Let's get Christmasified!

What a week. After all the excitement of the last 6 days, not to mention a 2 day shoot for John Lewis, I feel shattered. But it's so nice to have our news out in the open though and everyone was so lovely on the shoot. No one has ever offered to help lug my bags in and out of the studio before, but this week no one could help enough. I can already see major perks arising from this pregnancy. Our rigger also offered me some baby clothes (as long as its a girl) which was very kind, "they're not shit you know, they are from France!". I'm excited already! The only negative aspect, however, revealed itself during breakfast time. People were watching what I ate "I expect you'll just be having fruit today...?", "No more fry ups for you!" etc etc. The full english supplied by set catering is pretty much my only motivation for turning up to shoots at 7:30am so I 'm going to have to devise a cunning way to get around the Breakfast Spies. Maybe I'll have to get up even earlier, have a sausage and egg sandwich in the taxi on the way, then eat porridge and blueberries in front of everyone when I get to work. I'm sure I'll think of something.

The great thing about everyone knowing about my predicament is that we can finally come out of hibernation so we finally caught up with my friend Foxytrotter yesterday for brunch. How civilised. I'm not sure I've ever had brunch before, I don't usually last that long, however yesterday, I just about made it. He wanted to go to somewhere called 'Acoustic' in Newington Green which I'd never been to before. When I first moved up to London 15 years ago (crumbs), I lived in Stoke Newington and had to get the 73 bus to work in Soho every day. I used to go through Newington Green twice a day and there was never anything there. It was a little piece of no mans land, but now, there is lots to do! There is a nice pub, a few cafes, a few little shops, its very nice actually. In fact I think it would be quite a nice place to live, the only downside being the transport is pretty crap. Anyway, I had a hot chocolate and eggs benedict (with very hard eggs as requested) which was ok but not the best I'd had. The sauce was very runny and overpowering but the hot chocolate was delicious. I don't think I'd go back to that particular place but I will definitely pop back to one of the other eateries, it's only down the road so it would be very rude not to.

http://www.yell.com/reviews/acoustic+cafe-133av7i-r

And this evening we are seeing some other friends which will be really nice, especially since they are coming round to cook for us! How thrilling! I've never had a chef in before. Basically, we had planned to go to their new flat for dinner however they have recently bought 2 new kittens so we had to change the plans slightly. The Wig discovered that there is a very nasty bug one can contract which is particularly harmful to those what are up the duff. Apparently, if you come into contact with a bum belonging to a cat or kitten it can be dangerous to the foetus. Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. I have many bad habits I'm sure, but licking a cats arse ain't one of them. However, I like that The Wig wants to be cautious so the dinner party has relocated from N16 to E8.

This actually suits me pretty well since I am feeling so knackered I'm quite happy to stay in tonight. I had planned to make our christmas cake today but just didn't have the energy. I think this probably  sounds more impressive than it really is. I have never made a christmas cake before but quite fancied the idea, so as a sort of compromise I spent £10 on a Mary Berry cake kit. All the dry ingredients supplied in a bag in the correct measurements I just have to chuck it all together and sling in some eggs. How hard can it be? I'll let you know.

But just because I didn't get round to making the cake doesn't mean we can't get Christmasified! Yesterday, after the runny eggs benny, we bought some more chrimbo foliage, some new candles and a couple of new candle holders. Christmas can never start too early in my eyes. Next weekend, cake and TREE!

Snow house tea light holder, £9.99 form Aria.

Snowflake tealight holder, with moving parts! £7.50 from Oliver Bonas.

White concrete heart candle holder from Design Zoo in Copenhagen, bought on a previous Christmas expedition.

Black concrete heart candle holder and ceramic deer candle holder, also from Design Zoo.

Good old Ikea start light.

Red berry and Eucalyptus foliage. £11 from the florist.

