This is a side track but found this photo on the CF card when I took up the camera. Erin and Rhys at home. Taken with a ton of fill flash. I like it as its not the usual pose and expression. Its getting difficult to take a photo of them in without a big cheesy grin.
Our main destination is a cottage in Somerset which is booked for the week starting on Saturday but I didn't feel like driving down from Ayr in one go. I already drive too many miles to and from work. We have staged the journey into 2 stops.
The first is outside Leyland. Just off the M6. Its about 200 miles from Ayr. Set off about 8am and aimed for a break at Tebay. Tebay the king of motorway service stations. The meals are 100% better than our usual stop at Gretna Green. Vegetable quiche and selection of salad for lunch. The latte was excellent. Not cheap of course, but not at least it looks and tastes good. Less of a feeling you are getting ripped off.
We're booked into the Farington Lodge which is in a small village just outside Leyland. This is THE Leyland as in "British Leyland". We were looking for somewhere to park and managed to drive into the Leyland factory car park.
The hotel was hosting a wedding the afternoon we arrived. We walked into the main entrance just as guessed were arriving. We where not exactly dressed for such and event and got some strange looks.
The hotel was an old building that had slightly better days but was basically clean. As with older buildings that have been extended odd stairs and corridors look us to our room on the far side of the hotel. Away from the wedding reception which was on the front.
The nightly deal had included afternoon tea and at reception we booked it for 3pm with dinner at 8pm. At three we went down for afternoon tea. We were shown into the bar where a table with a settee was laid out. The wedding ceremony had ended and guests were making there way into the bar. We were the only other action in the place and we got some strange looks. Especially as we had the prime sofa seats by the window. The afternoon tea arrived, not on towered plates but on silver trays. (Jean was disappointed).The offering looked underwhelming but tasted OK. The coffee was average.
We had the uneasy feeling that the wedding party wanted us out of there! After tea we took a turn round the gardens and left the wedding.
Ran out of time for the full description:
* Dinner -- no wine list until later -- limited menu.
* Excellent food. Braised Steak was very tender. Chicken liver as starter was OK but I had expected a salad and got it on toast with gravy.
* Beaujolais for the wine - smooth.
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