Author: samantha

Christmas Lunch at The Ivy, Tunbridge Wells

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

Every Christmas my good friend Helen and I have a pre-Christmas lunch at the beautiful Ivy restaurant in Tunbridge Wells,  It is rather an extravagant treat but we both work hard all year and agree that we deserve the occasional expensive cocktail.  Today didn’t get off to a very good start as my boiler was broken and we had no hot water or central heating.  British Gas came out surprisingly quickly and managed to fix the issue but I was half-frozen by the time I left home. Helen and I were catching the train and she waiting was at the station wearing the most beautiful pair of caramel coloured knee-length suede boots from Sosander. “Did you spray those with water repellent” I asked Helen. “No”, she replied, “they’ll be fine”. Cut to a couple of hours later when I am blotting an enormous water stain on the toe of her brand new boots with a tissue.

We had booked a table for twelve thirty and The Ivy confirmed that the table was reserved for an hour and a half. I understand that it is their busiest time of year and it must be somewhat tricky to tactfully move patrons along without appearing rude but the constant, not so subtle nudges, were just too much. We arrived about five minutes early and had barely sat down and had not even opened our menus when we were asked what we wanted to eat. We asked to be left for five minutes but about a minute later we were asked again. We both ordered the aforementioned pricey cocktails, mine was some sort of candy-floss confection and Helen’s was gin and cranberry, both wonderful and very strong. As we had to speed-eat we didn’t bother with a starter and both had the goose and turkey shepherds pie with a side order of broccoli, absolutely delicious and a chocolate bombe for desert which tastes like a melted Crunchie bar, a little sickly and it made me very thirsty. The plates were whisked away within a millisecond of us taking the last mouthful and the waiter told us they needed the table, this was an hour and twenty minutes after we’d arrived. The bill was brought over without us asking, clearly a very efficient system. The waiter proffering the card machine did not utter a word or make any eye contact whatsoever, it was really quite rude. I think next year we will go somewhere a little more relaxed. One cocktail, the shepherd’s pie, broccoli and chocolate bombe came to £51 each so certainly not cheap but not ridiculously expensive either.

After lunch we visited Hooper’s department store as Helen wanted to browse their Christmas shop. Instead of being on the ground floor it took a bit of detective work to find and it was a little disappointing. They had a lot of fabric decorations which had been overstuffed and were split at the seams, clearly some quality control issues on the part of the manufacturer, and some feathered things that looked like roadkill. Despite this, I did manage to spend £25 on some beautiful Gisela Graham ornaments which I didn’t really need.

So, back home now the heating is on and I need to think about getting the tree down from the loft, we can’t have a real tree because they make my husband and son sneeze, and decorating it with my new purchases.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Header photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Ugh, Christmas already??

On By samanthaIn SHOPPINGLeave a comment

Ok, admittedly rather a Scrooge-like title for this post but, let’s face it, Christmas is a lot of work, not to mention a lot of expense. Maybe your household is different but, I think it is fair to say, in many families the bulk of the to-do list falls on the woman. I am writing this with a month to go but already I am conscious that I need to choose gifts for friends who live overseas and post them. Last year I bought a friend in Australia a beautiful pale grey bag from White Stuff. Unbeknownst to me, a couple of days after I posted it, my friend moved house. She never even set eyes on that bag but I hope her former landlady enjoys using it.

Christmas becomes a little easier, but perhaps less fun, once the children become teenagers. Two of my children have birthdays in early January by which time I have usually run out of gift-giving steam. Now, I still fill a stocking (well actually a pillowcase) for each of them but they are happy with cold hard cash as a main gift. A tip to anyone considering buying a teenager a gift set of some sort, especially toiletries – don’t! They would rather have five pounds cash than a fifteen pound box of smellies that they will never use. If the idea of giving money just doesn’t feel right to you then perhaps compromise and give them a voucher, maybe ASOS who stock hundreds of different fashion brands and seem to have a permanent sale on. My youngest son would probably choose a simple white T shirt like this one from The North Face,

If you really want to give a physical gift then, for girls, I don’t think you can go far wrong with Oliver Bonas who sell beautiful accessories starting at around £15. This pretty star bracelet is simple yet elegant.

I am a sucker for a cuddly toy so, for younger children, I would probably buy a cuddly Christmas reindeer. In fact my youngest son has quite a collection of these from years past and I was very sad when he was obviously too old for soft toys. This little chap from John Lewis is very reasonably priced at £15 and is good for cuddles all year round because reindeer aren’t just for Christmas!

I enjoy choosing gifts for my friends and sometimes do adopt the “one for you, one for me” approach when I find something I really like. I usually spend around £30-£40 on these gifts. I do have rather a repetitive repertoire I must admit, silver earrings, nice make-up bags, a leather purse or card-holder, silver keyring. Something like this cute mouse keyring from Alessi or this beautiful leather purse from Sage Brown which looks like you’ve been shopping at Bottega Veneta.

My parents are n their late eighties and really don’t need much but this year I have bought them new pyjamas and dressing gowns, predictably from Marks and Spencer. I took a bit of time choosing carefully because my parents, sadly, are both very frail and can easily trip when going down the stairs if the pyjama hems are too wide or the leg too long. My mum has osteoporosis and has shrunk considerably during the past five years, so much so that I now buy the cropped leg length for her.

As for my husband, well he isn’t really worried about receiving gifts as long as everyone else is happy. This year I have bought him a much-needed new coat from Crew Clothing. They had a 20% off event which was very helpful.

Our first Christmas card arrived today, as always it is from my eighty-eight year old aunt who writes them during August. She send over two hundred and fifty, many to people she hasn’t seen for thirty years. To be honest, I suspect may of the intended recipients may have moved or even died years go as she hardly receives any in return but I am too polite to suggest this to her. She enjoys her yearly ritual of sitting out in her garden during the height of summer preparing for December! Receiving this fist card always sends me into a bit of a panic so I had better get my address book out and start writing some of my own.

Thanks for reading.

Samantha