However, as if this wasn't enough to get us in the festive swing, we also booked a little Christmas weekend break to Lille on the Eurostar. We shall be off in a few weeks and I can't wait to get on the rampage around their Christmas Market, its looks great!

http://www.christmasmarkets.com/France/lille-christmas-market.html

We'll be leaving from Kings Cross at around 8am and arriving in Lille at 10:30am, its so close, even closer than Paris I think. We had hoped to go to Strasbourg instead but it was double the price and takes 3 times as long to get there. Forget it. Anyway, I best be off, our personal chef's are about to arrive and I need to perfect the perfect sofa reclining position. xx

"Don't read anything on the internet, people have been having babies for millions of years" Auntie Margaret

Wise words, Auntie M. Although I have to admit, the temptation to swot up on all things pregnified got the better of me last night. I didn't start snooping on the web, but I did walk into Waterstone's and buy a book, which I was too embarrassed to read on the bus home so waited till I got back to Hackney to look at. And then wished I had spent the £12.99 on a nice loose pair of hareem pants instead. The main problem being, I am extremely squeamish so maybe its better not to know about certain areas that may be coming up in the future. I am so squeamish in fact I couldn't actually get past the page about the ginormous expanding nipples. Seriously, I was flabbergasted by what was staring back at me from the pages of my book. I have never in my life seen anything like that, and how the woman in the picture could be grinning so hard, I have no idea. Anyway, I have an ominous feeling that that particular consequence of events could be the least of my worries. The Wig on the other hand loves all the science and biology stuff, so I'm more than happy for him to read the book even if I don't want to. Although, he could just be looking at the nipples ... I don't know...

Anyway, I'm very keen my for my little blog not to become solely about my current situation, however I do want to say a big thank you to anyone reading who sent me a congratulatory text, facebook message or voice message, I really do appreciate it. I also appreciate the offers of advice which I know I will be making full use of as time goes by. I had wondered if I should keep our news under wraps since there is still a very long way to go but it already feels a a bit more real now its out in the open. After 18 positive pregnancy tests (just to be sure) and the ultrasound, I still cant totally believe it. But my sister in law said I should try to enjoy it all and be positive and I don't think I could do that if it was a secret. Also, it will start to get hard to hide my extra pounds soon. My boss said he thinks I'm going to use this as an excuse to eat as much as I can. Too bloody right!

It's a very happy time and I want to make the most of it as long as it lasts. This news is now in my top 3 happiest moments of life so far. Its nestling among the day I got engaged and the day I found my Lyme Regis Fossil. Amazing. xx

The worst kept secret.

You may or may not have noticed that my blogs/ramblings have been rather sparse of late, and last week I tried to explain the reasons for this. I've been busy at work, and busy trying to sort out things with my flat, but I also mentioned that The Wig and I had been working on a small personal project which we were unable, at that time, to reveal. Well, today is the day that I can reveal what we have been secretly, or not so secretly, developing. I say 'or not so secretly' since gradually, over the last few weeks, the secret has come out and spread as far and wide as Australia and Argentina. But please may I officially reveal to you, our secret:

No, we are not making enormous black and white seashells, we have made a 7cm long human baby! Needless to say we are completely over the moon, if not rather shell shocked, but very happy all the same. It's been a very difficult and long 2 months waiting for today when we saw the little critter on the ultrasound. Nature is mind blowing when you think about it really, and now we are home, we want to go and have another look! The actual process of the ultra sound was so quick, it was over before I knew what was happening. Luckily my little brother had given me a de-brief the night before but nevertheless I wasn't prepared for the speed of it all. It's "get in the special room, lie down, top up, jelly slopped on, computer probe thing rubbed over and bingo"! There's a tiny baby on the telly. Amazing. Being an emotional person/wreck I really thought I was going to ball my eyes out when I saw what's living inside of me but I actually had a laughing fit. I've no idea where that came from. I think this baby will be a good influence on me.

I feel like I've been hermitsied since we found out (the day we got back from our road trip) as its very hard to go out socialising when you can't drink or tell anyone why you can't drink. So, its a relief to be able to come clean and explain why I have been so unsociable lately (and why I chose the damn vegetarian menu at Les Trois Garcons last week). Also, I've been feeling like absolute crap if I'm honest and hardly able to get up off the sofa. Things I have suffered with but had no idea I would suffer with are:

-Sore Boobs
-Constipation (sorry)
-Constant wee's required at all times of the day and night
-Fatigue
-Relentless queasiness
-Insomnia
-Sudden teary outbursts, although I am prone to this anyway so this may just be normal.

Thanks no one for warning me. Up until week 7 I had to wear motion sickness bands to try to stop the awful feelings I was having but thankfully I'm feeling much better now.

Another consequence of the situation is that my beautiful wedding which was pretty much all organised for next September 1st is looking suspiciously like its going to have to be postponed. We haven't completely pulled the plug yet, or discussed it with the venue, but with each day that passes its looking more and more likely we wont have much of a choice. Not only was the venue booked, the stationary was designed, guest lists written, old bottles, vases + cake stands were sniffed out from up and down the country and bought. They will now mostly be collecting dust on top of my kitchen cupboards until September 2013.

