24th August 2010

It's Tuesday and, much as they regret the fact, the children eat so must also shop! On the plus side was the promise of a sneaky coffee with a myriad of friends afterwards.

Arthur Robertson
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Me and younger three (Ethan occupied elsewhere), Danni and her younger two, Viv and Alex
Bought: A coffee for me and drinks for the children. Made the interesting discovery that you can buy a 'children's coke' for 50p.
Cost: £3.50 ish
Sat: Table 28! Need you ask?

And: A coffee with friends is always welcome. A coffee with children is sometimes a little stressful!

10th August 2010

It's Tuesday, it's eleven am.... but ti's the school holidays! It is far enough into the school holidays for a 9am start to be unrealistic (unless by start you mean breakfast) but still near enough the beginning for me to imagine a sneaky coffee with all the kids might just be, in some small way, a little bit idyllic!

Arthur Robertson
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Anna, Ethan, Naomi, Edward, Susie, Danni, Maddie, Laura, Rachel, Amanda, Ben, Elizabeth, Daniel, Naomi W and James
Served by: A tolerant and sweet bar lady. I had to order five drinks and four of those drinking (mentioning no names but NOT me) changed their choice of drinks several times during the process!
Bought: A black coffee, a hot chocolate, two Pepsi and a smoothie carton
Cost: a bit over a fiver

And: Well the kids got table 28 and the grown ups were relegated to table 29! They weren't awful but it wasn't the most peaceful coffee ever!

3rd August 2010

It's been a while! School holidays do rather infringe on time which should rightfully be devoted to sneaky coffee-ing so today I bit the bullet and suggested an aptly titled 'child infested' sneaky coffee!

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Anna, Ethan, Naomi, Edward, Susie, Danni, Naomi S, Maddie, Laura, Rachel, Viv and Alex
Bought: I used a filled up stamp voucher for my free coffee and bought the children a pepsi, two orange juice and lemonades and a fruit shoot (The filled up voucher was given to me a couple of weeks ago at a promotion in the downstairs mall designed to enlighten people of the fact that The Arthur Robertson actually serves coffee! The man who gave it to me knew me well - and presumably was fully aware of my full awareness of said fact!)
Cost: £5.05
Sat: The adults got table 28, the children rather charmingly sat at the next table and even managed to instigate a 'sort of educational grammar' game!
And: A child infested sneaky coffee may not be quite the same, but it can be fun anyway!

20th July 2010 - part one of two

I almost missed this one! Susie was 'graduating' from nursery and there was a little concert and presentation. It was supposed to last until noon but was pretty much finished by 11am so I skipped out. The songs and poems were lovely and the kids looked cute in caps and gowns.

Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Danni, Amanda, Viv, James
Had: Nothing - felt a bit nauseous :-(

BUT: My girls keep me buoyant even when I feel queasy! Bless them!

16th July 2010

It's Friday, Danni's three younger girls are off school but promise to behave like ladies who breakfast and we both fee this is an important aspect of life for them to be exposed to.

Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Danni, Anna, Maddie, Laura and Rachel
Sat: Table 28
Had: Coffee and a bacon roll

And: The girls were great, as was the coffee and food.

14th July 2010

Excuses excuses.... I cannot even remember. It must have been an afternoon and we may (or may not) have needed to get something from the shops....

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Danni, Anna and Susie

13th July 2010 - part one of two

Oh what a lazy blogger I have been! I apologise and cite end of term weariness as my excuse. Although I am not a teacher the end of term does still consist of a round of parents evenings, productions, celebrations and all manner of other (nice but) time consuming activity. Then I get to look after all the kids for six weeks! More lie ins but much less peace!

Anyway - one whole week ago is where I begin with the traditional Tuesday event!

Arthur Robertson
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Danni, Viv, Amanda, James and Louise (a new companion!)
Details.... sorry cannot remember! I expect I had coffee!

And: We bumped into Louise in the shopping mall. We have known her for years but haven't seen her regularly for ages. Thus it was a lovely treat to catch up.... and the day continued thus!

8th July 2010

I had to go shopping after the school run. I had birthday related things to buy for Edward, who turned seven the following day. I was not trying to distract Danni from her cakes but just wondered if she might need to get supplies from One Stop as well....

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna and Danni
Bought: A large breakfast each! (i.e. a large drink and a pain au chocolat for her and a bacon sandwich for me)
Cost: £1.79 each
Sat: 28 is my favourite number!
And: Is there any better way to start a day that an indulgent (though not wildly so) breakfast with a great friend? I think not!

