Cooped up!

Well, the New Year weather has been horrendous! We cancelled our annual trip to the Cotswolds as the rain was lashing down and the wind was blowing a gale! Plus, all three children (Sophie had her friend Danni staying over) were still in bed at 10am!

New Year's Eve was very enjoyable. We did all the normal stuff (dinner, washing up) and then Sue and Paul came over at almost 11pm with their dog, Bailey. We sat and sipped wine and then at midnight I cracked open the bottle of sparkling Vouvray that our friends had brought over and we all wished each other a Happy New Year. As we watched the fireworks in London we enjoyed a slice of my Christmas cake which was delicious, thank goodness!

It was a bit of a late night (I got to bed finally at about 2.30am) and then I was up again at around 8.30am, feeling a bit bleary but not as hungover as some New Year's Days! Sophie and Danni appeared when I was cooking breakfast but Mikey didn't surface until the afternoon.

As the weather was so bad we stayed put all day and I think most of our neighbours had the same idea! Not a day to go very far at all! In the evening we did venture over to Kettering as I'd booked a table at Nando's. We decided to give the restaurant another try but unfortunately we were let down again. Just after I'd written down everyone's choice of meal the waitress appeared and said that they had run out of potatoes, so no chips or mash! We just looked at her in amazement as how can such a major restaurant chain run out of such basic items? I'd forgotten that in Nando's you have to order your food at the counter and with this piece of news, we decided to abandon the restaurant and go elsewhere!

We decided on Frankie and Benny's but even here there were problems with the food - no burgers, pulled pork or the dish I wanted, chicken parmagiano! The waitress said it was because it was New Year's Day, but I'm sorry I didn't really buy it!

Anyway, we all found something on the menu that we wanted and we had an OK meal, although I think Mikey made the wrong choice with his pizza. Rather than have dessert in the restaurant we called into a nearby McDonald's and I bought three McFlurries to take home! Much better value!