London Diaries 2014 (Part 2): Charity Shops & Tea Cups

For all of you who are not familiar with this, London has several charity shops that sells second hand and even brand new stuff that owners didn't use even once. You won't miss a shop since every area in London has two or more. Some of the charity shops where we frequent to are Salvation Army, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Princess Alice Hospice Shops, Oxfam to name a few. They are called as such because the proceeds goes to the needy. Each charity shop has its respective recipients depending on their cause. They are legal entities operating in the country. While for us here, we can equate it to the thrift shops or "ukay-ukay" being the seller that benefits. It's not more on the cause anymore… hehehe. 

Being a thrifty-natured one, we always end up entering into these shops because we can buy items priced from £1 or even less and at the same time helped in their cause in our own little way. So imagine my happiness when I bought Aldo wedge shoes about £7, a Zara belt for only £2, a Havaianas slippers for my daughter for the same price as my Zara belt. There's also this one charity shop where I forgot the name, I saw and bought a brand new (tag still attached) Levi's 501 jeans in black (but unfortunately didn't fit me but I gave it to my mother) that cost me only £4. That's less than Php300.00. It's such a steal! But so much of my random steal finds (to which I plan to make a separate post), here's to one of a charity shop find (or was it a car boot sale find?) that is actually given to me by my ever generous and sweet SIL. Since they moved out to UK na and now based in the US, she gave these pretty tea cups with saucers perfect for tea break and matching plate for a dessert to pair with it.

I was actually inspired to write this post because of Ms. Ellen of PseudoShrink. Hers is a brand new elegant royalty tea cup talaga. But in my mind, hindi naman lalayo din kung ano yung meron ako. Hi Ms. Ellen! If you happen to come across this post of mine, here's my share of tea cups din! Toast to our tea cups, hihihi… Parang sorority sisters lang ang peg. "Would you like a cup'a (of) tea?"

It is already a habit for English people to have tea breaks or drink tea. Whittard of Chelsea is a famous brand that sells premium teas and drinks that is renowned worldwide and dates back in 1880's. I had the chance to visit their store and taste their selection of tea and chocolate. I must say that it really satisfied my taste buds more so to my palate. See their various products here.

This one is my pasalubong for my boss. He like it!

This first set of tea cup I got is more on a Chinese-y inspired design because of the blue and white color combination. Owning something like this inspires me to get fit. Why? Because ang sarap uminom ng tea pag ganito ka elegant and kaganda ng craftsmanship ng tasa. Diba? Not to mention tea  has a lot of healthy benefits. Inom lang ng inom.

And when we say royalty and elegance, Europe and the Great Britain automatically pops in our mind. The following two sets of tea cups I own now says more of that. Ala Greta Baretto diba? 

Part of our London trip last October of 2014, we went to museums and visited castles and palaces where the kings and queens have lived. In there, they displayed various kitchen utensils and dinnerwares they used. It is very amazing to see such fine porcelain wares. Talagang royal highness ang dating lang.

These three are sitting prettily on my cupboard and never used any of it. I love staring at them. But just this morning I thought of using the blue one first for my tea breaks here in the office. It's not only inspiring but it teaches (forces) me to drink tea for health reasons. ;-))

How lovely! Common expression of typical English people when they appreciate things. Couple that with a very warm and welcoming smile and politeness that makes me a happy tourist in London.