Henley itself was busy, with people taking advantage of the warm Autumn sunshine, and milling about the town and by the river. We made our way to the railway station car park and found a spot, but both of us were a bit worried about the walk back this evening after the talk. I looked up the time it would take and was told 18 minutes, which was a bit longer than I was hoping for.
We decided to walk the route and find a tea shop on the way as we were both a bit peckish. We found one a short walk away, a quirky place full of beautiful pottery, and lovely foodstuffs for sale. We had a cup of tea and a coffee, and a small slice of lemon cake each.
The cafe was just about to close, so we hurriedly drank up and continued our walk along the main shopping thoroughfare. Several places lured us in! A lovely place called Vinegar Hill where Sophie bought some earrings, and a charity shop (Henley-on-Thames is the place to go for second-hand clothes as it's extremely affluent!). Sophie spotted a brand new Zara bag for £8 and snapped it up!
We carried on walking and realised that leaving the venue, a country house conference centre and hotel on the edge of town late at night, and walking back wasn't a good idea, despite the town being very genteel! We decided to head back to the car via the river and move it to a long stay car park opposite Phyllis Court. It was a rugby club car park, but we hoped that by the time we arrived in the car, the game would be over.
Walking back to the car along the river was glorious. It honestly felt like we were abroad somewhere, a French riverside town maybe, as the smells and atmosphere were reminiscent of holidays!
At the pub on the bridge, the outside tables were busy with people eating and drinking. Further along, the cafes and restaurants were doing a roaring trade, and I wished we'd arrived sooner and spent the day enjoying the town.
We got back to the car, navigated the still busy traffic in the town, and drove to the rugby club car park. Luckily, there were numerous spaces, and Sophie bought a day ticket which said it ended at 7pm, although there was a sign saying the gates would be closed at 10.15pm. We decided to ask someone and made our way to the office, passing the bathrooms on the way, where I had to restrain Sophie from trying to see through the high windows! We could hear the players washing and smelt lovely soapy aromas coming from the windows!
The woman we spoke to confirmed that the gates would close at 10.15pm so we made a note to set an alarm on Sophie's phone later! We definitely did not want the car locked in!
We had a table booked at The Giggling Squid for 6pm and we still had about 45 minutes to kill, so we decided to go to Coppa Club and have a drink. The restaurant was heaving with people but we managed to find a seat at the bar and enjoyed our drinks while watching the staff rush around. It was lovely to sit at a bar - I can't remember the last time I did that!
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| Sophie's choice - a Hibiscus Margarita |
We spent an extremely pleasant half-hour enjoying our drinks and then made our way to The Giggling Squid. This was also very busy and different from the last time we came when we ate a lot earlier. We were seated at the rear of the restaurant and as the evening wore on they became busier and busier! Not only were they catering for customers in the restaurant but they were doing takeaway as well!
We chose two glasses of Thai Rose, a wine we'd never tried before, or even known about! For starters, Sophie chose pork dumplings while I opted for pork skewers, chargrilled and served with the most delicious tamarind sauce. We also enjoyed a generous basket of prawn crackers.
We both decided on the same main course - sticky chicken served with egg fried rice. The food was delicious and very filling!
At about 7.30pm we called for the bill and made our way to Phyllis Court. Along the way, we peeped through various restaurant windows and saw people eating and drinking. How lovely that things seem to be returning to normal!
Grace Dent was appearing in a marquee in the grounds of Phyllis Court. We walked down the dark driveway and met a woman on her own who was also attending. We chatted to her as we waited to go in, and she was astonished when we said we'd driven from Northampton!
Grace Dent was interviewed by Eleanor Mills, a former editor of the Sunday Times magazine. Her husband and Grace Dent's partner were sitting behind us so we listened in! I had assumed Grace Dent would be staying at the hotel but they were going back home to London afterwards!
The talk was great and was all about her book, Hungry, an account of her childhood and her route into being a restaurant critic. She gave us some anecdotes about Masterchef and it was great to see her in flesh and listen to her stories.
Sadly, we didn't have time to get our book signed as we had to hightail it back to the car park before it closed (along with numerous other people), and by 10pm we were driving back along very dark country lanes to the M40.
We arrived home at just past 11pm and relaxed with Keith until midnight. It had been a wonderful day, and we're planning on going back to the town very soon!
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