The Trip To Patisserie Valerie

So I found myself thinking today about the journey I had made over the last few months. In fact, it’ll be coming up to a year shortly since I quit gambling for good and I remember the mess I’d got myself into when I did it. It was 2nd July 2018 and having just been paid, and with another 26 days to go until my next wage, I was left with next to nothing to live on for that month. 

I had already promised my mum that we would go out somewhere and I had suggested a trip to Patisserie Valerie before I had decimated my bank account so I was kind of committed to that. It’s funny how a gambler won’t mind throwing hundreds of pounds away yet recoils at the expense of a nice lunch out somewhere. 

Anyway, I couldn’t let her down and obviously couldn’t tell her the truth as things back then were way too raw. So I had no choice but to go and it would be my treat. My mother is 77 and even contemplating allowing her to pay for me would make me feel even more of a failure for getting myself into this mess. It would feel as though I was taking advantage and for everything my pointless gambling addiction had taken away from me, I was damned if it was going to destroy my self-worth further than it had.

I placed the order for coffee and cake for 2 and felt very uneasy when I presented my bank card to pay. However, when the food came I was determined to enjoy it. Patisserie Valerie is great anyway but there was something about this that made it all the more sweeter. 

Maybe it was the victory of knowing that I would never gamble again or simply doing something nice for mum. Whatever it was, it was great and it was by far the best £12 I’d ever spent as it gave me for the first time in a long, long time the appreciation of money and how lucky I was to still have some.