The Road to Hell

Maybe it was the date - the 13th - but we had an appalling journey to and from Kent today to celebrate Nan's 92nd Birthday. All was going OK-ish until we reached the Dartford Bridge and came to a complete standstill. Below us, on the approach roads, we could see the traffic building up as it couldn't filter onto the sliproad leading onto the bridge. In the distance we could see a helicopter and found out that three lorries had had an accident leading to all the lanes being blocked.

In the end we were caught up in the traffic jam for an hour so we rang the restaurant where we were having the Birthday lunch and put the time back until 3pm. Despite this Nan had a lovely Birthday and received lots of cards and presents. I treated her to a large bottle of Bailey's and some delicious chocolate biscuits which she was very pleased with!

Lunch was OK. We went to the Jacobean Barn restaurant in Hall Place, near Bexleyheath where we've been many times before. I ordered scallops to start and I have to say they were the smallest skinniest scallops I've ever eaten! There were six tiny ones served with their shells topped with a cheesy sauce and it took me about a minute to eat them! A slice of bread and butter to mop up the sauce would have been lovely! Mum very kindly gave me a slice of her thick brown bread (she was enjoying prawn cocktail) so that was something but I was extremely disappointed as I love scallops and only really have them when I go out.

My main course was fine - nothing to write home about. I fancied crispy chicken strips served with a chilli dip and there's really not much that can go wrong with that! As I've said before, Keith's cooking at home takes some beating!

As we were later eating than anticipated, we were much later returning home and it took us an hour to get from Nan's flat to the tolls for the tunnel. Every road leading to the M25 was completely gridlocked so we'll never leave after 5pm again! If we are a bit later leaving I think we'll head to the pub and sit out the rush-hour there!