The Grove hotel is a luxury hotel based on the outskirts of London, very close to where we live. We usually love staying there as a mini break because of its fantastic service, lovely grounds and yummy food options, as well as it being very convenient for us to get to.

Knowing that it was likely that it wouldn’t be open for too long as we approached the winter months and likely more lockdowns, I decided to quickly capitalise on it reopening after lockdown and book a nights stay so that we could have some relaxing time ‘away’ (even if away meant a 20 minute drive from our house )

This post is a review of our stay, including a look inside the Presidential Suite, the afternoon tea and the Grove grounds!

A quick note on COVID precautions. Upon booking, they told us that they were requiring all guests to wear masks indoors when they were walking through the hotel, but that you could remove your mask when you were seated. Additionally, the hotel was complying with the 10pm curfew rule, so from 10pm, all hotel guests had to be in their rooms. They had also reconfigured areas like the bar and restaurants to ensure that people could seated at safe distances.

The Presidential Suite

To make our stay feel extra-special, we booked the Presidential Suite, which is located inside the Grove’s 18th Century mansion house. The suite contains one bedroom, as well as a spacious lounge and gorgeous marble bathroom. It also has stunning views out across the beautifully manicured Grove grounds.

Upon arrival into the suite, we were greeted with a bottle of champagne, a beautiful fruit tray and a welcome note from the Grove staff. Little touches like that always make you feel very welcome

Here are some pictures from inside the suite:

The Bedroom

I love the colour palette in the bedroom – warm, cosy and feminine. There were also a couple of extra touches that I loved – one was that the bed has a TV that emerges from the end of it, so you can lie back and watch TV cocooned in this amazing 4 poster bed! The second touch was the amount of mirror options in the room! You can see that there is a gigantic full length mirror (perfect for selfies!), as well as mirrored cabinetry and a mirror over the dressing table. For somebody that likes to take her time getting ready, this setup was a dream!

The Lounge

I think the lounge was my favourite part of the suite. Again, cosy, warm and inviting – it wants you to spend time there and relax.

There is a very deep, comfy sofa to sit on, as well as a few other seating options including a writing desk, a small dining table and a couple of other armchairs. Other features include a working fireplace, a TV, and a little ‘library’ featuring a selection of books.

There is also (not pictured) a mini bar area including all the usual things like kettle, cups and saucers, glasses etc. Usually outside of COVID, the fully complimentary minibar would be stocked with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages as well as nibbly food options. However, a note of caution that the hotel advised us that due to COVID, they were not stocking the minibars right now. They did however, give us the option to call room service and order some nibbles and alcohol free of charge direct to the room.

The Bathroom

Now this is a bathroom!

Again, the amount of mirror options is perfect for somebody like me! An entire wall of the bathroom is covered in mirror squares!

But enough about mirrors, the real centrepiece of this bathroom is the ENORMOUS marble bathtub, with its fully transparent front! It’s definitely a novelty to have a bath in a partly transparent tub, let alone one as large as this. Despite its size, the tub takes a surprisingly short time to fill. Another small touch is the candles and ESPA bath goodies that are left by the bath for you to enjoy – which all smelled delicious and made for a very nice, foamy bath!

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea at the Grove is something we had never done before, and to be completely honest with you, was not even in our plans for the stay. However, when we got there, we were so hungry that an afternoon tea had never sounded more appealing. And if you know me, you’ll know I’m a sucker for an afternoon tea, so I really couldn’t pass up the opportunity!

Before we get on to the food itself, I want to take a moment to show you the lounge where we ate. There are actually multiple rooms where you can eat your afternoon tea, all decorated differently, but I’m really glad we got this one, because its just a VIBE.

Let’s just say I’m obsessed with the wallpaper and matching curtains!

The eagle-eyed among you will also spot that the last pic is of a different room, so you can see how the interior design varies from room to room. The last room also had a real-life harpist serenading everyone as they ate, which was an excellent extra touch.

