Dancing and dining....

We had our Christmas party morning at country dancing this morning and had a really super morning of dancing.  It was -4C as we left home, so it was nice to be dancing in a warm and bright hall.

We then headed down to a town centre hotel for a festive meal, pre-booked some time ago.  What a disappointment it was!

The hotel was quite cold, we were told the central heating had broken down, and they had portable heaters in place.  However, one of our number was in the same hotel two weeks ago and the excuse was the same...... are they trying to save money on heating?

Instead of our usual dining room they crushed us into a smaller area, and had put in some cases eleven people around a table, which was far too many.  Our organisers of course arranged for another two tables to be erected and set out, but why should they have had to do it when it was obvious that it was needed!

For my first course I had soup, and it was very nice.  It took more than an hour for the next course to arrive, and there was obviously some kind of problem.  Eventually three of us at our table were told that the salmon we had pre-ordered was not available as they had 'run out'.....would we care for fish 'n chips instead, or something else on the menu.  The three of us decided on the fish 'n chips  and when it came it was obviously frozen battered fish, not good enough.  

The diners who had ordered turkey were disappointed too, no roasties, hard veggies, the turkey quite honestly looked like it was catering pack tinned turkey just sliced up...... no cranberry or bread sauce either, it looked very unappetising to me.

They didn't manage to ruin the puddings although the Christmas pud was not warm enough it seems.

Of course we complained and have been given a substantial refund on our money...... we were also offered a free glass of wine or whatever.......but I would rather have had a nice dinner with no hassle in a pleasant warm atmosphere.

How's that for a rant????