The dress has also been half paid for but the lovely people at the shop were very understanding when I told them my conundrum. I really don't want to be walking down the aisle with lactating bosoms on my special day, but on a more practical note, I wont actually be able to have any fittings due to my expanding body parts. Apparently a lot of people postpone their weddings due to surprise pregnancies in a recession...

So that, as they say, is that. What an amazing day. I'm off now to get Palmers Tummy Butter rubbed in to me to try and halt the impending stretch marks.

A creepy Santa and Le Trois Garcons

I think winter arrived in the night. Today has been freezing and foggy all day, but despite the treacherous conditions, The Wig and I bravely ventured out. Then swiftly scuttled home as fast as our trotters would allow. 

London Fields

Regents Canal

Posh Buskers

The weekend has been a pretty dull affair, not just because it's cold but also as The Wig is ill, and as everyone knows, a sickly boy is the worst kind of boy around. Our particular situation is not helped by the fact that I am the most unsympathetic person ever invented. Ill people make me very intolerant, I have no idea why, so apologies to The Wig for not being very forthcoming with the Vicks Vapor Rub and Lemsip. But pull yourself together man!

As a treat for the poorly Wig we did have a little burst of Chrimbo yesterday, by snorting a delicious warm  M+S Mince Pie and watching the strangest / creepiest Christmas film I've ever seen. And I've seen A LOT of Christmas films. Its called 'Rare Export: A Christmas Tale' and is a Finnish film about the real Santa Claus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RQlikX4vvw

I certainly wouldn't recommend any small children watching this and I shall most probably have nightmares for the next few weeks, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I'll probably need to watch 'Scrooged', 'Elf' and 'Its a Wonderful Life' back to back to get the image of naked Santa out of my brain. 'Rare Exports' receives 8 pigs heads out of a possible 10 on The March Hare scale.

If the weekend has been uneventful, the week has been equally non-descript. I had 2 shoots this week and we have 3 more jobs confirmed for the next month so its really been all about work. We did at least  manage to squeeze one nice evening out of the week as on Wednesday, we went to dinner at Le Trois Garcons.

http://www.loungelover.co.uk/restaurant/index.html

Unfortunately I couldn't get a photo of the outside of it since it was pitch dark and also, that day the entire building had become encased in scaffolding for a paint job. Typical. But it's basically a fancy restaurant set in an old East End Pub. It's a bit bonkers inside being filled to the rafters with stuffed animals, odd Victorian curios and huge chandeliers but is definitely worth a visit for a special occasion. It's also very dark which is odd considering how many chandeliers they have, but it was sadly not dark enough to hide the Tiger face that was staring down at us from the wall. It wasn't even the whole head, just the face. Poor Tiger.

Not a tiger face

Toilet

Its been open for 10 years and is run by three blokes, hence the name Le Trois Garcons, which sounds far better than The Three Blokes. I'd been once before 7 years ago for my friends birthday but my recollections were slightly hazy. That night we had started off in Lounge Lover, the fancy pants cocktail bar also owned by the restaurant round the corner so we were slightly worse for wear by the time we sat down to eat. It was also in the days of being able to smoke indoors and I recall smoking and drinking non stop but don't remember anything about the food. What a waste! I'm glad those dirty days are over.

Thankfully this visit was much less smoky and drunken. My friend had booked for 6 of us to go and sample the 5 Course Taster Menu, £60 a head, not including drinks or Service Charge. Due to me not being keen on Frois Gras I opted for the vegetarian menu which on reflection was probably a bit of a mistake. I might have been the first person ever to have opted for this menu as the restaurant seemed to spend much more consideration on its meat options. Also, I'm not sure how many people would pay £60 for vegetables. The regular menu included, the afore mentioned Frois Gras served 2 ways and Vension served 2 ways, as well as a course of Halibut. The vegetarian menu consisted of mushrooms and goats cheese for every course. I don't like goats cheese so I sadly had to leave most of my food which caused quite a rumpus with the waiter when he noticed how much risotto I'd left, however the tiny Amuse Bouche at the start and the Chocolate Mousse at the end were delicious. I'm too fat anyway.

