Last Sunday Simon and Matthew very kindly treated us to a meal out for Father’s Day – very generous of them, since they also treated their Grandpa and his friend Edwina, and naturally Kate was there too. Matthew arranged it, booking us a table at The Shires, a village pub/restaurant in Peatling Parva, just a few miles from home.
The restaurant offered a carvery or a choice of courses from the menu, and on Kate’s recommendation we all selected a starter from the wide choice available and I was certainly impressed by my deep fried brie (as usual I went for the healthy low calorie option). Most followed this by visiting the carvery although Matthew and I decided to choose from the menu – rump of lamb in my case.
A brief digression from the meal; there are certain meats that are often my preference when eating out, because they are not served at home, such as lamb (too fatty), duck (Chantal once owned a couple) and game, because for some reason flying free…flying free…flying free…DEAD is cruel when compared to being herded onto a lorry, transported for miles in noisy scary conditions, standing for a couple of hours in a strange place with the smell of blood before being dispatched. If you have access to a butcher who buys from locally sourced and slaughtered meat, buy your meat there if you can afford it. We have friends who keep sheep and pigs on a small-holding and take them to a local butcher, with his own small slaughterhouse, using their own sheep trailer. Minimal stress. Chantal won’t buy this meat either. She has seen the animals, and consequently considers them to be pets…. That was a long digression.
Anyway, back to the Father’s Day meal. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meals, and none of us could manage a pudding. In fact few of us could manage the main course, and there was quite a lot of meat left over, which the restaurant obligingly packaged up for us in sealed containers to be taken home and frozen into smaller portions for the dogs, who are still enjoying meaty breakfasts a week later.
Simon and I had another meal together on Tuesday. Simon suggested that, as a change from our usual weekly lunch, we would have breakfast at the recently opened Frankie and Benny’s in Leicester’s Highcross shopping Centre. Naturally I opted for the Full English, whereas Simon chose Muffins, which actually turned out to be bagels, either which seem to be unnatural breakfast companions. The breakfast was perfectly reasonable, although another sausage would have been nice. Since Frankie and Benny’s have an American theme I should have known better than to order tea, which arrived as a tea bag on a piece of string, suspended in tepid water. For my second drink I ordered coffee. Fortunately the background music, which also had an American theme, circa 1960, was mostly drowned out by hammering and sawing from shop fitters in the adjacent unit. However we had a lovely time, enjoying each other’s company (at least I enjoyed Simons’ company – I assume that he enjoyed mine) and a substantial breakfast before returning to our respective offices.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
