LADY DINAH'S CAT EMPORIUM

 Welcome to the most important post I have ever written. I knew about Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium before I even went abroad (I came in just after the donation period), and it's been on my list before I even made a list. I remember a few months ago, when it wasn't open yet and the opening date hadn't been announced, I reluctantly resigned myself to having to go home without experiencing it.

And then I was riding the Stansted Expressed to go to Sweden.

I was trying to snooze on the table because it was six in the morning or something ridiculous, and I heard a girl sitting at the table across from mine exclaim "Oh! The cat cafe is open!" and I SHOT RIGHT UP.

I booked my reservations sitting at a Starbucks in the airport, and managed to grab a date when my Mom and sister were visiting London.

Okay backstory over, now onto the important stuff.

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

Abby, Carolyn, and I have worked out our hypothetical life in London. Abby works at the Charles Dickens Museum, I work at Persephone Books, and Carolyn works here, at The Breakfast Club.

PERSEPHONE BOOKS

 

There are a few things that I've just had innate gut feelings about in a really obnoxious wont-stop-talking-about-it way (example), and after stumbling upon their website, Persephone Books was one of them.

I recognized the books immediately from my mother's bookshelf back at home, and once I learned what they were about, I couldn't imagine why I hadn't been obsessed with them before (it's more likely that my mom told me about all this but I did the yeah-uh huh-cool thing and didn't process any of it....xoxo mom). A more detailed look into Persephone Books can be found here, but the gist of it is they take under appreciated women authors from the past and re/publish them so they can get the attention they deserve.

Look below to see what I got! Yaaaaaaay for recklessly spending my stipend.

BRICK LANE

In case it hasn't been made clear to you yet, we went to Brick Lane.

I had done a cursory exploration of Brick Lane in London a few weeks back where I determined that everyone there was cooler than me and quickly scuttled away. But I returned with some henchmen this time, and we hit the vintage stores like any college students who spent all of their per diem on a cocktail that is served in a small replica of a bathtub the night before would: cautiously.  

SCRAPS OF LONDON