We had a lovely Sunday! Shame Clare was working, but I dragged the boys on their bikes to the boot fair in Hythe. Wasn't a very busy one as it was quite windy but it was a good ride there and back for them and properly contributed to my step count. We got the other Hunger Games books and an armful of Top Gear DVDs that the boys wanted. They've really enjoyed the recent series but hadn't seen any of the old ones. When got back, and had lunch, and thing one had done some revision we watched some of the "challenges" including racing a car against a plane. They loved it. Even if we only watch these once and take them to a charity shop they were worth the 50p. Some very impressive cycling back from thing two as well, he is well away these days. Only a few weeks ago he was refusing to get on a bike, he'd never be able to do it, but he raced ahead of thing one and I here.
Oh nearly didn't get to actually watch them as the DVD player broke. It has done this before, I think it just overheated. I took it apart and hoovered the dust out of the fan and it started up again ok. DIY skills!
Next they wanted to go to the woods near the house. I thought they were tired out already, but no! We had to wait for the Sainsburys delivery, then walked up there for a bit to climb trees and play on the rope swings. Got to get as much as we can out of these woods before they're all built on. It was very busy up there this time, with other families on the rope swings, mountain bikers jumping over the ramps and a group having a camp fire.
We didn't have long there until it was time to meet Clare and we all went to the Chameleon bar and grill for tea. Our first visit, and it was great. We were the only people in for a while, and while it is nice inside you do not quite have a nice view yet, it is on the edge of the petrol station. They need to put a hedge up, though I imagine that petrol station will be redeveloped before too long.
We picked a range of dishes, two main meat curries for them three to share, a quite spicy lamb dish and a tandoori chicken, then dahl, rice, nan, and chickpea curry. Then I chose two of the "small plates", some savoury doughnuts and aubergine bahjis, and a vegetable stew. The small plates were bigger than expected and the main stew smaller, but very good. It looked odd at first as it is coconut based, so a white stew. Strange but very tasty.
I liked it all, though none of the vegan dishes were very spicy. It's all different to a "normal" indian, definitely felt a lot lighter and healthier. The boys favourites were the tandoori chicken and the dahl, so I think we'll be trying to recreate that at home next week. I suspect I know which newsworthy country they will pick from the Week Junior. I hope it's not because there is an actual war though...
We had two drinks each, they have local booze, we had Addlestone's cider and Curious Brew. Though we thought we'd ordered too much we pitched it exactly right, mostly because the meat dishes were smaller than expected. It came to £67 and they helpfully added 10% service to the bill, glad Clare noticed that.
We will be back! I have noticed in the past when I say "we'll definitely be back" then years pass and we do not, but with this being so close to the house we have to go again. Probably next time we have visitors.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town, Kent. Wed to Clare + dad to two, I am a full stack web developr, + I do javascript / nodejs, some ruby, other languages ect ect. I like pubs, running, eating, home-automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, family tree stuff, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.