Back from holiday - with a ton of blagging along the way!

Firstly an apology.  The wifi was so temperamental that I haven't blogged this week.  Today's post, therefore, will be longer than usual - but I will try to precis the week!

On Monday I met up with Julia and Trisha at an appropriately named "The Fat Birds Cafe" (me rather than the other two!)  Next year we celebrate 40 years of friendship and try to go away together every year - next year its THE cruise!!!  A few years ago we all had the same style, but different colours, bag so I made them a tote bag each to fill with shopping!  Trisha had always wanted to go to Leamington Spa so we then spent some time wondering around, shopping and having lunch before travelling to the hotel near Hereford.

The hotel was part of the Warner Leisure Group and, having had rooms miles apart last year, we made a point of booking two rooms close to each other this year.  Did it work?  Did it eck - we were miles apart again!  This time Trisha and I were on the warpath!  Nope - nothing they could do apparently,  Fully booked apparently.  Might be more flexible when some people check out on Wednesday - apparently.  Leave it with us was the eventual answer when we didn't back down.  My parting shot was perhaps,as a gesture of goodwill for their mistake, they could find a spare room so that we could have a room each at least.  When we went back - they managed to do just that.  True it was so hot that Trish had to have the air con on all night and sleep without covers - but she had been originally quoted £59 a night to have this additional room - the exact same one!  So that was our first freebie of the week!  By the evening, we were shattered and so opted to watch The Intern in the cinema room (we were the only 3 there!)

On Tuesday we travelled back to Warwick Castle (I have wanted to go there for YEARS!!) and had a ball.  the sun was up, the weather was glorious and we watched the jousting, cheered for the Yorkists, enjoyed a cuppa in the peacock garden, toured the castle and watched the crossbow shooting.  Trisha and Julia climbed the ramparts, walked the walls and tried to let their hair down at the top of the tower (but there were no dashing knights available) whilst I visited the gift shop and bought, cough, a bag!.  Did we blag anything?  You betcha!  We paid for an all you can eat salad / pasta and pizza - only to find that the salad was so pathetic that you wouldn't want it and everything in the pasta range was tomato (I cant eat tomatoes) so I asked if they made their own pizza's - intending to then ask for a piece of meat to go with the poor salad. Ten minutes late the table was presented with a large freshly cooked ham and cheese pizza with no tomatoes - bless!

After dinner, we decided to watch the musical entertainment provided - songs from the musicals (right up our street) only to find that the table I had booked was right on the front row - what a result!







Wednesday was forecast to be rainy so we planned to stay closer to home and visited Hereford - but not before topping off at Doughty's.  By now Julia had commissioned me to make something for her parents as a gift so she was in charge of buying the fabric and choosing the colours (there was a fault in her fabric but we can work around it so they charged her less and cut more!).  In the meantime I had planned a wall hanging and so picked up the fabric for that - and Trisha sat in the cafe area just as a coachload of ladies arrived.  I can honestly say that I have never seen so much fabric in one place - we were there for nearly two hours!!



Then it was on to Hereford for some coffee, shopping and museum visiting (well, you have to be a little cultured you know!)  Julia and I visited the Black and White museum and were invited to dress up - so we did!  It was a giggle -plus there was no one around to witness our madness!

Back at the hotel Julia went to book a holiday for her parents to celebrate their Diamond Anniversary.  When I arrived she had already got a large discount on her holiday so was probably a little embarrassed when I asked what the hotel could give them to celebrate this marriage milestone.  Cue an upgrade to a fridge, bottle of wine, toiletries from Harrods and fluffy gowns.  Well - you just had to ask now didn't you? We also sat and watched La LA Land in the now, rather full, Cinema room.  I still enjoyed it the second time around!

The evening entertainment was a Neil Diamond sound experience - he did sound like the singer and it was fun to sing along - but looked nothing like him!

The last day was spent mooching around the hotel, packing and getting ready for the long drive home.  Surely there would be no chance for blagging something else?  Don't you believe it! Trisha went to buy some gift paper to wrap some presents fro Julia's granddaughter - but the shop didn't sell any.  So they gave her some tissue paper and ribbon instead -for free.  We then decided to have an afternoon tea for lunch (it has sort of become traditional to have an afternoon tea on holiday) but couldn't manage one each so asked for the tea for two but with three drinks -and that's what we paid for.  But we got what looked like tea for three - certainly there was a third scone and far too many small cakes for two people to share!

Home today was via the Fabric Guild (well, it would have been rude not to) and Mum and Dad's to pick up the dogs who, I am told, have been no trouble at all (if you forget the three hours of whining that Daisy made when I left her!)  I've had a great time, full of friendship, fun and food but I guess that its back to normal now then!!  Bring on the SW meals!