Monday 16 July 2018

An unexpected treat!

I wasn't looking forward to today, to be honest and had a feeling that we'd be busy at work booking children onto the summer holiday courses that we provide. I took my own car into work as Sophie and Keith were going to do a test drive to Rushden Lakes as Sophie was going there for a meal this evening with friends and taking Danni.

Work was actually very pleasant and although we did get a fair few calls, they were nicely spaced out! The time went past very quickly! I drove home at 2pm and had a chat with Sophie about jobs. She'd driven to Rushden Lakes and was fine with the journey.

At After-School Club we just had a handful of children and after playing outside for a while we went into the library and I suggested making papier mache heads. One of the older girls went and fetched balloons, glue and newspapers and we set about making them, but not before I'd had a silly moment and blew the balloons up before letting them go so they made rude noises! I did say that all the children should have made a papier mache head and then we could have given them to Lisa as a leaving present!

Back home I discovered that Sophie's friend had let her down and was going to drive herself so I suggested Keith and I take Sophie, and my husband then asked if I'd like to go for a meal while Sophie was out with friends? Most definitely! We tried to get in touch with Mike who was out and asked if he'd like to come as well, but in the end we had to leave him a note to say we'd gone out.

It was a gorgeous evening and we drove over to Rushden and dropped Sophie off at Pizza Express. Her friends were waiting outside so we waved goodbye and headed into Higham Ferrers as I'd found a pub called The Griffin which served food on Monday night and looked lovely. It was only five minutes from Rushden Lakes and we spotted what we thought was the pub in the main street and parked nearby. As we approached, though, we realised this pub was The Green Dragon, a pub we'd been into ages ago with some friends!

I used Google maps and we found it hidden behind a row of leafy trees a bit further down the main road. We'd completely missed it when we'd driven past! It was very quiet inside with just a handful of customers and we took a seat on a comfortable sofa and armchair near the conservatory and enjoyed our drinks. It was still very warm and after an initial pint of beer, Keith switched to lager!

We had a look at the menu and decided on the very reasonable Pub Classics choices. We both chose prawn cocktails to start and then I went for mussels for a main while Keith had fish and chips. We sat in the light and airy conservatory and the waitress provided two fans to keep us cool. A few people were eating outside in the courtyard garden.

The food was lovely and the bread in particular was delicious. We had a great meal and it was nice to relax and have a good chat. The bill - £44 - was another bonus! It's normally three times that! We left and headed back to Rushden Lakes with the intention of sitting by the lake until Sophie was finished but she texted me on the way to ask us to pick her up. We sat outside and marvelled at all the shops that, although closed, were brightly lit up. It did make me wonder how much their electricity bill is!

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