Philip Norton

This years work Decemberween party was held at the Deanwater Hotel near Wilmslow in Cheshire, and it all seemed to go very well.

The party, for reasons unknown, was 70’s fancy dress so I decided to go with the theme I chose the last time I went to a 70’s fancy dress part and go as a punk. Mandy went as a punk as well as the last time she felt a bit stupid going in a cheap nylon dress. However, we were the only punks there! For some reason everyone there was dressed as either a pimp or was otherwise heavily influenced by American culture. Still, everyone looked good and had obviously made an effort.

Here is a little picture of Mandy and I dressed up and ready to go.

Oddly enough I was actually asked by someone if I had come as a goth. What a silly bunt! So I do have a black t-shirt on, but what you can’t see in the pictures is that I have more safety pins in that I care to mention. They go right from my neck to my heel.

So how was the food? Very good, I didn’t have a single complaint with the food or the service. Also, because its a long way from Wilmslow to Congleton we decided to stay the night in the hotel. The rooms were clean and well fitted, although a little on the small side. In the morning I had a lovely fried breakfast, apart from a nasty looking fried tomato, which was served very quickly. In fact the only complaint I have heard is that some of the other people staying over had a different experience with breakfast that morning. After sitting down it was more than an hour before anyone noticed they were there. And when they did manage to get their breakfast it had clearly been sat on a hot plate for the last 20-30 minutes as the bacon was very dry.

So although the rooms were nice, food was okay and the service was good, I don’t think it was worth almost £100 a night!

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So after eating barely a snack at Yo Sushi I took Mandy and Matthew off to get them something to eat. They hadn’t touched much sushi and I didn’t really expect them to.

So off we went to La Tasca as we had been there about a year ago to the day and it was great then. This time the entire experience can be summed up in one word.

TERRIBLE!

The food was just plain crap, the service was like dental surgery and the toilets needed some attention.

I ordered a paella which was was stodgy, tasteless and dry along with some fish balls, which weren’t very nice. They just didn’t taste very nice, but I’m not sure if they were meant to look like little deep fried sponges.

Mandy’s chicken wings were salty or burnt and her "meat on bread" was like a section of tarmac on a lump of wood. Matthew enjoyed his cheese on toast (they got one dish right) but his children’s menu salad was clearly prepared either that morning or the evening before. The carrots where grim and dry, the tomatoes where mushy and the lettuce was like cut grass. Even the starter of garlic bread was nasty and tasted funny.

The last time we were there they gave Matthew a glass of crayons and a piece of paper. He loved that as he could draw on it. This time they gave him a glass of crayons (perhaps the same one…) and a section of laminated paper that was totally filled up with pictures and images. Have you ever tried to draw with a crayon on a plastic surface. I can tell you no that it’s a little difficult.

To top it all off the waitress make us feel like we were making her work there. She would come up to the table, mumble something and then slap/throw a dish of food in front on you. She really has presentation down to a fine art!

The bottom line? I’m not going to try that place again! They have clearly lost the plot!

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We went to the Trafford Center for a little bit of Decemberween shopping on Saturday and I’m always promising myself that I will definitely try the sushi bar/cafe/restaurant. So this time I did.

The sushi bar/cafe/restaurant at the Trafford Center comes in the form of Yo Sushi, which I can only assume is some kind of chain store thingy.

Anyway, I saw that there wasn’t any other people eating so thinking that I was quids in I at down and got a dish from the conveyor. And then got another dish whilst I tried to tell what it was that I had just stuck into my mouth.

It was that that this guy from behind the counter said that they weren’t actually open until 12:00. Looking at my watch I saw that it was 11:45, and looking about revealed that there wasn’t anybody about to actually ask about me sitting there eating something I wasn’t meant to be eating for another 15 minutes. So I sat there feeling extremely out of place before the place opened when we made our excuses and left. I thought that sushi was a self serve kind of meal so I was just getting stuck in.

So why wasn’t there somebody about? It’s not difficult! They didn’t even put up a sign. Anything would have been more helpful than thinking I was there early and realising that I was completely wrong. It wasn’t until 12:00 on the dot that someone turned up and actually served us and then they just treated me like I was a shoplifter or something. Mandy talked to one of her friends who had been there and they said that they had encountered the same problem. I even sent a message to the Yo Sushi people telling them that the service might be improved, but I have had no reply.

Anyway, despite feeling like a fool to start off with the food was very nice. The dish I started off with was crab… something and I also managed to get octopus… something with artichoke… bits. All of which were very nice indeed and I am glad that I had at least something.

The lack of help wasn’t my only problem. The place is a little expensive as I had barely a snack before the bill reached ten pounds. I know that’s not all that much, but I hadn’t even started. I wonder how much the guy across the bar spent as his pile of plates was huge!

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Mandy’s parents are currently staying with us for a few days, so we are taking lots of trips into the countryside to see what we can see. Carys (Mandy’s mum) quite fancied seeing a little town in the Peak District, and on the way there we decided to stop at a little place called Bakewell.