Amuse Bouche

Chocolate Pudding

So all in all  a very enjoyable evening was had by all. I think its a great place to go to experience the eclectic decor and also the food obviously, although it certainly isn't a cheap night out. I would rate Le Trois Garcons a high 7 Goats Cheeses out of a possible 10 but would not recommend for veggies. 

"Come on now Jocasta!"

When you love someone you often have to do things you don't really want to do. I'm not really the best person at doing things I don't really want to do, but because I love The Wig I agreed to do something yesterday that I would have paid any amount of money not to do. Yesterday I fought my way through a variety of undersized and oversized dogs, a sea of baby buggies that look like small space stations, what felt like thousands of slow coffee drinking walkers and 2 pretty bad buskers along Broadway Market. Shudder. I stopped enjoying going there long ago when I realised most of the people that bung up the thoroughfare are people that have no concept of any other human beings apart from themselves. Or Insuffrable's as I like to call them.

My favorite little story relating to Broadway Market was told to me by my friend Rob, about our mutual friend Eddy. (Eddy if you read this, I hope I get this right!). Our friend Eddy had lived near the market for a number of years, but as it became more gentrified, and expensive, he began to question if he really still enjoyed living in the area. One day when he was walking along the market he passed a stall selling 'artisan' bread. Two old ladies, hard core local East Enders, stopped by the stall and one of them proclaimed "Bleedin' 'eck! Look at that! Three quid for a loaf of bread!". And almost immediately as he passed these two old dears, a young woman pushed her designer pushchair past him in the other direction, small screaming toddler aboard, squealing "Come on now Jocasta! You know you like Parmesan!". Eddy decided to move out of the area almost immediately.

But like I said, The Wig wanted to go to pick up some food, and who was I to deny him, particularly since at some point down the line I knew I would reap the benefits of this particular shopping trip. There were some good points to the outing, such as the walk through the autumnal leaves in London Fields on the way to the market and then the walk back through the autumnal leaves in London Fields on the way home again.

These flowers cost me £9. I know. A rip off. But after I'd enquired about the price I didn't want the stall holder to think I couldn't afford to pay £9. So I bought them and now they are looking at me from the kitchen work top and quietly mocking me for being an idiot. 

Once we got back home The Wig donned his apron and got cooking. First up, Orange Marmalade.

To make Orange Marmalade: (approx 5 small Kilner jars worth)

Wash 6 large oranges, cut in half and squeeze out the juice. Leave the juice to one side.

Thinly chop the orange peel to the size of shreds you like in your marmalade.

Pour the orange juice into a bowl, add the shredded orange peel and cover with cold water.

Leave to soak for 24 hours (The impatient Wig skipped this part).

Add the water, juice and peel mix to a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours in a covered pan, stirring occasionally.

After 2 hours add 3/4 Kg of granulated sugar and boil for approx 30 mins until setting point is reached.

(Setting point is established by dropping some of the marmalade onto a chilled saucer, waiting a few seconds then pushing with your finger to see if a skin forms. If it does, the marmalade is ready to be decanted into sterilised jars. If setting point is not quite ready, continue to boil and check again after a few minutes).

And that is that! Very easy, very delicious, very cheap and would make great Christmas presents. It will keep for up to 2 years if stored correctly, just don't burn yourself on the boiling liquid. Its like the inside of a volcano and 10 times as sticky.

After the Marmalade, The Wig then proceeded to cook Red Mullet for our tea. Now The Wig definitely likes fish more than me but who am I to turn down a delicious home cooked dinner. All I will say about the Mullet is that it does have rather a lot of long bones inside and was also rather pricey. Ours cost £7.50 per fish from Fin + Flounder.

To make Baked Red Mullet:

Pack the Mullet with lardons and chopped garlic.

Season the fish inside and out then place in a baking tray with vine tomato's, halved shallots and some parsley, bay and sage leaves.

Cook on a medium heat for around 25 minutes.

Voila! Dinner is served (along with some green beans and french fries). Well done Wig.

