Bank Holiday fun - Come on up, the food is free!

Another great email from Sr Anastasia:

Feeling a little peckish? How about this for a way to build up a healthy appetite?

First, take the tram up to the start of the trail . . .

Now follow the path . . .

Be sure to hold on to the 'railing' . . .


Keep an eye on the person in front of you . . .


Be very careful when passing someone going in the opposite directions . . .


Now just up a few steps (on the left in the photo) . . .

Gets a little steeper here so put your toes in the holes . . .

A few more steps to go . . .

Finally in sight . . .

Isn't it amazing! 'The Restaurant' This restaurant is in China. If you manage to reach the restaurant, the food is free!

Let me know how the food is . . . I'm not going!

A 'Grand' Day Out . . .

I had a day off yesterday and had A 'Grand' Day Out (with apologies to Nick Park!)

The weather in this part of the world was not fantastic and it was a cold, windy and quite foggy day 'beside the seaside, beside the sea.' Nevertheless we had a great day. We took lunch in a rather 'Grand' hotel on the south coast, well-known for hosting certain conferences.

In the summer, the town is 'buzzing' but on a cold and blustery day like yesterday, only a few brave souls were to be seen 'strolling along the prom, prom, prom'.

How about this for a pudding? Panacotta with basil ice-cream - I know, but it was delicious.


In fact we were the only guests in the dining room for most of the time. Mid-week at the beginning of February is probably not 'high season', I would guess. The elegant bar/lounge area was quite busy with business men and women looking very professional, eyes glued to the screens of their laptops, and fingers flying across keyboards (free wi-fi - yay!). Maybe it was a bloggers conference!

The meal was delicious and the service excellent. Unlike poor Wallace and Grommit we had no need to go anywhere near as far as the moon to find plenty of delicious cheese!


And back home in time for tea as they say in all the best story books. Oh, it's good to live the good life now and again.

Outings and celebrations . . .

It's been a very 'social' weekend. Number one son and I went to the Monteczuma Exhibition at The British Museum on Friday evening. I have to admit almost total ignorance of Monteczuma before the outing. Like many people, I recognised the name (at least I'd heard of 'Montezuma' at any rate!) and knew he was something to do with the Aztecs. We tended to concentrate on European history at school so the name of Cortez was more familiar to me but for some reason I hadn't realised the connection between the two.

After furthering our education, we had time to go and have something to eat before our coach left at 10pm and we found a lovely little Italian restaurant nearby so it was a very successful trip all round.

Yesterday evening we had our annual Teams celebration in a local church hall. Every year around this time we celebrate the founding of Teams of Our Lady in Paris. This year, being 50 years since Teams began in England, was extra special.

Finally, this afternoon was the last Rosary and Benediction for the Holy Souls in our parish which was a beautiful way to complete our busy weekend.

Manchester and back ...

We had a great weekend in Manchester. The journey up was one of the best we've ever had - no traffic problems at all and lovely sunny weather most of the way.

We had a bit of trouble finding St Mary's (the Hidden Gem) for Mass on Saturday evening and missed the opening prayer (I hate being late for Mass!).

Even though we've been there several times now, we don't know the city well enough to find the church easily from wherever we manage to find a space to park. You wouldn't believe how many people we asked and nobody had a clue (and they weren't ALL strangers either - I was thinking, 'look for middle-aged women to ask - they're the most likely to know!').

I used to think Manchester was a stronghold of Catholicism! In the end a young couple (Eastern European judging by their accents) who had seen us approaching several people and getting further and further away from the church incidentally, took pity on us and said if we were going to Mass at the church so were they and so we followed them.

I must say it is very well named - the HIDDEN Gem!

After a lovely Mass we met up with number 2 son and went to the Curry Mile for a fantastic curry and a lovely relaxed evening together chatting and catching up with one another's news.

On Sunday we went for a good long walk at Chorlton Water Park - so many energetic people - I think half of Manchester was out running on Sunday morning. We didn't want to go too far out of town as we were going for lunch in the city centre at Malmaison - another success.

Sad to say farewell but hopefully it won't be too long before it's our son's turn to make the journey home down South for a weekend.

The journey back was a bit busier (everyone returning from visiting their mothers on Mother's Day perhaps?) but we still managed it in about 4 hours driving time which is quite good.

Back to normal today and catching up with washing and ironing etc. It's amazing how being away for just two days can make you so behind with the chores, isn't it?

No 'posh nosh' for this Mum after all ...

Well, that was short lived! I was looking forward to trying out the smart Italian restaurant near us on Mother's Day with the paterfamilias but we've had a change of plans . . .

Number 2 son has now informed us that although he can't come home to the bosom of his family that weekend (sob ...), he would quite like it if we could travel up to Manchester and see him.

Actually this will fit in quite well as it's also his birthday at the end of the month and we wouldn't be able to see him anywhere near the date otherwise so it's all worked out in the end. Shame that number one son won't be able to join us as he'll be away elsewhere that weekend but he'll be enjoying himself on his holiday so not to worry.

