Cat Cafe and Friendship

Hi everyone!

*life update*
I've been somewhat inconsistent with regards to my blog uploads, sorry about that. I've been home on and off for a while, and when I've been back in Bath it's literally just been for work and checking my pals are good and sending them off home for a while themselves. Summer is here and Twerton is getting lonelier with each and every passing day. I am excited for the summer in spite of this, because a few of my friends are either staying in Bath like me for work or generally wanting to stay as opposed to moving back home, which means I still get to have a good time with them all and enjoy their company! I am also expecting some pals to come up and stay with me soon so happy days! Anyways, I've gone off topic and basically told you my plans for the next few weeks instead of actually starting the post, my bad. It's starts......

NOW!

This is Alisha (I'm gonna be dead as soon as she sees this but ah well) she's most likely thinking about cats here so it's all good and relevant

It was my best friend Alisha's birthday on the 31st May, and I wanted to take her somewhere special because she hasn't had the best year and when I moved away I felt like I was letting her down, so I decided to find out some cool places in London and take her there because London is full of really nice places as any tourist or Brit knows. I was looking at local attractions that she may be interested in and mid-search I decided to procrastinate and watch YouTube and I saw that two of my favourites went to a Cat Cafe in Japan in a recommended video (the favourites in question here are Dan and Phil and I'm not even sorry, Phil gets my love for all the animals and Dan gets the existential crises and general outlook on life - the two together is only something I would enjoy even more than them apart) and I knew I had to try and find somewhere like this for Alisha because she loves cats more than anything and I know exactly how much they mean to her.

Alisha is my chicken chow mein and I loves her to bits and we look very rad here, so much so I have this framed in my room

I did some browsing on the interwebs (I sound like such a pensioner, all this crochet and resenting the youth of today for often no reason at all is really paying off!) and I came across Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium. This emporium was basically a cat sanctuary where one could go and have tea and cakes and a pretty rad time, and based off of the incredible reviews (I spent a whole 45 minutes checking the reviews, I only found one four-star review in this time!) as well as the reasonable pricing I booked for us to go to Birthday High Tea for an hour and a half and be surrounded by beautiful little floofs (floofs is a term I seem to have adopted when talking about cats, dogs, and all things cute and fluffy) and I could not wait!

Nothing matched and yet everything looks as though it goes together perfectly and I love the aesthetic with all my heart (mainly because cats everywhere!)

A beautiful mumma floof

There was a whole bookcase and it baffled me, why would you go there to read a book like um hello, CATS!

I decided to keep it a surprise from Alisha, but I still had to ask her mum Natalie (I never use her proper name, she is, and always will be Mrs. Anscombé to me) to help me and find out when would be best for me to book for us to go due to exams and work and revision and all the other nasty things that come with being a student. She managed to find out and I sneakily confirmed with Alisha (I say sneakily, it was as smooth as sandpaper) and booked the tickets. Keeping it a secret was tricky because she isn't the biggest fan of surprises, but I told her she could guess if she wanted, and on her actual birthday she guessed right and was just as excited as I had initially predicted which really calmed me down because my anxiety was off the scale!

This was directly underneath where we sat, everything was cat themed and I couldn't get enough of it

After weeks of waiting, I was so excited when the day finally came and we set off to London (Shoreditch to be more precise) and we slowly but surely made our our way to Lady Dinah's. Naturally, we stopped off at Costa as we always end up there when we hang out (there or Cafe Nero because coffee be so good there) and we found this adorable cupcake stand which did vegan options which looked just as good as the others and the frosting was to die for! So we ate our cupcakes and slurped our coffee and set off to essentially have more tea and cake but surrounded by cats instead of commuters.

Alisha in her natural habitat complete with mini cupcakes and Costa

Shoreditch has such a nice station, I had to put this in somewhere because when we got off the train there it didn't seem much, but when you get inside it's so lovely, like the whole atmosphere Shoreditch had was so lovely and friendly, we already want to go back! After almost getting lost *disclaimer, I didn't read directions properly from Google maps so I didn't realise we just had to walk down the street until we saw it* and there we were and there it was and oh how nice it looked already!

Shoreditch had this cocktail place we walked past that had a 'Daily Dad joke' and I laughed a bit too much

When we got inside we were told to wash our hands and to leave big things outside and then we were in! As soon as we walked in I knew I'd become best friend ever ever, because there were cats all over the place! Up high, on the floor, sleeping, chilling out in the window, you name it. That was just the top floor, we went downstairs and it's a kitty heaven. Cats just having a good time, incredible food and teas/coffees/beverages and everything was done so the cats were the priority and I liked that idea. There was even a cat wheel designed to keep them fit and also to have a nice play time with!

They had a cat bridge and it was amazing but no cats went up it (to be fair we went at lunch time so there were catching some z's and eating the foodles so yeah, but it was so nicely done)

This was all put together by the staff and I sensed paper maché was used which made me very happy, look at all the cat hidey-holes up there though!

We both loved the wheel, and the cats loved going round it (one cat refused to go round until you called it beautiful and I related to it more than I have ever related to a cat before)

We both had tea in these really cool teapots and teacups and saucers that had completely different patterns (and yet they all went together so well!) and a slice of cake and I felt like I was out for high tea, and then I saw all these little kittens and cats and my heart kept melting it was incredible and I don't know if words do it justice at all so have all these pictures and videos because why talk about it when I can show you all how good it is!

The belated birthday girl quite clearly in her element and loving life in her new favourite cafe with her best friend ever (I'm modest I swear) 

Wookie refused to move the whole time we were there and he's defo my fave cat

She had a 'purrrfect' birthday! (I'll see myself out now)

So many cats man

She was so happy and it made my heart happy because she deserves the world and all the tea and cats the world holds

Cats are so beautiful and this one needed to be reminded all day everyday

This cat looks so done it cracks me up man

All in all it was a great experience and we already want to go back as soon as we can because all the cats were so friendly and you can tell how well looked after and loved they are by everyone, it's such a good idea and helps raise money for the cats as well as keep up a business - cat cafes forever please!

It's been real,
B x