Road Trip Part Five: The conclusion

Dear Reader,

I apologise profusely for my lack of attention to this blog during the past 2 months. It was never my intention to go awol for so long however there has been A LOT going on since we returned home from our UK Road Trip. And when I say a lot has been going on, sadly none of it has been particularly interesting for me to write about, let alone for you to waste your precious moments reading. I have been working pretty consistently since the summer, and am currently working on my 20th Production since leaving my permanent job last December. This freelance life is certainly suiting me as I've also somehow managed to have about 3 moths worth of time off too!  I'm glad to report it was worth the leap into the big unknown, so let that be a lesson to everyone!  The only downside of being Freelance that I can think of is that I have had to appoint an accountant (not cheap) and keep all my finances in order. Keeping on top of this has taken up more time than I would have liked recently particularly as my mortgage is about to expire. Sometimes being an adult is a total hassle.  This, along with still sorting out the purchase of the Freehold for everyone in our house has left very little time for writing. It's also left me absolutely knackered. I feel like everywhere I look at the moment there is paperwork to deal with and forms to sign. To say its dull is a gross understatement.

On a more exciting note, The Wig and I have something in the pipeline which we have been developing over the last few weeks, a sort of personal project if you will, which I hope to be able to share with you soon. Needless to say this has been yet another distraction but definitely a more interesting distraction than Accounts, Freeholds and Solicitors.

So, now that's out of the way, back to the Road Trip! I fear this final push about our travels will not be as detailed as my previous blogs for two reasons:

1. I have an appalling memory.
2. The Wig lost the notebook with all the notes in. Silly Wig...

Nevertheless, here goes . . .

After leaving the delightful Lyme Regis we headed towards Wedmore. Yet another place I had never been to or even heard of, but our good old friend 'Google Search' came up trumps with this one.

http://www.thegeorgewedmore.co.uk/ 

The George at Wedmore, really didn't look like anything special when we arrived, particularly as the weather had taken a turn for the worse. However, it was only £90 which was great news after the 'Great Rip Off' of Alexanders in Lyme Regis. (I don't think The Wig will ever recover from the dressing gown disappointment). But once inside we knew we had stumbled on a real gem. The rooms were quite higgeldy piggeldy but it was busy, had a great atmosphere and served the best food we had eaten on the trip so far. Wedmore also offered the added bonus that evening, of holding a beer festival in the local village hall. The only drawback was that the stench of hops and hot man farts permeating from the entrance of the hall, so unfortunately even the lure of cheap local moonshine couldn't tempt me to partake. However, Wedmore also offered a lovely local pub, The Swan which was far less painful on the nostrils so we sat there all evening. Lovely. http://www.theswanwedmore.com/

The next morning after a delicious breakfast, we said goodbye to The George and Wedmore but with great memories and a promise to return. This place definitely gets a big March Hare thumb/paw up. Great value, great location, super friendly staff and amazing food. Bravo!

Good bye Wedmore Church and rainbow.

Next stop was the Cathedral City of Wells. Wells has a food Market and a Cathedral which charged for you to take pictures. And thats pretty much Wells in a nutshell! As you can tell, the memory is hazy on this particular part of the trip.

Wells Cathedral, £10 to take a photo inside. 

After Wells, we went to Cheddar Gorge which was a great place to get ticked off the list of places to see in the UK. I'm a bit of a cave geek. I love a good sniff around some stalactites and stalagmites ("tites come down and mites go up"), having seen some amazing caves in Barbados and Mexico, so I was really chuffed that our own caves are just as good. Although the weather was considerably worse.

Visiting the Gorge was not cheap, about £20 to get into all the caves and experience the open top bus through the gorge, but you can spend the whole day there as there is lots to see and do. As well as the caves, shops and bus trip, they also have a lady dressed up as a cavewoman sitting in an animal skin tent telling you all about the caveman days. This was one of my favorite parts of the day actually, apart from her terrible wig. At least I think it was a wig.

http://www.cheddargorge.co.uk/

After we had exhausted the Gorge and stocked up on as much cheese as we could fit in the glove box, we set off towards The Costwolds and The Inn at Fossebridge. 

http://www.cotswolds-country-pub-hotel.co.uk/

From what I gather, Fossebridge is a road and The Inn is a big old house that looks very nice from the outside (ivy clad on the roadside, and a swan pond at the back), but has seen far better days inside. The room we were given looked like it hadn't been decorated since the 80's although it was priced at £150 per night. To say the decor was like Granny's house would be a grave insult certainly to my two Grandmothers (God rest their souls) and more than likely insulting to Grandmothers the world over. If I could describe the cold, yellow walled bathroom in 2 words, it would be 'Asylum Chic'. 

