Champagne & Strawbs

~~Backblip~~

Tuesday started off quite mundanely. I queued for road-tax. £110 for 6 months - things are getting out of hand :(

My camera got its first battle-scar - only cosmetic, thankfully! This happened on the drive to Walton Hall in Warwickshire. A bit posh, a bit luxurious, a bit more of a treat than our usual Travel Lodge type experience, it was well worth it. This is where the day changed :)

There was a bottle of champagne waiting for us on arrival (although we didn't open it until much later). The room was large and uncluttered with a great view right up the driveway, with the lake to the left.

Lunch was a little on the pricey side, but very good so worth paying the extra for. However, having done so, we decided not to spend the £40 each on dinner. Instead we went to nearby Stratford which was pretty cool. If we'd planned more in advance, we probably would've gone to the Theatre... The Winter's Tale was on in The Courtyard. I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, but if we hadn't arrived there just as people were being rushed to their seats, we probably would've given it a whirl. We had a good walk around the river-side, and eventually found somewhere to eat. Think it was called the Garrick Inn. The starters were awesome. The mains were nothing special, but there was nothing wrong with them either. Total bill was only £1 more than it would've been to feed one of us at the hotel!

Back at the hotel, I almost killed Mathew with the Champagne cork. He felt there was something missing - no strawberries! So he raided his pick'n'mix for a Strawb, and the scene was complete. We tanned the bottle of champagne in the bath, got dressed and went down to the bar. Now - we rarely drink. We don't drink in the house, we rarely go out pubbing or clubbing, and when we do it seems that one of us somehow stays sober no matter how much we drink, while the other gets wrecked. On Tuesday, we ran up a horrendous bar bill, and both got rather pleasantly merry. Well, we were both quite wrecked, actually.

It was quite probably the best day of the year so far for me (my Birthday in Tenby was pretty awesome, but I think Walton Hall topped it).