Hey peeps, I hope you are all well.
The Easter holidays are here, and that means it is high time I tackled the allotment. A couple of weekends ago my Dad came and helped us do some digging, but I knew I would have some time over the next couple of weeks.
On Sunday my plan was to head there as soon as I woke up. Unfortunately on Saturday night I was meant to pick up Andy but my car wouldn’t start. It has been a bit temperamental lately, but did just pass its’ MOT (and have a service) -usually if I try it a few time it starts up, but this time the scary red “STOP” light came on. So Sunday morning turned into phoning the breakdown people, and waiting for the person to come out. Amazingly, he fixed it without me needing a new battery or starter motor! But it meant time had got on, so I spent less time digging. Luckily I had pancakes for breakfast as I didn’t get back until about 4pm!
I sometimes add fruit to the pancake before I flip it, but this then means that the fruit sticks to the pan. This time I added it after I had flipped it, which meant the berries were warmed through in the pan- good plan Batman.
The night before I cooked some apple in the oven, but didn’t end up eating it, so I added that to my next pancake- warm apple pancakes are delicious.
Digging fuel right there!
On Sunday evening we went to see Muppets Most Wanted, which I loved! The last Muppet movie was great, and during the first part of the film I was a bit worried that I would be disappointed (I hate it when my expectations are high like that) but it was such a fun film, with some excellent “real” actors in there too. Worth a see for sure.
On Monday morning I was going to have a run, but it was raining, plus I had not got as much digging as planned, so I headed to the allotment first thing. I did more digging, weeding and even used the mower again.
Then it was porridge time! I keep forgetting about the rest of the Matcha powder, so I added it to my porridge. I thought it would go very green, but it didn’t, and it stayed in lumps (so no photo- it didn’t look good!) but I liked the flavour. I still can’t place it, but thankfully it tastes nothing like normal green tea.
Then I was off to London! I ended up getting into the centre earlier than I thought, so I wandered to Wholefoods for a drink, before meeting some friends for afternoon tea:
Moan alert! Originally I had booked a deal on Groupon for a chocolate afternoon tea. The email came through, but it would not let me book a table before the deal ended. Then the deal ended but I still could not book it. I emailed Groupon who said there was a problem with paypal, and really I should not use Paypal because payment can be delayed. I emailed back to say they should put that on their site, and should have contacted me as soon as there was an issue because then I could have bought the deal again with a different payment method. I then checked my Paypal account because I didn’t think I had paid that way- I hadn’t. Then they emailed back to say that actually I had paid with credit card, which was fine, but they had a “technical glitch” and no vouchers were issued to anyone, and they then refunded me. Anyway, the way they handled it really annoyed me, so in the end I looked on afternoon tea.co.uk for a different offer. Not sure I would use Groupon again after that.
Anyway, the place we went to was very relaxed- with very comfy chairs, so great for catching up. However I had requested one vegetarian, and when the lady brought our tiers over she said “this one is vegetarian; cream cheese and cucumber, smoked salmon” (at this point I laughed rather loudly- I was just not expecting that! So didn’t even hear the third sandwich)-she had no idea why I was laughing so I swapped that one with one of my friends! One of the dessert options was panna cotta which I am sure always contains gelatin so I left that one too. The scone was lovely, and the carrot cake and macaroon were delicious, and the chocolate cake was quite nice. We had one refill of tea, and I would have liked another, but the servers were a bit too relaxed and didn’t check on us that much. It was good to not feel hurried, but at one point my friend noticed some mould in her cream, and it took ages for someone to come and replace it. We were given some champagne to make up for it, but as I don’t drink it was down to my friends to have mine. Overall it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, but I think the service could have been better. And honestly, salmon is NOT vegetarian!!!!
Trip advisor review is being written!
Do you ever contact places after bad service? I do sometimes, especially with things like incorrect vegetarian items (I am a one woman crusade against the use of parmesan in “vegetarian” meals!), but I read reviews far more frequently than I write them!
It was lovely. I have had lime and coconut cake before, but never thought about lemon with coconut, even though they are pretty similar. One I shall definitely make again, or perhaps as one large cake next time.