A Day Out

So what shall we do today?  We were supposed to be taking The Builder's mother out for lunch but she is now unavailable.  She's going to the hospital to have a skin graft (that we didn't know she'd had done) checked out.  Much as we enjoy being at The Swan @ Stoford, we didn't really fancy sitting in our room al day.  We went and got in the car and I inspected the road map.

Let's go to Christchurch.  Lindsey likes Christchurch a lot and regularly recommends that we should go for a visit.  It's a bit far to head to New Zealand for lunch - we have a dinner engagement at 7pm.  But this Christchurch is near Bournemouth and within easy striking distance.  Neither of us has ever been before so had no idea what was there, but it's no effort to go and have a look see.

So we did.  And what was there was a lot of fog, a huge priory church, a quay that we could hardly see for the fog, a river, lots of old buildings, walking tracks, lots of shops.  It was a real find.  We must take Lindsey one time when she's here.  We had a lovely wander around and then headed back to the car intending to head into the New Forest for lunch.

Memo to self: do not attempt to find a pub in the New Forest at any time around Christmas and New Year. We tried last New Year's Day and gave up.  We tried today - and gave up!  We ended up in a pub right on the edge of the forest.  It's a beautiful building - thatched roof, well maintained exterior, beautifully decorated for Christmas, full of teddy bears.  The menus were well produced and had interesting things on them.  It sparkled with foodie promise.  Alas - the food really was not very good.  Not nice at all.  It's unusual for a pub that is so well looked after to have quite such bad food.   I can only surmise that they had run out of supplies and had had to hit the nearest supermarket for emergency supplies.  We might go back in the summer and see if my theory is correct.

Must go.  We're heading out to meet Jeanette, Matthew and Ian, plus all their children for dinner in The Wheatsheaf in Braishfield, where I am confident that the food will not be dire, nor even not particularly nice!