Okayyyy harpists are cool but we all want to see the food right? Here goes:

Although its an afternoon TEA, I actually didn’t take any pictures of the tea, but you’ll have to take my word for it that there was a great tea selection and I enjoyed mine very much!

For me its all about the food, so I have lots of pics of that! Above you’ll see both the savoury and sweet courses. The savoury sandwich selection was TOP TIER! Genuinely. I loved every single sandwich! On offer was:

• Salmon – Smoked salmon on brioche, mascarpone cream
• Chicken – Chicken with truffle and tarragon crème fraiche on white bread
• Ham– Ham with grain mustard butter on wholemeal bread
• Egg – Egg mayonnaise with land cress on wholemeal bread
• Cheese – Classic cucumber and cream cheese with dill on white bread

The bread was cut generously and the fillings didn’t skimp either. I had seconds of the chicken and of the egg

For the sweet course, the pastries on offer were:

• Almond and cherry tart
• Passion fruit meringue chou
• Grue de cacoa chocolate brownie
• Caramel and apple petit gateaux
• Chocolate and cherry slice
• Earl grey and lemon loaf

My two absolute favourites which I captured with their own up-close pics were the passion fruit meringue chou and the caramel and apple petit gateaux. Both were so yummy.

Finally, if you can believe I still had room for it, there were scones with a great selection of different flavoured jams and of course cream. The scones came plain or with raisins and you could of course request your preference if you wanted. I think I was basically in a food coma by this point so I didn’t take any pictures of the scones

Overall, I really really rate this afternoon tea, because literally everything was yummy as well as being beautifully presented. The service was very attentive and prompt as well.

The Grove Grounds

The Grove is set on a mammoth 300 acres and so has a lot for you to explore outside. There are a lot of woodland trails to walk on, a golf course, a formal garden area and a walled garden with a pool (best enjoyed in summer!)

Outside of these specific areas, it is just a joy to walk around the immediate grounds around the rooms and restaurants. We went for a little meander to walk off some of our afternoon tea, and walked through some beautifully looked after garden areas:

The main event, however, was to go and do an activity on the grounds – something that neither of us had ever done before: Laser Clay Pigeon Shooting! This is like clay pigeon shooting, except there are no actual rounds involved, its all done by lasers. Its actually really clever in that its able to immediately detect and tell you if you’ve hit the target with your laser.

Each 45 minute session includes:

• An intro and safety briefing
• A quick training session with a dedicated instructor, so you know how to operate the gun and how the games work. I went in feeling like I would just be the worst and not understand anything, and our instructor was very patient, clear and really helped us have fun!
• A series of fun competitive games – perfect for us as we love being in competition!

Don’t be fooled though – the gun is still fairly weighty, and after 45 minutes you will feel like you’ve done an intensive arm workout! In the third picture, you can see how scores are kept through a board that immediately updates with real time info on if you’ve hit the target, who hit it quicker, and what the overall scores are.

I really enjoyed this activity and would 100% go back and do it again. It was a lot of fun with just the two of us but you could also play with up to 4 others, so great for a group activity as well that is safe and very socially distanced!!

Other stuff

There’s a few other bits that I didn’t take pictures of but that are worth a quick mention.

Restaurants!

There are two main restaurants to recommend at the Grove. The Stables is more low-key, informal dining – perfect for a hearty brekkie, or a gastropub style evening meal. Its also great for a lunch stop-in! The Glasshouse and its accompanying bar is more formal dining. Usually it operates a delicious buffet with lots of varied stations, but due to COVID is currently on table service.

We ate in the Glasshouse this time round and even though it was slightly different to usual, enjoyed the meal (albeit not as much as usual as I do normally like going round all of the varied buffet stations!)

