On our last night in Huby in North Yorkshire we fancied going to the bar for something to eat. The menu in the bar area was exactly the same as that in the restaurant which was next door. Same menu, same prices.
So I decided to have the cheapest thing on the menu which was a Lancashire cheese and onion pie with hand cut chips and mushy peas. I just love mushy peas. This was £15.
The barman said the pie of the day at £17 was beef and ale. I just love beef and ale pie and changed my mind. But this came with chips and vegetables. I asked if I could have mushy peas instead of the vegetables but was told I would have to pay an additional £2 for this.
So I returned to my original order of cheese and onion only to be told by the barman that I could have the beef pie with the mushy peas and so changed my order again.
So when the meal came what did I get? Yes I got chicken pie with chips and mushy peas which I was charged an additional £2 for despite the fact that they simply replaced the vegetables which I was entitled to as I paid the additional amount for peas. I hope you followed that as I'm not sure I did.
Many years ago we had the worst service I have ever seen in an hotel in Newcastle. I think I may have mentioned this before. This was like something out of a comedy show.
We sat at a table with friends and shortly after were invited to help ourselves from the hot buffet. We did so and returned to our table to find that it had been cleared of everything. No knives, no forks, no table cloth. Apparently they thought we had eaten and gone out.
Then the waiter who was a very friendly young chat insisted on calling everyone mate and love. He then got a round of drinks from the bar and dropped the lot.
When it came to the sweet we ordered various things only to be told there was no custard or ice cream. The waiter then admitted that it was his first day in the job and he had received no training which certainly showed.
When on holiday or away we don't usually bother with much television in hotel rooms. There are always places to go and things to do. But on this occasion in Newcastle we really wanted to watch a football match. At that time we were landlord and landlady for young Norwich City Academy players. The Under-18 team had reached the final of the National Youth Cup and were playing Chelsea in a two leg final. This was a really big deal for the team and over 20,000 turned up at Norwich to see the second leg and see Norwich lift the trophy.
This first leg was in London and we were unable to go due to the holiday we were on. Our television just wouldn't work, so we went down to the front desk to report this and point out that there was a sporting event we really wanted to see.
They were very pleasant:
"You need to go and see the head waiter in the restaurant," they said.
"Why" we asked probably with an incredulous look on our faces.
"Oh he's in charge of hotel repairs as well," came the reply.
He couldn't repair it, but we did ask him whether he performed any other functions as well and he sometimes did some of the cooking.
We ended up watching the match in a friends' room. They were very kind because they had/have no interest in football.
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You don't usually associate former Sex Pistol John Lydon with romantic softness. But the former Johnny Rotten has written a song aimed at becoming Ireland's entry in this year's Eurovision Song Contest which is being held in Liverpool in May.
It's a love song to his wife who has dementia. He spoke on television about his love for her and it was a very heartening piece. I haven't heard the song and I understand it didn't make the Irish entry but I'm sure John has achieved what he wanted to do - more awareness for dementia. All power to his elbow.
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A few days ago I posted a photo of a car in Askrigg. There was nothing special about this vehicle. I took the shot to illustrate how a number of vehicles were parked on the entire path and we had to walk in the road to get past. This is becoming a bette noir for me following my little confrontation over the matter back home a couple of weeks ago.
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Thornborough Henges . Went to Ripon and missed them, mainly because we weren't aware of their existence when we were up in Yorkshire
They are 6000 years old and from the Neolithic period, almost as old as the other threequarters. Somewhere to visit next time we are in the area.