Booking online......

We spent a lovely couple of days in Cheshire visiting friends we hadn't seen for 20+ years!

They live in a one bedroom bungalow so we booked online into a nearby hotel for double room with breakfast. The photos looked good and the reviews were all good too and it was cheap. The online form asked what time we would be arriving and I ticked 11am-12noon.

After our four and a half hour drive we found the hotel easily. We parked avoiding all the potholes and walked through the door just after noon. The lady on the desk seemed very flustered and said no checking in before 2pm, I told her the website had specifically asked me what time we were arriving and didn't mention 2pm, she said "oh oh wait a minute so sorry I haven't even looked at the booking forms yet, we are in such a muddle this morning". She printed off our booking form asked Hubby to sign it then said "You were supposed to be in the suite but there is a leak in the roof and we are waiting for the roofer" lots more flustering about and more than once letting us know she was the manager and what a big responsibility it all was, then eventually she gave us the key to room 31 and said "I hope you're alright with the stairs, we do have a lift but it's quite near where the leaky roof is...." we both instantly said we wouldn't chance it and took the stairs-corridor-stairs-corridor-stairs then just as Hubby was putting the key in the door the out of breath manager came running along saying "Don't unpack I've given you the wrong room" so we swapped keys for room 30. The door was broken, bashed and pinned and she saw my face "It's quite secure" she said "There was a bit of bother at the weekend and someone kicked the door in, but we've fixed it so it still shuts properly and locks."

The room itself though small was fine, the bedding looked very clean as did the bathroom. There was a kettle with a couple of teabags etc provided and there was WiFi and it was only for one night so no problem at all.

So with a giggle we left the hotel and went to meet our friends. It was so lovely catching up with them after all this time. We have kept up the Christmas card swap each year so knew about their various moves and they are planning another move which could bring them a bit closer to us. Unfortunately neither of them are in the best of health and the weather wasn't that good so it was perfect to just head out to eat and sit and talk. They took us to a garden centre for lunch, but to call it a garden centre is such an understatement, I think it sells everything for the home inside and out and has three different cafe areas. Have to say their cream and jam scones are enormous and delicious, half of one was more than enough for me so pleased I'd shared with friendC. I had wanted to arrive with a pot plant gift but we hadn't found anywhere to buy one so arrived with chocolates, however we were now in the perfect place so I told friendK to pick her own gift and she chose a hanging basket.

Back to theirs, hanging basket hooked up and settled down with tea and chat about all the people we had worked with together back in the early 70s, the two men had worked together from 1968 and I joined in 1972. That definitely was dusting off the cobwebs from the archives lol.

Out for dinner about 7pm-ish and as they were getting tired we went in two cars so about 9pm-ish we said our goodnights and went straight back to the hotel. We went into the bar but they didn't have any bottled sparkling water and the tap was broken for the soda water so I had tap water while Hubby had a pint and he watched tv (having to give it a gentle nudge when it went off) and he got talking to the only other guy in there at the time, while I had a quick catchup with my social media stuff. Then up to bed.

We certainly didn't expect any toiletries to be provided for the price we paid but to have to go and ask for another toilet roll because the half one in the bathroom ran out was a bit unnecessary!

Happy to report we both slept well. Breakfast was buffet serve yourself, and I had bran flakes that were very soft, there was a little tinned fruit on offer and the toaster burnt the toast one side only. We both had cooked but the fried eggs had sat there long enough to be hard and rubbery, but the bacon, sausages and mushrooms were fine, I avoided the tomatoes as I couldn't actually find a whole tomato in the pan of juice and the baked beans were much the same. Tea and toast with real butter that was soft enough to spread and she even found me some jam when I asked so we were adequately fed.

We weren't in any rush as our friends knew they were having a new electric meter fitted in the morning so as we didn't want to stay in the hotel we checked out and headed back to the garden centre to have a good look round. We bought some plants that we really did need ;-)  We arrived at our friends' before the Eon guys so plenty of time to chat, then after the meters had been changed we headed out to eat and because none of us had dessert they brought back cake for afternoon tea (too much eating for not much moving around which will have to be corrected very soon). Then just before 5pm we were waving goodbye after making them promise to visit us next. Home about 9:15pm which was good.

Sorry this has been all words and no photos so here are the plants we bought planted first thing yesterday before it started raining again.