Spa

One better for non-COVID times, but I do want to give an honourable shout out to the spa at The Grove. I’ve visited a few times and always had a very relaxing, pampering experience. They have a range of treatments, as well as a lovely pool to enjoy.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Grove, even though it was slightly different to usual, and look forward to going back again in better times! Any questions, please comment below!

Here’s a quick rundown of the big and small changes I’ve made to make my WFH life more comfortable:

Painting the Wall

I recently wrote about how I did this in detail, but I wanted to repeat it again because this has made such a difference. Going from a blank white wall to this explosion of colour lifts my spirits every time I come into the room.

Stand up!

I invested in two stands for my desk, as I have both a laptop and a monitor on a pretty small desk area and I wanted to maximise space!

The Rain Design mStand360 Laptop stand has been a lifesaver. Its much more comfortable to type on for my arms when the laptop is raised, and also elevates the screen to more of my natural eye height – ergonomic wins all round!

The other cool thing about this particular laptop stand is that it swivels, which helps more than you might think it would. I’m finding that my position naturally shifts at my desk during the day, depending on what area of the desk I’m primarily focusing on. The fact that my laptop can easily swivel with me is an added bonus.

The Homfa Monitor Stand was the piece that I was most looking forward to arriving.

I don’t know about you, but I like to keep a ton of little things on my desk – pre the Monitor Stand, these little bits and bobs would just be cluttering up the desk itself with no set ‘homes’ and I’d constantly be having to move them out of the way.

But this Monitor Stand solves this ingeniously because its not just a monitor stand! It has two other inbuilt layers for storage, which I now use to store all of the things that I need at hands reach.

It also puts the monitor at a much better height for using it, which again, means I’m getting those ergonomic wins.

Rejuvenation Station

Part of the aforementioned ‘little things’ that now have a permanent home on my desk include what I call my rejuvenation toolkit. Things that help keep me hydrated and rejuvenated throughout the day. There are 5 main things I use on a daily basis:

Hard-Working Hand Protector, Body Shop – great for hydrating your hands, particularly if like me, your hands are even dryer than usual thanks to the constant hand-washing! I tend to use a little blob of it at the start of my day and another little blob mid-afternoon.

Hand Cleansing gel, Soap + Glory – this anti-bacterial gel is helping keep my newly found germphobia at bay. I take a little spritz after I handle ‘outside’ things like packages, which makes my paranoia feel a bit better

Lip balm, KNDR – I recently wrote about this as it came as part of my April Birchbox! I’ve co-opted it as my ‘desk lip balm’ and I use it multiple times a day to keep my lips feeling soft and fresh!

Rose Facial Spray, Grace + Stella – Another Birchbox item, this spray came in last month’s Birchbox and became a firm favourite quickly. I use this whenever I feel like I need a bit of calm back (normally at the end of a particularly stressful meeting!)

Neom Calm & Relax candle – Also on my desk, is this most divinely-scented Neom candle. To be honest, I don’t even light it very often, but what I do like to do is pick it up and smell it throughout my day, as I genuinely find the scent to be super restorative and calming.

Hey, Portal!

The final adjustment I have made to my WFH setup is to set up a Facebook Portal on my desk to enable me to easily have video calls during my work day.

Not only does this free up processing power from my laptop (an important consideration when you’re essentially running video calls all day), but it also frees up my screen real estate from having to position my call and other tabs + windows. This makes running my work days 10x easier.

Lastly, the Notes feature is great! You can write yourself little notes that ‘pin’ to the Portal display. I only have one right now (see above) but its an important message to see throughout my day!

That just about covers the most important things on my desk setup! I’m sure I’ll continue to iterate on it in my everlasting quest to make it as comfy as possible.

Questions? Comments? Please leave your thoughts on this post!

Now that I’ve been at home for over a month, I’ve realised I’ve organically started to incorporate a bunch of new things into my ‘routine’, that have actually all been helping to maintain and stabilise my mental health.