This was all going well until we decided to go to a restaurant/cafe to have a bite to eat as we had been travelling for a couple of hours and Matthew needed his lunch.

After trying a couple of places we finally managed to get into a little place called The Bakewell Pudding Cafe. This is not to be confused with The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop, which although is in the same town, must have been better than this dive.

After sitting down to a table strewn with mouldy advertisements for coffee and a few brochures that had been sat there so long that they had welded themselves into the table top. It wasn´t particularly busy in there but it took us 10 minutes to get seen by anyone and given a menu. After about 20 minutes they finally decided that we might be ready to order and came over. The girl who took our order got it wrong on paper three times before she finally got it right and went away. After another 20 minutes had passed they finally told us that the soup we had ordered was not available, so we chose something else from the menu. Our order consisted of two bacon baps, two sausage baps and a cheeseburger. This is how they appeared on the menu, and how they where described when ordered. I understand that a "bap" is a bread roll, and so that is what we were expecting.

Indecently, the two girls who were waitressing there looked and acted like they resented us for being there, keeping them away from the rest of their life. All we got was snotty little sneers and nasty scowls, and answers of "wha…?" to my polite questioning.

When the baps finally came it became apparent that they had no concept of what a bap was. Everything we had ordered came crammed between two slices of the cheapest bread I have ever seen, even the burger, when it appeared 20 minutes after everything else. Plus, when the food arrived we still hadn´t been given any cutlery, so I had to go and ask.

So after we had eaten we had to go and pay the bill at a counter. I only took £10 with me as I couldn´t think of it being any more than that. The bill came to over £21! All we had was 3 cups of tea, 2 bacon sandwiches, 2 sausage sandwiches, a beef burger and cheese in two slices of bead and a cup of milk. The meal consisted of everything I have described here, there was no salads, or any extras at all. It took us over an hour and a half to get through that lunch, after which we had to leave Bakewell completely as the car part ticket was about to run out.

Suffice to say that I will never waste my money on that crappy little cafe ever again, and I suggest you don´t go there either.

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We went to the Trafford centre today, for a quick bit of shopping before Decemberween, so we stayed for about 5 hours.

Anyway, for lunch we went to a restaurant in the New Orleans section called La Tasca, a tapas bar.

Having had tapas before we were well versed in what to do so we ordered two dishes each and some bread, thinking that Matthew would at least eat the bread.

The food was brilliant, apart from the bread, and was quickly devoured by all at the table. The most surprising was Matthew, who had something of everything, even the calamari and fish that I had ordered. I can recommend the sea food medley and the chicken wings.

The place was very child friendly. They had lots of high chairs, and plenty of space between tables so you can get your pram in there. Also, when we sat down the waitress came and gave us a sheet of paper and some crayons, for Matthew obviously, but that was a really good idea as it kept him occupied while waiting for the food to come. An excellent place with excellent food!

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Last night was the work Decemberween party at a restaurant in Manchester city centre called Don Antonio.

The food was pretty good, I had a seafood salad, which was simply brilliant, followed by a haddock fillet with roast potatoes, carrots and sprouts. This was also very nice. Mandy had the vegetarian lasagne, and although this was just like moussaka, it did taste quite nice. I would rate the food as above average, with some good and bad aspects.

The place itself was small, but made good use of the room, watch out for the entrance stairs as they are very steep. Also, if your look at the map on the menu you will see that it looks like it on the corner of Princess Street. This is not the case, it is in the middle of the block before the corner of Princes Street, just next to a Tai restaurant.

This was an issue for many of the people who turned up yesterday as they had walked straight to the corner in the rain, only to find a bank. It was only due to the fact that Mandy was looking out for it that we didn’t walk straight past.

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I went to the Royal Oak in Aberaeron today as part of the celebrations of my boss leaving. It’s funny saying "celebrate" as it isn’t really a celebration of him leaving, more of a well wishing party. I, for one, will be sorry to see him go. He was a good, fair, approachable manager, which are rare things.

The food at the Royal Oak was far below average. I had jumbo sausages with jacket potato, which came with a small side salad. The sausages were obviously the cheapest chip shop sausages, which were just deep-fried. The jacket potato had an enormous amount of butter in it. But the really worst thing about it was that about half way through eating it I bit into a large chunk of mud that was hidden on the underside. Lifting the potato up I saw that it just hadn’t been washed properly.

Yuck

The woman sitting across from me had ordered a cheese salad. This basically consisted of a massive portion of grated cheddar cheese, with some lettuce.

I wasn’t expecting a 5 star meal, but I this was basically crap.

Talking to some of the other people there it may be that I had ordered the wrong thing. They all seemed to quite enjoy the food. Jo said it was like the time we went to the canteen in Penmorfa with a systems tutor where we were served plates of gunk.

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Mandy took me out to dinner as a kind of belated birthday present last night. I had decided to go to the tapas bar called La Taberna in Aberystwyth. Instead of having a starter and then a main course like you would have in most restaurants, tapas is about having lots of smaller dishes. It is a great little place, and the food was brilliant. I can recommend the garlic meatballs!

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