The death stare...

Sophie had suggested going to Leamington Spa today for a change, so we left at about 10am, and took the A14, M6 and then the A46. The journey took us about an hour, and we were able to park easily at a multi-storey car park near the main shopping area.

We went first to a bakery/coffee shop called Gail's, and I salivated over the various pastries, morning rolls, and sandwiches on offer. I chose a sesame and cardamon morning bun, while Sophie selected an almond and chocolate croissant. With a flat white each, the bill was £17 but the food and coffee were worth it, and my morning bun was delicious and something I'd never tried before. We sat on a long bench table and my only criticism was the level of noise in the café and the slightly frenetic pace. But it was a great start to our visit to Leamington Spa!

After eating, we wandered along one of the main shopping streets and stumbled on a gorgeous shop selling spirits and wines from all over the world. It was lovely to browse and I picked out a selection box of whiskies for my Dad's birthday on Monday.

I then joined Sophie looking at the wines and spotted a wine from South Africa that my friend Liam had always raved about, a Meerlust (£32), and a great choice of Portuguese wines. Sophie then called me over as she had found a white Chateauneuf-du-Pape, very rare in the UK, and priced at £30. I suggested we go halves and I took it off the shelf to buy. As I was making my way to the till, one of the male staff said to me, "You do realise that's a white Chateauneuf-du-Pape?"

I gave him my death stare, turned the bottle over and pointed out that, yes, I knew it was a white. I then said we'd visited the village last October and knew a little about its wines... Sophie nearly exploded when she saw my face and heard me speak, but I was bemused (and annoyed) that he had just assumed I knew very little about wine. He may have been trying to be helpful, but it would have been better if he'd said something like, "Oh, you're a fan of white C-du-P, then?" Huh! This is the second time this has happened to us (remember the rosé Gigondas?) and he stood and looked a little abashed. Let's hope he doesn't make any incorrect assumptions in the future!

We pootled about the streets, calling into two charity shops where Sophie bought more glasses and two blouses, and then Waterstones where she treated herself to three books. I made a note of another three for future downloads on Kindle.

It had warmed up considerably by now, so we decided to go in search of lunch at a Japanese restaurant not far away called Natsuya. We were given a table in the window (perfect for people watching) and had a good look at the menu. We chose edamame beans, chicken and vegetable gyozas and salmon sashimi to start, followed by chicken katsu curry and pork tonkatsu curry for our main courses.

We both agreed that the food was superb and, dare I say it, better than our own Akasaka in Northampton. The edamame beans were particularly good and we devoured them, searching through  the empty bean husks to make sure we hadn't missed any! The gyozas were deliciously crispy and we dunked them in a soy vinegar sauce. Yum! With the salmon slices, we ate them with the most gorgeous pickled ginger which I could have eaten all day!

Our main course curries were huge portions, served with rice, carrots and kale. There was a small helping of fuku-jinzuke, a kind of Japanese pickle.

Edamame beans

My pork tonkatsu curry

We paid the very reasonable bill of £65 (we'd drunk half pints of Japanese lager) and waddled back off to the car. I suggested the scenic route home via Southam and Daventry, and the journey was beautiful. It was a gorgeous English summer's day, and the countryside, although a little weary from the dry spell, still looked stunning under the blue sky.

As a treat, we called into Hotel Chocolat near junction 16 of the M1 and enjoyed an ice-cream each. I had to make it up to Sophie as I'd nicked a chocolate bar she'd been keeping in the fridge, and on Thursday night, we'd had a short, sharp argument about it. In my defence, I'd eaten it on my return from seeing my parents and needed something to cheer me up! After we'd gobbled our ice-creams, we went on the hunt for chocolate with popping candy, the same as the bar I'd eaten, but they didn't have any. We left without buying anything; there's willpower for you!

Back home, Sophie walked up to the top green with both cats (Gomez was a bit bemused but still enjoyed himself) while I relaxed and listened to a lovely radio programme on BBC Sounds that Georgie at work had told me about. What a lovely few minutes of chilling!

The cats chilled too!

Keith came home from watching a local derby between Sileby and Moulton, and Sophie and I picked out a 90s romcom to watch called French Kiss. It was the most perfect film for our evening and a lovely end to a wonderful day!