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STILETTO – a high pointed HEEL on a woman’s shoe or a small dagger. WHEELS – a medieval instrument of torture or a vehicle for personal mobility. |
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It should be spring. What happened? It’s still snowing and it’s really really cold? Naturally, our totally crap, five year old, British Gas recommended (to a brief of, ‘I don’t care what it costs, make sure it does the job.’) central heating boiler chose to explode. We have cover so British Gas trotted out…several times… and failed to fix our problem. Yes, I am on their ‘priority’ list – they have a non-priority service? They left us with a severely limited, and erratic, heat and hot water system! After a few weeks of this, we decided to get a new boiler...for which we needed scaffolding…so, we had the whole house covered in scaffolding as it seemed only sensible to do exterior re-decoration at the same time! On the job, our builder fell, very obviously, off the wagon – yes, I did know about the alcoholism as he is Little P’s third husband (don’t ask!) and is meant to have kicked the juice. It was…painful! I had to have a sticky conversation with Little P about this and, even worse, his guys did a really good job and I can’t use them again, damn it! So, on a crisp cold day, in desperate need of comfort and fed-up in London, we took a ride up the M4 and had lunch at The Royal Oak near Maidenhead. The Royal Oak is an inn, owned by Michael Parkinson and run by his son. I hesitate to call it a gastro-pub because it was simply better than average English pub food. The entrance is level and we were shown to a table for four in the bar. The interior was quite Olde Worlde – all beams and log fires with framed photos of famous sixties footballers – especially George Best, an old mate of Parky’s it seems. There is a non –accessible modern dining area – it has a few steps down. The food was pretty good with the most stupendous chips - Maris Piper, triple baked. These were by far the best we have had since we ate at the Hinds Head nearly 2 years ago! A yummy chocolate fondant with smooth liquid centre is worth trying too. Overall, this place and its food hit the comfort spot nicely but, ya know, it gets damn chilly out in the country too…how lovely to scuttle back to our, now warm, London home. |
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