Here’s a rundown of five things that have been working for me so far in this pandemic:

1. Spa Sundays

For the last three weeks, I’ve designated a few hours on a Sunday as Spa Sunday – this is ‘me-time’ each week that I should not be disturbed, and is time for me to indulge in self-care.

How does it work? Well, I have a drawer full of items from Birchboxes and beauty calendars of the past, so on a Sunday when I wake up, I go and visit my drawer and choose 3-4 items that will be utilised in my ‘spa’ that week, things like face masks, moisturising creams and nail polish.

I also make sure to make the environment feels a bit more zen. I use my bedroom, so before Spa Sundays begin, I clean and tidy the space, close the curtains and bust out some candles + low lighting, so that it feels more special and like a spa!

2. Perfume & ‘fits

I know, this is advice that is seemingly written in every single working from home guide, but getting fully dressed rather than sitting at home in your pyjamas all day does give you a positivity bump.

I’m fully in agreement with this advice – I’ve been attempting to get properly dressed when I’m at “work” (aka in my office room) and then marking the end of the day by changing into more comfy clothes.

I have three other things here that I’ve been experimenting with, that may be interesting to try for yourself:

Take this opportunity to play with your ‘office’ wardrobe

I don’t know about you, but I have a bunch of clothes that I would never wear to the office but that I would wear at home. Think unpractical footwear, more ‘out-there’ sartorial choices, or even just clothes that usually sit at the back of the cupboard that aren’t in regular rotation. I’ve been utilising this work from home time to dig a bit deeper into my wardrobe!

Experiment with your make-up lewks

In a similar vein, this has been a great opportunity to play around more with my make-up! Seeing as I now have more time to get ready in the morning (now that my commute is literally walking into the next room), I’ve been playing around with applying make-up looks for work. Outside of ‘working from home’, I’ve started to apply a full face of makeup at least once on a weekend, playing outside of my usual makeup choices, both to practise my skills and to at least have one day where I feel “dressed up”, even if I have nowhere to go

Don’t neglect fragrance!

Perfume is the perfect accessory to any outfit, and just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t indulge. I love getting a waft of my favourite fragrance at my home office, or as I sit on the sofa watching Tiger King on Netflix. I have 3 or 4 perfumes that I like to wear on rotation and I make sure to spritz some on each morning!

3. Light candles

I’m a sucker for candles at the best of times but this pandemic has got me going candle crazy! I think its because they a) smell good and b) create this sense of cosiness and calm that is really helpful when you’re stuck in doors.

My favourite places to light candles recently have been at my office desk – providing me with a bit of much-needed zen as I battle through my fifth VC call of the day – and also in the living area when relaxing in the evening.

For the living space, we bought an amazing Neom Candle on sale a couple of weeks ago and it smells SO GOOD. Every time I come into the living room now I’m hit by this amazing scent and it really sets my mood right.

PS. Here’s my tip for easy lighting of candles: this gadget has revolutionised my life!

4. Cleaning and organising

I’ve realised more and more of us are doing this, and I don’t just think it’s because its a time filler. I actually think the act of exerting control over my environment in these uncertain times really helps with mental health.

But regardless of the unconscious motivations behind things, organising and cleaning my flat has become one of the biggest activities I’m doing in lockdown. Since the pandemic started, a non-exhaustive list of cleaning activities I’ve done include:

• Clean out 4 years of crap from my shed (even bravely dodging spiders to get this done!)
• Wash out and tidy the inside of my fridge
• Clean the insides and outsides of all my windows
• Organised numerous shelves

If you want to get started but don’t know where to begin, I recommend starting small and scoped. Focus on a shelf, or a drawer, and empty it all out so you can clean the actual surface. Then, go through all the items and figure out if you still want to keep them or not. Feel free to be ruthless (trust me it feels amazing to decide not to keep things!). Once you’ve done one shelf/drawer, congratulations! You’ve made something better than it was before!

