it absolutely poured. After a while the rain let off and we were able to bask in some evening sun sipping Prosecco and eating the very generous amount of food in our hampers.
The event was sponsored by Mercure and the wonderful Erica, Leanne, Jasmin, Angela, Jaclyn and Milly were all there being equally stuffed full. The hampers were filled with treats from Tom’s Kitchen and I literally had food for days. (This is in part because I misread my invitation, didn’t bring a plus one and had a picnic hamper for two by myself. More win me, right? Jasmin had done the exact same thing, so great minds think alike.) My favourite item was the prosciutto on tomato bread, but how could it not be? The passionfruit topped custard goodness with cookie base was absolutely divine, and everyone who follows me on instagram saw that at least one bagel made it till the next morning. The prosecco was absolutely gorgeous – it’s exclusive to Mercure, but worth a visit alone to try it.
We sheltered from the storm in the VIP marquee at the Thames side of Somerset House and though I had my eyes peeled for celebrities, I’m still not quite up to speed with my English TV celebs. Though rumour has it I missed spotting someone from “Gavin and Stacey”. But we did get to have a wine tasting with Susie and Peter (the wine experts on Saturday Kitchen). From them I learned multiple things; first, they are a married couple; second, rosé is paired really well with spicy food; third, the English invented the champagne fermentation process. After that my facts get fuzzy.
We then went round to the other side of Somerset House to watch a wonderful a cappella group perform. (One of the guys had hips that moved like a snake. No joke. He was full to the brim of sass.) I always appreciate some a cappella and recommend “Sing It On” to anyone who’ll listen. We also took many a photo with the gorgeous teacup flower display and even got an instax group shot. Unfortunately, I’m the Cousin It/Samara Morgan of the group, but it happens sometimes.
How many rainy picnics have you been on?
