Accommodation in Kensington Area - any advice?

[mears]

Going to a conference in June. Any nice (but not too expensive) hotels? Four of us are going the night before, hopefully will be able to get tickets when we are down there for a show.
Any recommendations on both fronts?

[Azure]

If it's not too late, another coffee / lunch suggestion is the Muffin Man, which is just off Ken High St in Wrights Lane (turn left out of the tube, then left passed Cafe Nero and it is down a little on the right hand side). For chain coffee shops Cafe Nero is in a stylish glass building, plus there is the usual Starbucks. For a stylish drink in the evening I used to go (pre-DS) to the 10th floor in the Royal Garden Hotel. There is a bar (next to the restaurant) with wonderful views over Kensington Gardens and across London.

[lou33]

Yes Muffin man is lovely isn't it?

[SueW]

Bother - I missed mears - was going to suggest a mumsnet meet up at the NCT conference That'll teach me to go away overnight and then take 3 hours catching up on email and web reading and have coffee with a friend before checking the most important thread in my life right now!!

[mears]

Hi, I am back. Thoroughly enjoyed the conference. Went and saw Blood Brothers the night before and it was wonderful. Had tea at Cafe Uno before coming home which was lovely. Kensington Thistle was a disappointment but what can you expect for a last minute cheap booking.
I scanned the delegates SueW to see if I could spot anyone with your initials! There were about 4 people with the same initials on the delegates list. It was quite strange knowing you were in the same place as a fellow mumsnetter but not knowing who they were

[SueW]

Mears, I didn't appear on the delegates list! Don't know why.

I wasn't officially attending on Friday but I gatecrashed lunch with some friends and we sat at the tables on the terrace with some other people we knew, having brought our own sarnies from Starbucks. Then we went around the side of the marquee and met up with some more friends by the water.

When everyone else went back to conference we did a little retail therapy and then had some Pimms in Balans. Happy hour disappeared in an alcoholic mist..... before we moved onto Marzano for dinner.

Today the highlight for me was when Tricia Anderson did a very emotive piece on birth. I was supposed to be taking notes for my branch newsletter but I sat transfixed and moved to tears by what she said.

Glad you enjoyed it. I hoped I would recognise you by some sort of mumsnet intuition!

[mears]

By the terrace do you mean the tables at the left hand side of the marquee? Three of us sat inbetween the tables because there was no room.

[SueW]

Yes! LHS as you went out through the door to the marquee.

I think you were sitting about 3 feet away from me if you were on a chair without a table. We were sitting on the shadiest table, four of us eating sarnies and a Jewish antenatal teacher who had brought her on kosher lunch. One of us had a 6mo baby in a pushchair.

[mears]

Imagine that! We were sitting without a table. My back was to the marquee, wearing beige top and pale green trousers. Do you have blonde hair?

[SueW]

No - I am dark!

We'll have to find each other another time Mears. Perhaps at the Baby Show in Glasgow next year (provided bmibaby/easyjet are doing cheap flights).