Fawlty Towers Reigns

It was our 31st wedding anniversary on the 29th of December, and the lovely man secretly arranged a romantic night away for us - fairly local because of the recent blizzard conditions in most areas of the country. It was in a lovely new hotel which I am not going to mention by name because although some aspects were very "Fawlty Towers" the actual experience was lovely in the end.

We arrived at around 11 am and attempted to drive into the car park, to find that a woman (cliche I know but why is it always a woman?) in a white sports car was leaving through the one way entrance system - required a spot of tricky manoeuvring by all concerned. Once we were in the car park it was evident why said female had difficulties leaving - bit of a maze and lacking in any signage.

We got to reception and were told our room was ready - very impressed since check-in was supposed to be 2 pm. We traipsed up to the room, overheating rapidly as we were still in our coats and wrapped up for the minus 3 temperature outside, to find that the room had not been touched, other than the bed stripped. Receptionist was very apologetic - the computer said "No", so we left our luggage and went out for a glass of champagne and some lunch.

Three hours later, we returned, our room was now ready and our luggage had been delivered there (or so we were told) - in fact the room was exactly as we left it and no luggage in evidence! Reception were now puzzled - how could this have happened? I mentioned Wedding Anniversary twice in the hope of an upgrade (not possible - the lovely man had tried to book a suite but the mid-range we had booked was all that was available). The receptionist solved the problem, we were moved into the room immediately above our alloted one - it was beautiful, huge plate glass window along one wall and the whole of one bathroom wall overlooking the local race course, and a fabulous bouquet of flowers waiting for us! Only snag is that the flowers were for someone named Heatherstone - I phoned reception - honest I know, but our luggage was still missing - they admitted their mistake again and offered a bottle of wine to make up for their shortcomings - we accepted.

Some time later, the flowers disappeared, the luggage appeared and the young male receptionist said unfortunately he had dropped our bottle of red wine and it had broken! Can you see why I am thinking "Fawlty Towers" at this point. We agree to take our wine with dinner in the famous chef's restaurant that evening, although I now really doubt the ability of the kitchen to produce anything edible. An hour or so later, whilst we are having a quick snooze, the hotel manager phones to apologise profusely - she is on her day off but has been told about the disastrous impression we might be gaining of her sparkly new hotel.

In fact the cocktail bar was lovely, the food and service were perfect, the room was really comfortable and we had a fantastic night.

The next morning as we checked out, the same male receptionist was on the desk - the desk was very cleverly designed from glass and marble so that you could see the beautiful limestone floor beneath it - now artfully stained with the contents of a bottle of red wine - flipping heck I think the receptionist had a worse day than ours!

Happy 2011

Yorkshire Fish and Chips - the perfect hangover cure.

At last a quick chance to sit down and type for a moment or two - but not for long because going to a dinner party across the road at 7.30 - benefit I don't need to cook tea, downside - more booze!

I hope you all had a perfect Christmas, ours was wonderful, all the problems that might have occurred because of the very cold and very snowy weather thankfully did not - so the lovely man's parents joined us, I managed with the help of a neighbour's 4x4 to pick up the Christmas ham and pork from Narnia (otherwise known as Glanrafon in Tremeirchion), and we had no power cuts or pipes burst. The week prior to Christmas we did the Santa run to Yorkshire where our families are, and went to a family party too - the party was fantastic (celebrating 7 years since the kidney swap and a big birthday coming up), we got back to our hotel at 3 am and had full English breakfast the next morning followed by Yorkshire Fish & Chips for lunch (absolutely the best hangover cure).

We all had a lovely Christmas day, my lovely man excelled himself again on the gift front, as did my children and family - I can tick off most of the letter to Santa list!

I have lots of New Year's resolutions, main one is not to gain back the kilos lost in the pre-wedding/Christmas blitz! Anyone out there got any inspiring resolutions?

An amazing film

Yesterday I brightened up the ironing by watching BBC i player and found a film called Irina Palm starring Marianne Faithful - it was outstanding and outrageous - quite tender too, not one to watch with your children though. I won't disclose the plot - watch it and let me know what you think.

Girly Gadgets

First of all the Boots Smooth Skin - permanent hair removal system. I bought this about 6 months ago and although it is quite expensive it really does work, and I have not had to pay for waxing since I bought it, so you would have to say that it is cost effective. It is fairly time consuming and you need to do it once a week at a time of year when you do not have a tan and are not exposed to the sun, and for me involves magnifying mirrors and reading glasses and very good light all at the same time, but I now have smooth armpits and legs, the bikini line is a little more stubborn (and painful, but nothing compared to waxing) so all in all definitely worth the effort and expense.

And then the Tresemme volume styler which I managed to buy from Sainsbury's on special offer at £16.95 - the difference between my old hot brush and this ceramic styler is incredible - it smooths my curls and gives volume too, as well as drying very quickly - in fact I think the top setting is probably too hot, but there is a optional cool blast to finish your style.

Rumer, Alison Moyet and Jools

We were in London this weekend, and had the chance to see Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall. His support act was Rumer and she was absolutely fantastic - if I knew how I would upload her singing Slow or Aretha for you - have a look on You Tube.

Jools was brilliant, but the high point of his set was Alison Moyet opening with Love Letters , and then amazingly covering Boom Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker - incredible - again it is on You Tube - have a look x

The NHS on the cheap

Just a quick up-date about my parents and their battle with their Doctor to stay on the medication that was working for them, and not giving them side effects. I did not have to intervene because as I mentioned previously, my Dad had terrible pains in his legs so he had yet another appointment and on this occasion, the Doctor prescribed another tablet, even cheaper and even less effective, requiring more blood tests and several gradual dose increases, and guess what - with the same dreadful leg pains as a side effect. Result - my Dad is now not taking the drug, and is therefore no longer protected against heart disease or a stroke.



Imagine how much all this messing about has cost the NHS in wasted appointment time, my Dad in wasted travel time, and with no benefit in the end (unless you count it a temporary benefit that the NHS is not paying for any tablets now Dad is not taking them - what is the cost to the NHS of heart attacks and strokes compared to the annual cost of this effective class of medicines?)



As you can tell, I am not seeing this as a positive outcome - I have suggested that on their next visit, they say that they have had the information and do not now give informed consent to the switch - let's see what happens next.

The Wedding Happened

Our daughter was bridesmaid at a wonderful wedding in London last weekend, and we were invited - if you have been reading my blog you will know that I have been on a mission to slip into my little black dress -well I did it! 3 weeks of little or no alcohol, lots of exercise and hardly any carbs, and what's more I felt great for it. Unfortunately a weekend that started with champagne on the train on Friday morning and ended with Cosmopolitans with the X Factor results on Sunday evening did a lot to undo my hard work. Still back to it now (once the snow has melted and I can get away from the oven - I have baked spice loaf and mince pies, quiches and made home made soups, there is just something about snow that drives me into Nigella mode).

Anyway, back to the wedding, it had the perfect winter theme, and the weather matched exactly, a brisk bright London day, the event began at 3pm and the aisle was lit by cream candles in storm jars, the pews adorned with red roses, evergreens and berries. The bride's bouquet was of huge red roses interspersed with pearls. the corsages were red roses and berries too. The florist who had driven that day from a snowy North Wales had done an amazing job. The service was perfect, the bride and the bridesmaids were beautiful, the reception at the Berkeley was incredible and the groom's speech was a real tear jerker and nostalgically romantic. All in all an exceptionally special day.