If that feels good, maybe consider doing more! If you hate it and don’t get a buzz, don’t force it – there’s no golden rule that we all have to exit the pandemic in a cleanly and organised fashion!

5. Playing games

Gaming is the perfect lockdown activity – enjoyable and makes the time zip by! Three games that are fully giving me life right now:

• Rollercoaster Tycoon on Mac – What better way than to forget the cares of the real world by immersing myself in a virtual world where the biggest issue is that my rollercoaster has broken down or that we’ve not got enough toilets. I used to play this game bare when I was younger and I’ve recently picked it back up to relax!
• Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch – I’m obsessed with this game. Think old-school Tetris with a new twist – you’re competing to knock out 98 other players by piling bricks onto their screens every time you get rid of lines from your own screen. Super addictive!
• Mario Kart on Nintendo Switch – Mario Kart is probably my favourite game to play, and this version is a lot of fun! I like to play online with other players, but you can also open up rooms to friends only and play with peeps you know.

If you don’t have a console, I recommend looking at the charts for the App Store on your phone and seeing what games other people are enjoying! I’ve found some good ones that way!

So yes! These are five things that I’ve found to be useful in pandemic times. I’d love to hear what you’re finding to be helpful for you! Leave a comment below!

To those people, I say amazing! And thank you! (And a special, serious and heartfelt thank you to all of the frontline workers who are out there making sure that the world continues and that the most vulnerable of society get what they need – you are all incredible heroes ) 

But me? I’m dealing with the this situation with three basic activities:

1. Cleaning my house more than I have ever cleaned it before. I voluntarily + proactively cleaned out my fucking shed – an activity that I’ve been putting off for approximately 2 years and you probably couldn’t have paid me to do previously.
2. Indulging in self care. For me, I define self care as putting on as many facemarks as my supply allows, eating lots of biscuits, and watching old KUWTK reruns.
3. DRINKING (responsibly!). The reason we are all here today reading this blog post.

Yep, there’s not much going on right now, so in my opinion, this is the perfect time to level-up your drinking (responsibly) game! Here’s my guide of how to do it:

Step 1: Get basic alcohol supplies

As every single one of my colleagues knows, I have a shit ton of alcohol at home. Why do they know this? Turns out placing my drinks cabinet smack bang opposite the desk in my spare room that is doubling as my workstation now was perhaps not the smartest approach.

Every single VC now goes something like this:

Them: Hey Yael, hows it… WHAT THE FUCK. HOW MUCH ALCOHOL DO YOU HAVE!

Me: Oh yep, that’s my alc...

Them: CAN I COME OVER TO PARTY!! HAHA JUST JOKING!

Me: Ha, well after the…

Them: SERIOUSLY! THATS A LOT OF ALCOHOL!!!

Me: So, in this meeting I thought we could…

Them: IS THAT CHAMPAGNE!!!!!!!

So, yep. I don’t need any more alcohol supplies. But maybe you do! Get into the alcohol section on your favourite supermarket online shopping portal and place a bunch of your faves in your basket. Alternatively, there are many independent alcohol sellers online that could sure use your business at this time. Google around, but my favourite is Master of Malt.

Step 2: Get yourself a drinks cabinet

This step is optional, but hey, if you’ve got both the means and the space, and if you enjoy a drink at home, I couldn’t recommend buying yourself a drinks cabinet enough.

This cabinet is actually from M&S and was a complete impulse purchase. Like all good impulse purchases, we didn’t really think about where it would go, which is why it lives in a sad corner of our spare room right now.

In the event we make it out of the pandemic and we’re able to buy a bigger house, I’ve always imagined this drinks cabinet would have a great spot in the living room where I could just glide and fix myself a nice glass of something before settling in for the evening. 

