Satin dresses and promenading through Pall Mall

Published on November 6th, 2025

Dear Princess,

Yesterday I went shopping at Oxford Street with my sister. I purchased a fetching satin dress that was on sale. It was an elegant blue 1920s style cut with ruffles on the bottom hem. Today I wore it to show an out-of-town friend around London. I picked her up from St Pancras station (she called it St Pancreas! What a delight she is!) and we managed to find seats at the ever bustling Kulu Kulu sushi bar for lunch.

Afterwards, in our kitten heels and mink furcoats, we strolled towards St James' park and stopped at a Caffè Concerto chain store for tea and cakes. She and I share a sweet tooth. We each ordered a slice of Selva cake; three tiers of delicate chocolate sponge enveloping alternating layers of crème pâtissière and whipped cream, topped with winter berries. I had a pot of darjeeling to drink, and she a caffè latte.

The cake was truly lovely. I am an ardent fan of cream cakes in particular. This one was almost perfect but for one small detail, embedded in the bottom layer of cream were blueberries, one of which had burst and made the sponge cake below it mushy. However, it was easy to ignore, and I would certainly return for more Selva cake. The darjeeling arrived unbrewed, I think they just put hot water and a teabag into a pot and sent it to my table. Consequently I had one cup of very weak tea and one cup of over steeped tea, so I can't comment on the quality of the leaves. Despite this, it was an overall calm and sophisticated tea hour.

We continued onto the uber river boat on the Thames, towards my friend's hotel. As we walked we gossiped about the handsomely dressed men and women in the city, and how we wished we could live a life as interesting as theirs. The riverboat staff were marvellously friendly, though the windows of the uber boat were blurry and the landmarks one expected to glide past were hard to discern. A terrible shame. Still, it was a wonderful day with great company. I am happy to have lived to enjoy it.

My song recommendation: "Non, je ne regrette rien" by Edith Piaf.

Love, Makona

P.S. I have enclosed a photograph of myself with this letter. I hope you might join me for tea one day.