Babyless in Nottingham
Oct. 13th, 2003 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyOn Friday we packaged up the twins and their stuff and drove up to Cambridge to drop them off with Granny Jo and J-J.
After breakfast we packed Ryan and Bea into Granny Jo's pushchair (which, IMO, is inferior to our pushchair - mainly 'cos it weighs more and corners worse than the average cow) and headed off to Clarks in Lion Yard.
Having collected a queue ticket, I decided to choose two pair of suitable (read : velcro fastening) shoes from the displays whilst we waited (a very short wait) for assistance. When service arrived in the form of a very tolerant female assistant, Bea got to go first on the foot measuring machine. Beatrice was very well-behaved and seemed to approve of Mummy's choice (black and dark pink-purple with flowers on the strap), marching up and down in front of the mirror with them.
Ryan was also well-behaved - up to the point when the assistant wanted to take the shoes back off because they were a size too big. However he did stop howling, almost as soon as the new, smaller pair (dark blue with orange) were on his feet. We then paid an extortionate fee for them (extortionate because they'll grow out of them fast) and wheeled the toddlers back out of the shop freshly-shoed.
After a little more shopping (mainly for Josie's birthday, but there was a detour for a bag of Thornton's Belgian selection) we took the twins back to Jo and J-Js where their shoes were duly admired (and, be warned, anyone visiting us after the twins return will be forced to admire shoes also). Then we fed them lunch, put them to bed for their midday nap and scarpered northwards on the A1.
Despite the best efforts of workmen to delay us (All four lanes of the A1 northwards were closed - cars diverted to travelling single lane on the hard shoulder) we finally arrived in Bingham at about fiveish and hunted for our hotel. Finally, having asked for directions, we discovered it had been hidden behind yet more road works - fortunately we could still reach the car park.
We had chosen the Yeung Sing for two things. The first was the food. It's a Cantonese restaurant in the small market town of Bingham that just happens to have a few rooms attached to it. The hotel part isn't bad, in fact it was exactly what we expected, but also isn't something to write home about (unless this LJ entry counts). The food, on the other hand, was very fine.
We had a set menu called Phoenix something (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bateleur can you remember ?) which was duck with pancakes (with a generous helping of homemade plum sauce, spring onion and cucumber slices) - but for the first time ever - we ran out of pancakes before we ran out of duck (we had five each before this happened). This was followed by soup and then a selection of chinese dishes (a prawn one, a beef one similar to the wonderful caramelised beef dish that Pak Fook used to do and a chicken and cashew nut one) served with the usual egg fried rice. OK, I don't remember all the dish names, but I promise you they were all impressive and that meal was probably the best Cantonese dinner I've eaten.
The second reason for choosing the Yeung Sing was its proximity to Nottingham - our tourist location of choice for the weekend.
We drove in on the Sunday morning and proceeded to have a long and varied day in my old University city :
* A walk around Wollaton Park (of Witchcraft fame) where I bought some wonderful butterfly playing cards
* A drive into the centre and another walk, this time around Nottingham castle and its museum (plus "homemade" banana cake and drinks, neither of us fancied much lunch after the rather good cooked breakfast we had been served)
* A game of bowls wherebateleur and I appeared to have a competition to see who was the worst
* A stop in the Showcase to see "Underworld" (which I liked and appears to have many blatant sequel hooks - assuming WW don't sue them to death)
* Dinner at Poppa Pizza (bring back memorieschrestomancy ? It hasn't changed at all). Poppa's wins the prize for best value - two 8" pizzas (a Hawaiian and an Al Capone) with drinks (two cans of diet coke) plus a generous tip for £9.
This morning we visited the lake just south of the university campus before heading for the M1 and home.
bateleur has now retrieved all the bedroom decorating equipment from the shed. This means that I ought to be getting on with the whole "repainting the bedroom" task. One the other hand, maybe I'll start first thing tomorrow...
After breakfast we packed Ryan and Bea into Granny Jo's pushchair (which, IMO, is inferior to our pushchair - mainly 'cos it weighs more and corners worse than the average cow) and headed off to Clarks in Lion Yard.
