Down to Dover!

I was at work at 7.30am this morning and hoping to get all my box office returns done so I could leave a bit earlier than I'd hoped.

By 11am I was all done and looking forward to a day and a half off! I sped home to find Sophie working through all the jobs she had to do and about to hoover the house. I finished packing for our day in France and found the map we needed, plus the breathalyser and headlight converters we'd bought back in December, the last time we visited.

I was a bit disappointed with the weather, to be honest. For some reason I'd just assumed we would be enjoying sunshine and blue skies but it was grey and overcast, with heavy showers forecast. By 1pm we were all ready to go, with the car packed (my pillows were in) and then we had a malfunction with the tumble dryer door. It just wouldn't close. Keith tinkered with it and managed to get it going but I was worried it wouldn't turn off. The plan had been to go to the doctor's with him for his 1.30pm appointment and then hit the road straight from there, but I suggested we go back and check that the machine hadn't overheated and blown up. Looking back we could all have stayed at home while Keith went on his own but for some reason this never occurred to us until we'd left...

Keith went for the results of his blood tests and everything was good, which was a relief. We sped back home, emptied the tumble dryer, dumped it all on a chair in the living room and left for good this time! Our journey down the M1 was slow and hampered by the weather, which was stormy. We saw lightning and heard thunder in the distance. Not really what I'd imagined!

We crawled along the M25 and decided to take the M20 to Dover as we'd heard reports of flooding on the M2. Radio 2 said that the weather was terrible and we couldn't believe that all the sunny days we'd enjoyed had disappeared!

At Dartford, we sped on and saw huge jams leading onto the M2 and going the other way on the M25 - it turned out that there was a gas leak in the town and also one of the tunnels had been closed. Not a good day!

Luckily, the M20 was fine and although we had some really heavy rain as we neared Dover, we made it to the port by 6pm. By now it was misty and murky and more like a November day than a May one! We checked in to the Premier Inn and dealt with a very friendly man on Reception before dumping our bags and heading out to St Margaret's at Cliff, a village we'd visited before.

We wound our way down a steep and narrow road to the bay and parked in the car park of The Coastguard pub. A man greeted us and asked us if we were eating but we'd booked the special meal deal at the hotel for tonight and tomorrow's breakfast. We waited at the bar to be served and even though there were several staff about, it took them a good ten minutes to serve us, which really annoyed Keith!

Eventually we managed to order, and two beers, two glasses of wine and two packets of crisps came to almost £19! No wonder so many pubs are going out of business! It infuriates me that it costs us more for a glass of wine than it does for a decent bottle of Pinot Gris in Aldi!

We stayed at the bar and chatted but the weather didn't improve at all. In fact, I think it got worse! We left after one drink and went to The Smugglers pub on the High Street of the village. The other pub we'd been in to some years back was all boarded up, which was a shame as it was a quirky little place and we'd liked to have gone back. Keith ordered at the bar and I had an orange juice while Sophie was given a glass of Chardonnay, which she hates! Unfortunately, Keith's and Mike's beers were sour and smelt like vinegar so they had to be poured away and they had to settle for another choice, which didn't go down well! I don't think we'll be coming back to this village again!

This was all very disappointing as the only reason I'd booked the ferry was so we could go back to this area but we certainly won't be back! Perhaps next time we'll stay near Folkestone and explore the pubs there!

We left The Smugglers and made our way through the thick fog to Dover. We were all a bit hungry by now so I asked if we could move our table reservation forward, which was fine. We were seated at a shabby banquette seat and we noticed crumbs and bits of the leather all over the seats. Not a great start!

Keith and Mike came over and a waiter came to take our order. We said we'd taken advantage of the meal deal which included a pint of beer or lager, or a glass of wine with the meal. Sophie and I ordered a glass of Pinot Gris and the waiter said that would incur a charge of 50p each as we were only entitled to a glass of house wine. I said that was fine, we'd have the house wine but then he said they didn't have any and we'd have to choose off the normal menu and pay the extra!

At this point I started to get annoyed and asked why they hadn't any house wine (unbelievable!) and why should we be expected to pay extra for something when it wasn't our fault? He asked if I'd like to talk to the manager and I said definitely!

To cut a long and tedious story short, we had a brief argument about the wine and I said that we shouldn't be penalised for something he had got wrong, i.e. not ordering enough bog standard wine, which I find hard to believe. It's not like I had requested a glass of Chablis or anything! He gave in, but very reluctantly, and it left a real sour taste in our mouths. We then waited an age for our starters to arrive and another 45 minutes for our main courses to appear. Was it deliberate? We all thought it was. The food looked like it had been cooked and left on the hot plate for ages so none of us really enjoyed the meal and it was late by the time we'd finished.

On the way back up to our rooms the man on reception came into his own and gave Keith a bottle of water and a glass with ice - there's good service for you! It's a shame his colleagues in the restaurant didn't follow his example!