Mind, you I'm not letting you-know-who forget about the meal at you-know-where at some other time. Especially with food like this on the menu!

Sunset Boulevard ...

Yes, we did have a really good evening last night. We went to see Sunset Boulevard at The Comedy Theatre in London. It's a fairly small theatre with a very intimate feel about it - lovely. It was an excellent production. What a talented cast! A fairly small group of actors who effortlessly (or so it seemed) switched back and forth between being instrumentalists to singers to dancers and very convincing actors. It was amazing to watch.

We were lucky again to have time for a quick pre-show drink and a light meal. This time we found another lovely, friendly pub, The Imperial, very close to the theatre, which served delicious food, and very efficiently too. It was fairly full with a mixture of people having an after-work drink, tourists and theatre-goers but we managed to find a table straight away (thank goodness as I really don't like standing and drinking in a pub).

A good run home in the coach and safely tucked up in bed by midnight. Perfect!

Byzantium or bust ...

Well, the Byzantium exhibition was really good as expected. Our helpful coach driver had downloaded a podcast of a talk on the exhibition which he played during the trip up to London. A bit long as the expert was still talking when we arrived an hour later! And the fact that it was an audio podcast and the speaker kept referring to images, meant that quite a lot was lost ... but it was a thoughtful idea and and we did gain quite a lot from listening.

I made a mistake afterwards, however. I persuaded our son that we didn't really need a big 'proper lunch' and we could 'manage with a snack, couldn't we ... and enjoy dinner in the evening when we got home?'

That would have been fine, except that we found ourselves with a lot of extra time on our hands and spent most of it just wandering aimlessly, filling in time until the coach was due to pick us up.

With hindsight (a marvellous thing, if only we had it!) it would have been much better to have lingered over a proper meal in the warmth of a restaurant. Never mind, I've learned that lesson and next time, that's definitely what we'll do.

Mind you, we did take advantage of our early arrival in Picadilly to treat ourselves to a drink in the very superior cafe and patisserie, 'Richoux', not far from Fortnum and Mason.

See what I mean? I could quite happily have lingered here for an hour or more!

An evening out ...

We had another great evening out with friends on Friday. We went to a local Indian restaurant with a deservedly good reputation, The Indus. None of us had far to drive and we were even able to walk the house of our friends who lives very near. They kindly invited us to aperitifs there beforehand and coffee and liqueurs afterwards.

All the ingredients for an excellent evening - good food ... good company .... and a few laughs too!

By the way, no sign of the 'credit crunch' in this part of the world - the restaurant was packed and there were people waiting for tables!

Who's for ice cream?

Now, I'm sure you'll agree I just had to take a picture of this delicious-looking (and tasting, by the way) ice cream concoction! This is one of a selection of new treats on offer at our favourite stopping place on our usual little Sunday strolls. Now I expect you can understand how easy it is to persuade other members of the family to accompany me!

How anyone can walk anywhere after demolishing this single-handedly is beyond me but I can assure you for some people this presents absolutely no problem whatsoever.

Bank Holiday Weekend

When we have a Bank Holiday which means of course a 'long weekend' with an extra day to enjoy we usually try to have a meal out at some point during the weekend. To avoid the Bank Holiday crowds on Monday we often go out on Sunday evening.

This is the view from the pub garden of 'The Rubbing House' one of our local pubs on Epsom Downs. Even early on a Sunday evening the pub was doing a roaring trade. Looking at the view, you can see why it is so popular. From inside the restaurant you look out at the racecourse and the Downs from every window.

A farewell meal

On Saturday we went out for a meal with a friend and colleague of A's and her husband before they left the UK to return to their home in Armenia.

We had a very enjoyable evening and I learnt a bit about Armenia. I must admit that it's a place I've heard of but could tell you very little about and I would probably take a minute or two to locate it on a map.

M's husband is a concert pianist and a very striking couple they make as you can see from the photograph. A has been to Yerevan on a business trip and was interested to compare experiences with our Armenian friends.

Plumbers and moles - grumpy and otherwise

We've had plumbers in the house all week installing a new boiler and all that entails. I must say I had no idea what a lot of work that would involve. Two very nice young men have been working flat out every day this week since Monday, arriving at the crack of dawn (well, it feels like that to us as we scramble around in the mornings to be up, dressed and breakfasted before they arrive!)

Today's Thursday and the electrician has been here most of the day connecting everything up and tomorrow (we hope) the new system will be commissioned and we'll be back to normal.

The workmen have been very good but I always heave a sigh of relief when we get the house back to ourselves after any work's been done at home.

One good side effect was that on Monday we decided to go out for supper as the plumber had forgotten to re-connect the gas supply before he went home and so I couldn't use the hob for cooking.

We went to a local pub restaurant called The Grumpy Mole. It is under new management and has been completely refurbished. I had heard very good reports from neighbours and we weren't disappointed. It was lovely; the food delicious and the surroundings and atmosphere delightful. Here's a picture of the outside. Another plus point for us is that it's close enough to walk to which is always an advantage I think.