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!

4th August 2010, part two of two

Armed with the exciting news that the pregnant woman we shared a curry with last night has actually gone into labour AND delivered a baby boy I met my crowd at Aston Hall for coffee and to take advantage of the free children's activities on offer.

Aston Hall
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Auntie Anna, Ethan, Naomi, Edward, Susie, Amanda, Ben, Elizabeth, Daniel, Naomi, James, Danni, Naomi, Maddie, Laura, Rachel, Viv and Alex
Bought: Tonnes! Anna bought for us... a coffee, a tea, two slices of cake and three ice creams
Cost: £9
Sat: Outside - the patio was crowded when we arrived and emptied when we left (although threatening weather may have contributed to this as well as the foghorn like racket the kids were making!)

And: This time I asked for my coffee in a mug instead of a cup - which made my drink twice the size. I don't even think I was charged more for it. I noted on the menu that you could buy a 'Cafeteria of coffee' (as opposed to a Cafetiere) which irritated my inner (or not so inner!) pedant!