Having collected a queue ticket, I decided to choose two pair of suitable (read : velcro fastening) shoes from the displays whilst we waited (a very short wait) for assistance. When service arrived in the form of a very tolerant female assistant, Bea got to go first on the foot measuring machine. Beatrice was very well-behaved and seemed to approve of Mummy's choice (black and dark pink-purple with flowers on the strap), marching up and down in front of the mirror with them.
Ryan was also well-behaved - up to the point when the assistant wanted to take the shoes back off because they were a size too big. However he did stop howling, almost as soon as the new, smaller pair (dark blue with orange) were on his feet. We then paid an extortionate fee for them (extortionate because they'll grow out of them fast) and wheeled the toddlers back out of the shop freshly-shoed.
After a little more shopping (mainly for Josie's birthday, but there was a detour for a bag of Thornton's Belgian selection) we took the twins back to Jo and J-Js where their shoes were duly admired (and, be warned, anyone visiting us after the twins return will be forced to admire shoes also). Then we fed them lunch, put them to bed for their midday nap and scarpered northwards on the A1.
Despite the best efforts of workmen to delay us (All four lanes of the A1 northwards were closed - cars diverted to travelling single lane on the hard shoulder) we finally arrived in Bingham at about fiveish and hunted for our hotel. Finally, having asked for directions, we discovered it had been hidden behind yet more road works - fortunately we could still reach the car park.
We had chosen the Yeung Sing for two things. The first was the food. It's a Cantonese restaurant in the small market town of Bingham that just happens to have a few rooms attached to it. The hotel part isn't bad, in fact it was exactly what we expected, but also isn't something to write home about (unless this LJ entry counts). The food, on the other hand, was very fine.
We had a set menu called Phoenix something (
bateleur can you remember ?) which was duck with pancakes (with a generous helping of homemade plum sauce, spring onion and cucumber slices) - but for the first time ever - we ran out of pancakes before we ran out of duck (we had five each before this happened). This was followed by soup and then a selection of chinese dishes (a prawn one, a beef one similar to the wonderful caramelised beef dish that Pak Fook used to do and a chicken and cashew nut one) served with the usual egg fried rice. OK, I don't remember all the dish names, but I promise you they were all impressive and that meal was probably the best Cantonese dinner I've eaten.The second reason for choosing the Yeung Sing was its proximity to Nottingham - our tourist location of choice for the weekend.
We drove in on the Sunday morning and proceeded to have a long and varied day in my old University city :
* A walk around Wollaton Park (of Witchcraft fame) where I bought some wonderful butterfly playing cards
* A drive into the centre and another walk, this time around Nottingham castle and its museum (plus "homemade" banana cake and drinks, neither of us fancied much lunch after the rather good cooked breakfast we had been served)
* A game of bowls where
bateleur and I appeared to have a competition to see who was the worst* A stop in the Showcase to see "Underworld" (which I liked and appears to have many blatant sequel hooks - assuming WW don't sue them to death)
* Dinner at Poppa Pizza (bring back memories
chrestomancy ? It hasn't changed at all). Poppa's wins the prize for best value - two 8" pizzas (a Hawaiian and an Al Capone) with drinks (two cans of diet coke) plus a generous tip for £9.This morning we visited the lake just south of the university campus before heading for the M1 and home.
bateleur has now retrieved all the bedroom decorating equipment from the shed. This means that I ought to be getting on with the whole "repainting the bedroom" task. One the other hand, maybe I'll start first thing tomorrow...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-10-13 09:09 am (UTC)Unfortunately the only possible conclusion turned out to be that we were the worst. I was grateful to the kid in the next lane for not laughing !
no subject
Date: 2003-10-13 04:28 pm (UTC)oh giggles. i assume that at some point during your tenure with ONS you published a Report on the Average Turning Radius of English Domesticated Bovines (1973-1998)
what color are you painting the bedroom?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-14 08:32 am (UTC)A sort of off-white stoney colour. Not really a favourite, but there ain't much that goes with a pink carpet and the yellow-pink-white-blue curtains. (And, yes, we're too cheap to bother replacing the carpet given that we'll be moving out in a year or so).
no subject
Date: 2003-10-14 04:58 am (UTC)But hopefully the DIY trauma will be soon over!