18. Richard’s Cuppa tea celebration for his podcast

Richard, Irene, Jonny, Anastasia, Sunny, Mo and Fred saying 'Hello' from The Shard!

Richard and the podcast team – Irene, Jonny, Anastasia and Jo - won an award at Kingston University. The award was for being ‘innovative’. We were given some money (£500) to celebrate.

We had to spend the money together, we did. You couldn’t spend it separately. So, we decided to go for an afternoon tea.

First of all, we were going to go to The Ritz and then, Anastasia, one of the people who helps with the podcast, saw an ‘Afternoon Tea’ at The Shard being advertised. It was called ‘Peter Pan’s Afternoon Tea’.

It worked out, if we went to The Shard instead of The Ritz, we could afford to bring some more people with us. Richard invited Sunny who works with us, and Mo and Fred. We thought it would be nice to ask them as they were the newest members of the team and it would be a good way to get to know each other, it would.

We all met outside The Shard. We waited for everyone to arrive. We went across the road to the Shard. We all looked very smart, we did. We went into the building. Before we went up, we had to be security checked for any metal.

Outside The Shard

Then we went in the lift to the 33rd floor! It was very nice! We went in and saw everyone eating and the whole view of London! Also, we went down some stairs to get seated at our table. We sat down. We were just talking amongst ourselves. We had a waitress come down with the menus, ordering our nice Peter Pan Afternoon tea food and drinks.

It was very nice - all posh! It all looked very grand, it did. There was a ship (with food in it) that had smoke coming out of it! Sunny took some pictures on his camera. You can see some of the photos below. And Mo ordered a cocktail, he did. It was called The Golden Mile!

Some of the food was served on a ship

The nice Peter Pan Afternoon Tea food

We all had big smiles on our faces, looking over the views of London. It made us feel good. Sunny says ‘Thank you to Richard for inviting us!’ It wasn’t about the money, it was about the experience.

And half way through the tea, Irene gave Richard a parcel to open. Inside the parcel were 20 cups – merchandise - with ‘A cuppa tea with Richard’ on! The cups were for the guests that are interviewed.

The 'Cuppa tea with Richard' podcast team with their new mugs!

We didn’t come out until about 5 o’clock, something like that! Because we were having a chat about things – and just looking at the views. And Tower Bridge opened up when we were there!

We all had a good time together!

Written by Sunny Sokhal and Richard Keagan-Bull Research Assistants at Kingston University