Vocal Voices

.... is anyone having a nice quiet dine-out pre-Christmas, or attending a works / office party? How did it go ...

Mrs O and I went out to the Crown Inn at Marnhull for lunch today. Marnhull's about 8 miles away, just a large village, but it was the fictional "Marlott" in Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbavilles" and the Crown Inn - 16th century - was the basis of the "Last Drop Inn" in that story. Mind you, everything round here seems to have been a fictional something or other in a Thomas Hardy novel, so much so that Ossie now thinks he might be a modern-day Mr. D'Arcy, but Mrs O says he's got the wrong author, and anyway, most of the time he's just Arcy.

Very pleasant setting by the village church, it's a large building along the roadside, and they do offer accommodation in one wing. Big roaring log fire at one end of the bar, with the temperature markedly higher than outside!! A tribute at the bar to a long-time regular who had passed away in 2014 - when he had turned 90, the brewery, Hall and Woodhouse, had granted him a free pint every day for the rest of his life! Looked like a bit of a haunt for "ladies wot lunch", and a reasonably-priced and varied menu on display from light bites to steaks. We went for the specials - Mrs O had a fish pie with a potato topping, plenty of chunky cod and salmon, with a hunk of bread and butter and a lightly dressed salad bowl. The Ostrich opted for the shepherd's pie with a cheesy potato topping, with seasonal vegetables and sweet shredded beetroot. Both pies came in enamel dishes - so Mrs O reckoned they hadn't been microwaved, they must have been oven-baked - and were generous in size.

For dessert, we both opted for the lemon meringue, served with a bowl of cream and a raspberry drizzle on top, again both sizeable portions, but perhaps a bit more "farmers' pub" - workmanlike rather than fluffy. With drinks - a tonic water and a ginger beer - the cost was £41, which we felt quite reasonable.

An excellent pre-Christmas feast, and a pub we'd certainly return to, especially if "entertaining".

So who else has been indulging pre the Festive Season?

Not yet, but Bb and I are going out tomorrow and may have lunch out.
Thursday a proper get-together, a Christmas buffet lunch with my support group, but I suspect it may err on the Healthy side

The extended family are dragging me to a local pub for a Christmas carvery on Boxing Day now that the children are grown up and gone.

Christmas eve we will be having our 'Christmas Day' meal, this time at my sisters, before they all go off to midnight mass. The rest of us will just crash out, wherever. Christmas day will be a full English sometime late morning, after presents, then we will take advantage of Mike's cold garage drink storage.

That sounds wonderful Ossie

Di, I hope you all have a brilliant time!

I am dining out next Monday with the other helpers from my Weightwatchers group It's straight after the weekly meeting, so we will all be starving hungry It's at Lily's which is a gorgeous little tea shop cum restaurant right down by the cathedral, opposite the Tailor of Gloucester's house (the one from the Beatrix Potter book) which is now a shop and museum We had our meal there last Christmas and it was fab!! I've pre-ordered spicy sweet potato soup, local beef with all the trimmings, then cheese and biscuits

We had our staff meal out last Saturday, don't know if anyone has seen the pics on FB that were taken (I didn't take any)

I had tomato soup as started, then salmon on a bed of mash served with fresh seasonal veg, and I had pre-ordered a dessert (pannacotta with passion fruit coulis) but I was too full so I ended up leaving it. I didn't go full on Christmas fare....we'll be having turkey on The Day and I'm not a massive fan to begin with...

Nothing else planned eating-out wise....

We usually eat out on Christmas Eve, wherever we can get into in town. I was just wondering this evening if we should reserve somewhere this year as it will be a Saturday.

My parents are coming for Christmas and they'll be with us from the 20th. So Mrs S is cooking now. We won't go out on Christmas Eve as that is the Traditional French meal with the family.

Christmas Day will be Beef Wellington (Mrs S does not want Turkey) and we'll see how it goes for Boxing day.

I'll be doing what I can to help. Christmas should be quite quiet. My parents like games and cards and we'll watch some Christmas TV too.

I had my work do last Friday at a place called genghys. You choose your ingredients, sauces, seasonings etc, then give it to the chef who cooks it on a large heated stone infront if you. There's about 20 meals on the stone and 3 chefs rotating around all prodding each meal till cooked and they put it on a plate and look for the owner. lol.
Then we went bowling and I played my worst game ever. EVER!