The other problem with our room apart from it's eery Back to The Bad Taste Future effect was that it was above the bar. Which was holding an 18th birthday that night for a load of 18 year old Cotswoldian rugger types. Needless to say the next morning my mood was less than fragrant, if that is such a type of mood. So we did what the British do very badly, and complained, but with startling results. The lady at reception, immediately dropped the price to £80! I'm definitely going to complain more often.

On departing The Inn at Fossebridge we weren't really sure what our plan was other than to not go back to London, but by now it was Sunday and nothing was really open. We first stopped off in Cirencester which is a very pretty chocolate box type of place, with Antique shops (most of which were closed which made my mood worse), coffee shops and a nice big church.

Then we went to Gloucester which probably has the most run down and sketchy town centre I have ever the misfortune to visit. The fact that we nearly had a crash on the way there when a big fat pigeon flew into our windscreen, should have been warning enough to turn back. There are no photo's of Gloucester due to the fact that I couldn't find one redeeming feature.

We then tried to salvage the day by stopping off in Cheltenham, however, this was only marginally more appealing than Gloucester. This was definitely turning into my least favorite day of the trip.

That night we had booked to stay at The Green Dragon Cowley, so when we arrived at the tiny stone building down a secluded country lane, we were incredibly relieved.

http://www.green-dragon-inn.co.uk/

The bedrooms for the Inn were in a newer part of the building at the back as the front part was used as the Inn which was beautiful. Very old, stone clad floor, roaring fires, lovely staff and delicious food. I think one nights stay including a delicious breakfast the next day was £90 and worth every penny. Another recommend from The Wig and The Hare.

We were now in the heart of The Costwolds so spent the day driving around, stopping off at little villages on our way towards Stratford upon Avon.

Bourton on The Water, the Venice of England I think. My Grandparents used to bring my older brother and I here when we were kids. It was here that, as a young Hare, I developed my insatiable appetite for Cream Teas and National Trust Lavender Bags.

Lower Slaughter. Horrid name but apparently the prettiest village in the UK. No one can deny its prettiness however, there is literally nothing to do here apart from look at the cottages and feel slightly annoyed that you don't live here.

Towards the end of the day we finally got to Stratford Upon Avon, home of the Bard and the wooden beam. We again lucked out with our choice of place to stay and had a lovely room at The Church Street Town House.

http://churchstreettownhouse.com/

This was really good value for money at £110 per night to stay right in the heart of Stratford and with some very fancy pants toiletries in the bathroom which we of course took with us when we left. That night we ate out at one of pubs proclaiming to be 'The Oldest Pub in Stratford'. Rather curiously we saw 3 of these on one road alone...

Stratford Upon Avon has loads to see but I think would only interest you if you are interested in History and obviously Shakespeare. You can buy a ticket for around £20 which gets you access into all the Shakespeare related buildings but you do need a car as a couple of them are away from the centre of town. Unfortunately the day we were there it was pissing down so the farm we drove out to was a complete wash out. The highlight for me was going to the little church where Shakespeare is buried, I found this strangely moving (it doesn't take much) and also seeing Tony Robinson who was doing a Time Team special in the garden of one of the houses. The only downside of the visit was when I opened the wrong door at the Town House and fell into the cellar. For some reason The Wig found this EXTREMELY amusing.

By now, we had been on the road for over a week and we were almost ready to go home. We decided though to have one more night away and I think we really did save the best until last by booking a night at The Olde Bell in Hurley.

http://www.theoldebell.co.uk/

There are two parts to this B+B too, the old original part with a few rooms above the pub and dining rooms, and a newer part across the road. When we checked in (about £110 again I think), we were told we had been upgraded to one of the nicer rooms in the original part of the building which turned out to be a real treat. The design of the place was astonishing and not at all what I was expecting from a little B+B/Pub 15 minutes away from Maidenhead. It was very scandinavian looking, with beautiful Ercol chairs, low lighting and more fancy pants toiletries! Our room also had its own balcony over looking the garden. Juicy.

Dinner was delicious that night, Lamb Shanks in lentils, with fresh warm bread and a nice glass of white wine. The only shame with this place was that the wall between the adjoining bedroom to ours was rather thin so we could hear the chap next door who seemed to have had a few too many shandies that evening in the bar. But if our road trip taught me anything its was that you can't have everything, so it wasn't the end of the world. Everything else at the Olde Bell more than made up for this. Particularly breakfast the next day.

So after our last fry up for a very long time, we packed up our bags (and more posh toiletries) and headed back to Hackney. What a great holiday.

Fin.