Anniversary Weekend - The Third One

I thought I had better catch up whilst I have 5 minutes of sanity in the house. Ok, I admit, that's probably the biggest lie I've told in a while. That only occurs when they are at school. I am just choosing to ignore them for half an hour. The kids are beginning to drive me mad.

The weekend away was just what I needed but a week and a half later it all seems a distant memory already.

We left bright and early on the Saturday morning and our first port of call was the city of Ely. We did a quick wander around the town area. It was a beautiful little place. It's a city in the "old rites". By this I mean, compared to other towns and certainly to other cities, Ely is quite a small place but going back to when the town earned city status it would have been high in population and a thriving area. These days it seems like an average town in size but boasts of this beautiful Cathedral.

We actually stayed at St Ives in Cambridgeshire. A pretty little town that is about half an hour away from Ely or about an hour from home. The town was a little smaller than Ely but had lots going on. We went on market day and it was busy but a lovely environment.

We were lucky to be staying somewhere incredibly central. The picture above shows our hotel as the white building just in front of the church. We stayed in a lovely room in a pub that looked traditional from the outside but the inside was very very modern and a great place. They warned on the booking website that they had live DJ's at the weekend but they were very fair when it came to finishing times. Not that hubby and I worry. We're always happy to be up late and it's nice that we can chill in the same building we're sleeping in.

 We arrived early and took a little tour of the town first. We had a nice walk around somewhere completely new and decided to stop for a drink at one of the many pubs. The pub we went to was situated on a beautiful river and this was the view as we sat outside.

There are a number of boathouses along the river and being a Saturday afternoon, the river was busy with the odd boat on a little cruise. It was lovely relaxing in the sun child free.

We booked in at the hotel, dropped off the bags and er.... well, ya know, kid free.... anniversary.... you catch my drift.... spent a bit of time in our room and dozed whilst watching a film before getting ready for our evening out.

I had had a headache half the day but a little snooze seemed to make it better. How wrong I was! We went to a very trendy pub and whilst I had a glass of wine, I began to feel really sick as well as having the back end of my headache. I began to feel more and more sick to the point I really didn't think I could eat but we'd made a reservation in a tiny chinese restaurant (All the restaurants apart from the pubs were small due to the traditional style of the town) and hubby said it was just probably because I hadn't eaten much. So I settled for a glass of water with my meal, It was like a buffet restaurant but instead of getting the food yourself, they bring the food to you freshly cooked as 6 courses. Course 1 was a chinese starter platter. Sesame prawn toast. Coconut Chicken. Squid in tempura batter. Crispy Seaweed. Satay chicken. Prawn Crackers with dips and I am sure there was more but as soon as I started eating I DID begin to feel better. I didn't think I'd manage much food at all but once I started I felt so much better it was amazing the transformation. We then had soup, followed by crispy lamb pancakes with hoi sin sauce, spring onion and cucumber, followed by a meat main - I chose a light battered king prawns with sweet and sour sauce and a side of noodles with beansprouts. We could have had seconds of any of the courses but we found that we had had enough. It was a very enjoyable meal and the staff were top standard. They were sweet, funny, knowledgable and made us feel very welcome. We'd certainly go back there again.

After that we went back to the hotel bar (It was getting on for 10.30pm) and enjoyed a drink on the terrace watching all the really drunk people in the smoking area below. It was rather funny. The pub was vibrant and looked to be thriving. At 11.30pm as they said, they called Last Orders. The music stopped at 11.45 and they began requesting people to leave at 12. Most of the revellers appeared to be heading to a club down the road but we had been up early, plus we're old and not into clubs anymore, so we headed off to bed.

In the morning we had a freshly cooked English Breakfast in the hotel which was included in our booking deal. It was excellent quality and again, the waitress was very good and left a great lasting impression of St Ives and  The Golden Lion Hotel in general. (Click it for more pictures and details)

On the Sunday morning we had a quick trip to one of our favourite shops kiddy free and got one of Liams birthday presents. Sometimes, it's just nice to see things and go places without the distraction of small people who don't want to be there.

We were home fairly early due to hubby having to take his mum home.

We didn't do much on our anniversary itself as we'd done the weekend away and on the Tuesday hubby bought a little surprise home from work.

This is Tilly, the newest member of the family. She was found on one of hubby's work sites and is officially a stray so rather than have her come to harm in a big water tank, he bought her home. The kids love her and she seems to have grown so much in a week already.

We don't know how she got to the water works. The nearest houses are 5 miles away so she either got out too early and got lost or was dumped in a field. We don't have any idea how old she is so we will have to get her along to the local vets to determine that and when to get her sterilised. She's really good, very playful and she must have had some time in a family home as she knew how to work the cat litter tray straight away so apart from being a little skinny, she wasn't neglected. She isn't allowed out for another 2 weeks but she seems very happy.