Ladies Lunch

apologies for the standard of blog posts recently - obviously I have been falling short of the mark!!

It was our second ladies lunch today which is a bit scary because it means that one twelfth of 2017 has passed by already - January always seems a really long month but once done and dusted the year races by.  This month's lunch has fallen on the 1st it being the first Wednesday of the month.  Mum and Dad were not initially coming up to us as Dad had an appointment for a check up at the hospital but he changed his appointment and they came.  John had lunch for him and Dad in hand with a Cypriot take on a Lancashire hot pot whereby he had topped a dish of stifado with some sliced potatoes!!

As always the hotel did us proud.  They make us so welcome and lay out a beautiful table, attention to detail in all things so each month we have a different kind of place setting with some interesting serviette folding.  I think Mum had something which looked like a rabbit sitting on the table!!!

We were a good number, over 20 with some new faces and some returning faces.  Angela from the Ice houses on the other side of the village brought her neighbour for the first time - and when I got chatting to her she told me that her ex boss had recently brought a house and moved to Somerset to a small village called Butleigh, BUTLEIGH!!!!!! that is only the village where I was born when it used to have a small cottage hospital there.  Blimey it is a small old world.

We love the hotel and we are so very glad to have it in the village.  The staff remain pretty constant so we are known to them and they to us.  They treat us like returning friends and that is lovely.  The decor is great and it is always warm and welcoming in the winter with the heating and the log fire.  I particularly like the lighting they have especially the black ensemble which is above one of the tables in the dining room.  I would love to have a selection of lights like this in the kitchen at home.  The lighting in my kitchen is poor - for some reason the lighting in the house is all a bit TocH - it doesn't bother John but some times I yearn for some good bright lighting particularly as my eyesight gets worse.

We had company at the lunch - a beautiful labrador was sat with his nose pressed to the glass looking in on us.  We wondered if he belonged to the other diners in the restaurant but it appeared not.  When we left the new receptionist was taking it out some water and we hoped that this one had not been dumped.  I was pleased to learn that he actually belonged to Svetlana who lives in the house on the Kritou Terra side of the cross roads.  In fact she owns the labrador and an alsation and they often wander up to the village - we also think that the alsation that Sharon and Sean took in for a while belongs to her father in law - at least we will know if we encounter them again in the future.

Once Mum and Dad had returned home and we had got ourselves sorted and settled we started on a new series which I had seen recommended on tinty-web.  This was an American series but starred Hugh Laurie who played a Neuro Psychiatrist.

The first couple of episodes were a bit slow and confusing and then we got hooked and had a bit of a binge-fest watching half of the series and leaving the other half when I couldn't stay awake any longer!!!

John and I had to smile at one another because one of the characters in the programme was ex-military and somewhat OCD with various aspects of his behaviour.

In one episode he tells Hugh Laurie that being on time is late.  That is exactly what John thinks!

If John asks me what time we need to be somewhere and how long it will take us to get there he always adds an extra five minutes even if I have over estimated!  We invariable arrive at places early sometimes so early we have to loiter around outside.  I will never be able to change him and tonight he felt utterly vindicated - I shall have to make him a sign - in fact I may even make one for his big birthday later this year!!!  That would be funny, what would be even funnier would be if Rob gave it to John!!!

John was really chuffed to get a text from Dad on his return home thanking him for lunch - John had scoured the TV box to find something interesting for Dad to watch and had come up with a three part series which fitted the bill.