6th July 2010 - part two of three

The Arthur Robertson

Post Tesco coffee - a crucial part of my week!

Sneaky coffee-ers: Danni, Viv, Amanda and James
Bought: a diet coke today - didn't want last weeks coffee jitters
Cost: Amanda bought it! She texted me from the bar 'What do you want to drink', I replied 'A diet coke', she asked 'What size?', I told her 'Small - and yes to ice and lemon'. This is what a mobile contract with free text messages does to you! Renders you unable to walk five metres and have a proper conversation!
Sat: Table 28

And: Always fab!

29th June 2010 - part one of two

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Danni, Viv and Jane
Served by: Steven
Bought: A large black coffee (then later had a small black coffee bought for me)
Cost: A large costs £1.29 but I bought one for Viv... then she got one for me... not sure!
Sat: Table 28! It should have our names on it really!

And: A sunny childfree Tuesday, a group of relaxed and contented friends, a whole weekend's worth of conversation fodder! Brilliant!

23rd June 2010

Danni is very busy at the moment. She is a cake decorator extrordinaire but not always that organised! Thus she has four cakes to make this week and three of those are wedding cakes or in a wedding cake style - which means even more work. I phoned her mid-morning just so that she wouldn't feel too lonely in her days of crafting icing flowers and piping endless designs - and found she needed a quick trip to the shops for supplies. Would I meet her for a very quick coffee! Let me think.....

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Danni and Susie
Bought: Danni bought me a black coffee and a coke for Susie
Sat: 28!

And: It wasn't very quick but may have been quick! A quick catch up to fortify us both for an afternoon of industry (though I am, as you can see, whiling it away on the computer!)

22nd June 2010

Tuesdays are great. Child-free Tuesdays my favourite day of the week! Sunny childfree Tuesdays bring me to the edge of ecstasy but although this Tuesday was all of these things my joy was tempered by the fact that my Grandad had died on Monday night.

Today's blog is, therefore, dedicated to James Ashdown - a true gentleman, a devoted family man and very fondly remembered by all who knew him. We lost him to Alzheimers Disease a few years ago really and now can really start to grieve for him - but the shock still caused real sadness.

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Danni, Viv, Alex, Amanda, James (Alex was off school with tummy ache)
Bought: Nothing - Amanda not only bought me some flowers as she'd heard about Grandad, but she also bought my coffee. :-)
Sat: Need you ask!? Table 28!

And: My friends are the best in the whole world. My Grandad's death made me sad, but it wasn't a tragedy. He was almost 93 and had lived a full and good life. They were able to let me be sad, but also grateful and happy that I had had him in my life.

18th June 2010

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Anna and Danni
Served by: Matt (though I accidentally called him James as the till told me that was his name!)
Bought: A large (!) coffee and a pain au chocolat
Cost: £1.79
Sat: Table 28
Food: The pain au chocolat was particularly delicious this morning. Really warm (almost hot) and crispy of the outside with gooey chocolate inside.

And: I can now have proper white coffee! I phone Lactofree this week and requested they introduce a portion size UHT version of their product for people, like me, who like to drink their coffee or tea in places other than home. They were ahead of me and yesterday evening a big box of 100 portions arrived!

17th June 2010

I needed to pop to shops this morning so texted Danni on the off chance that she might need to as well... she didn't but we still ended up having coffee!

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Anna and Danni
Served by: Steven - who now greets us like old friends!
Bought: A black coffee and a cappucino
Cost: It was my free 6th coffee!
Sat: NOT at table 28! It was sunny and bright and warm so we sat outside on the 'terrace'. Quote of the day came from Danni who said, when gushing about the glorious weather, "You could be anywhere.... except you're not, you're in Perry Barr"!

And: Short, sweet and precious xxx

15th June 2010 - part one of two

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Viv, Amanda, James and Danni
Served by: Lovely Steven
Bought: A small black coffee (and also had a glass of tap water)
Cost: 99p
Sat: At table 28!

Complaints: My water didn't have ice in it - but that's just picky!

11th June 2010 - part one of two

Sneaky Breakfast with Danni is becoming a tradition I intend to nurture, cherish and absolutely insist upon! At the end of a busy week, with an even busier weekend looming, is there any better pleasure than the company of a good friend and the consumption of a slightly naughty breakfast treat? I think not!

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna and Danni
Served by: The youngish blonde man!
Bought: A coffee and bacon roll for me, a cappuccino and pain au chocolate for her
Cost: £1.49
Sat: Table 28!

