PLANT A TREE

Posted by Debbie Atkinson on October 27, 2007 8:15 AM

Innocent Drinks are planting trees in third world countries - they say they'll plant a tree for you every time you enter the code from your carton onto their website.

I know this blog is about visiting places - so visit the website to see what I'm talking about.

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MARTIN MERE & THE MILLSTONE

Posted by Debbie Atkinson on October 25, 2007 7:26 AM

It was such a beautiful day on Wednesday that we wanted to go somewhere outdoors. Martin Mere was a good choice and we enjoyed the fresh air and the birds. I was disappointed to see that the cost of entry has risen - I reckon it's quite an expensive day out now. The cafe there does lovely home-cooked food and if we hadn't decided to go for lunch at The Millstone, I'd have happily tucked into a dish of hot pot and beetroot.

The beautiful area around The Millstone Hotel
The Millstone hotel at Mellor - between Preston and Blackburn was recommended to us by friends who also enjoy what we like to call "OAP days out". It's just a pity that it's within a short drive because I'd love to book in. I was sorry that there weren't any log fires going but nevertheless we enjoyed beer-battered fish with superb chunky home-made chips, mushy peas and home-made tartare sauce. The half-lemon was wrapped in a muslin parcel to stop the pips falling out! Something I'm now going to emulate at home when I'm feeling posh.

The artist son and his wife have had a couple of days in the Cotswolds. This is one of our favourite areas so before they set off I gave them a list of the prettiest villages worth visiting. On the last minute I asked if they had a decent map. You'd have thought I was asking if they were visiting the moon. Map? Why would they need a map? So I gave them ours. Despite this I got a text yesterday which said that they'd set off for home but had gone in the wrong direction and were in Bristol. When I mentioned the map, a text replied "doesn't work". I told him that it's his brain that doesn't work, not the map.

When they got home six hours later he was still arguing; "we didn't go the wrong way, we just didn't go the most direct way." I should have remembered that he's always had to have the last word - since he was two.

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LONDON

Posted by Debbie Atkinson on October 19, 2007 8:09 AM

Our younger son (Innocent Drinks) has been searching for a flat that he can afford to buy in London. It became more difficult when he moved to Hamburg for four months with his job so to help him out we drove to London and looked round ten flats on his shortlist - this was more difficult than it might sound because we did it in a day - driiving through London traffic, parking on London streets, racing from one tube to another and then legging it between addresses. What it proved to us was that yes, he could afford something but that something was basically a room - in one case a room 11ft by 10ft - to live, sleep and cook in.

However, one flat he's liked all along looked good and "had potential" as they like to say on TV property programmes. They've accepted his offer so now we're trying to sort a mortgage/survey and finances out between London and Hamburg from our home on Merseyside - thank God for the internet.

Lovely - but small!

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BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Posted by Debbie Atkinson on October 4, 2007 7:38 AM

I booked ages ago for Beauty and the Beast at The Empire. I needn't have bothered. We went yesterday afternoon and the place was almost empty. I'd seen this show six times a couple of years ago because it was absolutely spectacular - sets, singing, the cast etc. It just transported me to fairyland!
This time it was quite disappointing. The singing was great but the sets such as the colourful plates singing "Be My Guest" were just a bit lack-lustre compared to last time and we didn't know whether to laugh or cry, when at the very last minute as Beauty kissed the Beast and he had to be hoisted into the air by a pulley - the safety curtain suddenly came down and a voice told us there had been a technical hitch! Talk about an anti-climax.
Anyway, full marks to the cast for being able to carry on after that.

Our next run out will be to Manchester airport tomorrow to pick up son number two who has been working in Hamburg. It will be good to get him home and do his washing before he returns to Germany to his bleak hotel room . We've booked a flight to go and visit him in November - only £79 return with Air Berlin, so we hope to see a few Christmas markets while there.

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