I visited the Picture House in Cambridge for the first time recently, and I must say what a quaint little cafe/bar they have. It's got great character, I had a hot chocolate (which seems to be one of my specialties) which was perfectly sweet, and very visually appealing. 
The weekend started off well... And continue throughout! On Friday, we went out for dinner as a friend of ours is moving to Dubai (jealous... Me?!). We went to the Farmer's boy near Gloucester, known for its pies. Whilst I have been there before and had a delicious burger, this time I decided to go with tradition and have a steak and ale pie, with chips and peas. It was great, you get a lot of choice in there of different pies and pastries all cooked to order. The only complaint I would have is that there genuinely is too much choice - 3 menus, a pie menu, a mains menu and a specials menu, they could do with getting rid of the specials menu. We had a card for our friend, which needed signing whilst we were there, so we sent him off for a walk and he didn't come back for ages - we had to go looking for him! I didn't have a starter, they were all a bit too fussy for me (and I think your learning, I'm a bit of a fusspot), but desert was a couldn't be missed occasion. D and I shared a chocolate fudge cake with cream, and for someone who didn't want any pudding he did a good job of sharing it with me. It was scrumptious, but as I will always say fudge cake should be warm, and it wasn't!! Staff were extremely friendly and attentive, and they have a great app for your phone which gets you discounts. 
I had a bit of a day of baking at the weekend, as we had a lot of fresh eggs to use up. I'm a big fan of Pinterest, so decided to try their Oreo cookie mini cheesecakes, which went down a treat. Add to that some chocolate butterfly cakes, and brownies and you've got a party. 
Saturday saw us heading back to Surrey as a friend of mine was having a leaving do - she's going travelling all over the place (once again, jealous, me?). We met mum for lunch in Strada in Cobham, and as per usual was disappointed with the service - strada always seem to get this wrong. We seated ourselves, had to ask for the menu, and to get drinks, and they forgot a few things. There was a family on the table next to us who seemed to get both waiters attending to them, and we had neither. Nevertheless, the food was good (pepporoni and chicken pizza) and the company was great, although they didn't have any carbonara on the menu which is always a disappointment. D and I took great pleasure in 'playing a game of tinder' on my mums phone, which is one of my favorite hobbies on other people's phones! 
That evening I headed to L's house for her leaving do, which was great fun. My baked goods went down excellently, we had some scrumptious home-made fajitas and played a rather competitive game of articulate (to which I must add... My team won!). The plates that she had bought were adorable, perfect for the nature of the party, and we all brought wine from around the world, to add to the delicious slushy cocktails.
I am now away for the week, and stayed in the Hilton metropole Birmingham airport on Monday. I will most certainly say I will not be returning, purely due to the outrageous prices of everything you have to add on (wifi, parking, and the tray service charge for room service was £5!). I am always happy to pay for a tray service, but I felt that was extortionate. Had a pretty big dinner as it had been a long day, and I feel that hotel food is always average. Bruschetta to start, cheese and bacon burger for main with a side of garlic bread, and a chocolate honeycomb pudding with fruit. It was all okay, fair for a hotel meal but ridiculously expensive. And when it came to the pudding, went to eat it and realised they'd left the plastic mould on - great! Had an early start in the morning so went to make a coffee, to my dismay they had forgotten to set out the milk, so at 5am I was phoning reception to get them to bring me some milk. I know mistakes are sometimes made, but that's a bit of a silly one. Also I stayed there to be out of birmingham for the traffic - what a bad idea, the design of their car park is awful and I spent ages queueing to get anywhere near the exit!
(It looked lovely when it was fully ready!)
Signing off, will have lots to talk about in the next post.
Paigey x
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