Step 3: Amp up your alcohol collection by eleven

If you’re serious about your drinks collection, especially if you’ve now got a badass drinks cabinet, you need to make sure you’re seriously stocked. Here’s what you need to think about:

Your favourite go-to drinks! Make sure to stock your cabinet with what you need to make your absolute favourite go-to drinks. For me this is the Ron Zacapa Ambar 12 – what I’d usually have on a regular evening in. This rum’s been aged 12 years, comes from Guatemalan sugar cane, and tastes of butterscotch, vanilla, cinnamon and orange. I drink it with a mixer, rather than on its own.

Spread your bets. Aside from your absolute faves, think about different types of alcohol and make sure your cabinet offers a spread, for when you have guests round or for when you might want something a bit different. Try and have bottles of the basic spirits: brandy, gin, rum, tequila, vodka and whiskey, as well as a selection of alcoholic mixers and liqueurs like vermouth, cognac, coffee/orange liqueur or amaretto.

Specialist bottles for when the occasion strikes. It always pays to have some more ‘random’ bottles in, to help save the day when you have guests round who have specific tastes, or for when you’d like to try a new recipe that calls for something a bit different to your usual. Things you might want to try here are Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur), Midori (melon liqueur), Chambord (Raspberry Liqueur) and the Cremes – de Cacao for Chocolate, or de Menthe for Mint.

Some glam glasses. There are many different types of glasses for every type of drink, and so buying glassware can easily become a hobby in and of itself! I enjoy splurging on buying small sets of glassware when I come across special ones. On my wishlist right now are some Tom Dixon champagne glasses and martini glasses

A miniatures collection! We visit the same amazing hotel every year (outside of epidemics!), which happens to include a free minibar that gets restocked every day. So, we always ‘rescue’ a few (okay a bunch) of miniatures every time we go to add to our collection here. They are great for parties, for taking to picnics/outside events, or just if you don’t want to open a whole new bottle of something.

All the fun extras. Don’t just focus on the alcohol itself. If you’re a cocktail person, remember that theres all sorts of other stuff that you’ll likely need. Examples:

• Some kind of cool ice cube mould! e.g. this one
• Bitters
• Fruit juices
• Sugar syrup
• Other mixers like tonic water, colas, etc
• Mint, lime, orange etc for garnishes
• Cocktail making equipment e.g. muddlers, strainers, shakers.

Step 4: Make some alcohol happen!

Now the fun can begin. Get making your favourite drink or drinks! Here are some of my favourite cocktails to try at home:

Honey Bee Mine

• 3 spoons runny honey
• 2 shots light white rum
• 1/8 shot vanilla extract
• 3/4 shot Champagne Brut

Stir honey and rum together until honey is dissolved. Add in the vanilla extract, shake up with ice and strain into a glass. Top up with the champagne

Evita

• 2 shots vodka
• 1/2 shot melon liqueur 
• 1 shot orange juice
• 1/2 shot lime juice

Shake all the ingredients up together and some ice and strain into a glass

Caipirinha

• 2 shots cachaca 
• 1/2 shot sugar syrup
• Fresh lime

Muddle the lime in the base of a glass, then pour the cachaca and sugar syrup into it. Add a ton of ice and then stir!

Kiwi Bellini

• 1 fresh kiwi
• 1 1/2 shots vodka
• 1/4 shot lemon juice
• 1/4 shot sugar syrup
• Top with sparking wine

Cut kiwi in half, scoop out the flesh and muddle into glass. Add vodka, lemon juice and sugar syrup. Strain into glass and top with sparking wine! Garnish with some leftover kiwi!

Watermelon Lychee

• Fresh watermelon and lychees
• Lychee Liqueur 
• Vodka
• Lemonade

Mix lychee liqueur with vodka, and add a splash of lemonade. Cut up watermelon and lychees as you like them and add them to the glass too.

Rum and cherry coke

• Dr Pepper, or Pepsi Max Cherry or your favourite cherry flavoured drink!
• Spiced rum

Mix together, and drink! 

Jerry’s Punch

• Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum
• Lemonade
• Watermelon juice

Combine with measures suited to your taste! Enjoy!