And: Lovely! Conversation topics: tantrums (of our children!), end of year exams (for the kids!), the world cup and the importance and value of a sneaky breakfast!

8th June 2010 - part one of two

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Danni, Viv, Amanda, James and Jane
Served by: Steven - who today won favour by noticing we hadn't been in last Tuesday (it was half term - between the five of us we have 24 children!)
Bought: A large black coffee, then Jane bought a 'round' later so I had another one. She accidentally bought one to many cappuccinos so we were there for ages - well after noon by the time we left. My frozen produce was merely chilled!
Cost: My coffee was £1.29
We sat: At our table
Food: Amanda had a bacon sandwich

And: Conversation was lively and varied - we covered lodgers, music, weddings, wine and tool cupboards!

25th May 2010 - part one of three

Well - it does seem that Tuesdays net the most sneaky coffee! Tuesday - or as I like to call them - Childfree Tuesdays - is the day when I have 9am - 3.20pm with not children in my care. I take full advantage of this. It was particularly welcome today. Last night I went to a ladies meeting with my church and we all committed to trying to make one scripture leap from page to life. I hadn't exactly decided which scripture but was erring in the direction of being patient with my children. However - by 8.30am I had failed - utterly and miserably. Thus I was utterly miserable by the time I arrived for the first sneaky coffee. My friends - all of Christian persuasion in this instance - are the gift of God to me at all times but especially today. We've all been there and we are all dependent of God to make up for our inadequacy.

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Anna, Danni, Ellen (Viv's grown up daughter), Viv, Jane, Amanda and little James
Served by: Laura - my new favourite member of staff. She was friendly and polite. She offered me a 'real' teaspoon if I didn't want to use a wooden stirrer, gave me lots of ice (and offered lemon) in the glass of water I requested and later on she brought a colouring sheet and packet of crayons over for James.
Bought: A large black coffee and a glass of water....
Cost: But it was all free as I had a fully stamped loyalty card (i.e. I have bought five coffees)
We sat: At our sofa table
Food: I had a pack of oatcakes to eat... and Danni brought in a pack of Thorntons Caramel Flapjacks - which I cannot eat due to the milk content.
Complaints: None at all!

And? My friends are the best - really really the absolute and very best! Our conversation was such fun, so uplifting and peppered with laughter. I love them.

21st May 2010

I think the Friday morning breakfast with Danni is going to become a fixture. We both enjoy it so much and it costs relatively little in terms of time or money. Today is, as far as I am concerned, the first 'proper' spring day we have had. The sun has shone before now, the air has been warm... but today to two coincided and I deemed it not only a sandals day, but also a shorts day!!!!

Danni was in a hurry this morning and almost cancelled.... but she didn't. We just ate, drank and left without the usual following hour of chat! (Mental note - make sure that I allow twice as long next week!)

The Arthur Robertson
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna and Danni
Bought: A cappuccino and pain au chocolat for Danni, an Americano and bacon sandwich for Anna
Cost: Danni paid!
We sat: NOT at our usual table but at table 55 which was near the open front entrance of the pub (over looking the bus stops!) but far enough from the actual 'patio' area which was full of smokers. We got to see and feel the sunshine - a bit.
Food: They put butter in my bacon sandwich (after expressly requesting that they didn't) which added calories. I don't understand why bacon sandwiches need butter. Mayonnaise maybe but not butter!

And? Lovely as ever. I also took along my 'effervescent energy boost vitamin supplement' tablet with me which I fizzed into a glass of (free) water. Somehow this added to my enjoyment!

18th May 2010 - part two of four

Ok - we were a bit late meeting Viv (who opted not to shop at Tesco this morning - clearly less enamoured of clubcard deals than I am!) but she was late too so all was well!

The Arthur Robertson, 10.45am
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Danni and Viv (apologies from Amanda and James - little James was ill so she could neither shop, nor drink coffee sneakily!)
Served by: Emma - helpful, polite
Bought: A diet Pepsi (with ice) as I had caffeine shakes
Cost: £1.55
Cafe: We sat at our table - of course!
Complaints: My one complaint about the Arthur Robertson is the sheer volume of 'stuff' on the tables. There were about four magazines (all their corporate magazine), three standing up menus, two standing up drinks menus, and two sheets advertising their Tuesday evening 'Steak Club'. I remove the lot to the floor otherwise I can't see my mates to chat to them over the table.

And: Lovely as ever. Viv had even dressed up!