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!

20th July 2010 - part two of two

A spare Tuesday and, as the last one in the term, a precious Tuesday presented itself ad we struggled to fill it. None of us needed to go anywhere, no one wanted to spend money uselessly... and then it came to us....

Aston Hall
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Amanda, James and Viv
Had: A coffee, a glass of water and a chicken salad sandwich
Cost: £3.60
Cafe: In converted stable blocks, very nice with stone floor and wooden tables, also a lovely patio area where we sat today as it was warm and muggy albeit not sunny

And: The coffee was nice but only served in cups and I really would have liked a mug. The sandwich was a bit dry. The venue was wonderful with gorgeous gardens to potter about and extensive areas of the hall to explore. I've lived within a couple of miles of the place for 18 years and this is my first visit despite the fact that it is free. I shall be there again over the summer with the children.

13th July 2010 - part two of two

After the traditional post shopping coffee comes a child free afternoon for me. I try (and usually succeed) to use this time wisely - in fellowship and relationship building activity (i.e. coffee). Today we headed to Wednesbury. We had some vague excuse to visit the large Next store there and also Ikea. Upon learning that Next actually featured a coffee shop the decision hardly needed discussion!

Lavazza Coffee, Next, Wednesbury
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Danni, Viv, Amanda, James and Louise M
Bought: A black coffee
Cost: Normal coffee shop price - about £1.50 I think
Cafe: Bright and white! Hard white chairs surrounding hard white tables on a mezzanine floor with two whole walls and the ceiling being glass! In bright sunshine I suspect it would have been uncomfortable hot and painfully bright. As it was actually dull and cloudy this wasn't an issue and the abundance of daylight was lovely.
Position: Upstairs, at the front of the shop with expansive views of the car park and M6

And: The coffee was good, the company exemplary and there was even the interesting side show of filming going on just within our view!

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!

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!

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.

15th June 2010 - part two of two

I love a good excuse! Simon needed some more food for his tropical fish and this food is only available at larger retailers of fish paraphenalia hence a trip to Melbicks was planned. Danni has recently got an allotment so is enthused to buy lots of garden stuff. Viv lives in a newly built house so her garden is a blank canvas in need of garden centre purchases. Amanda is both a keen gardener and shopper! AND Melbicks has a lovely coffee shop. Win win win win win!

Melbicks, Chester Road, Coleshill
Sneaky Coffee-ers: Anna, Danni, Viv, Amanda, Naomi and James
Bought: We all had different things. I had a normal coffee from the 'Starbucks' bit of the coffee shop. I also bought Danni a hazelnut latte as a thank you for a clematis montana she bought for me.
Served by: Polite but not very friendly young lady
Cost: About £4
Cafe: The coffee shop has a large area with classic high tables but also has a large area with coffe tables and leather sofas. We got the very best one with one long sofa and two armchairs. The cafe has a glass roof so it lovely and bright.
Postion: At the rear of the garden centre to the right.
Busy: Reasonably - but who cares? We got the best table!
Food: Amanda bought chocolate cake and Danni bought a tea cake... no complaints from either!

And: I got to have my coffee white as Amanda bought a carton of lactofree milk! She had bought it specially because I had lunch with her the day before and didn't need it herself! Bless her!

Conversation was light and merry!

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!

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 two of three

So a sunny child-free afternoon was in prospect. We all had some bits and pieces to do but concluded that all doing said bits and pieces in the same place (thus enabling further coffee, chat and company) was good sense and so we headed to Walsall.

I had to find sandals for my twelve year old boy. In the fourteenth shop I looked in I found some! It seems that little children (shoe size up to 13) need sandals, as to adults, but middle sized kids are woefully ill-provided for (or have such a heavy duty cycle that sandals need much more regular replacement thus selling out quicker - which sort of fits in as the reason Ethan needed sandals is because the previous pair were chewed by a dog having been left outside overnight). I considered buying pink ones as they were freely available and I thought he may learn a lesson, then I found some Man Utd themed ones which would have, from his perspective, been far worse!

Viv was looking for dictionaries for her 15 year old son and Amanda was after shorts for her ten year old son.... anyone spotting a theme?!

Costa Coffee, The Art Gallery, Walsall
Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Amanda, Viv, Ellen and little James
Served by: a young man and Barbara. Helpful and very happy to give me a glass of iced water.
Bought: A small black coffee
Cost: £1.80
Sat: Outside - warmish and sunnyish

And: I was just happy the hunt for sandals was over! If champagne had been on offer I would have bought it! (Not really!)

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.

11th May 2010 - part two

Pausa Coffee, Dunelm Mill

Sneaky coffee-ers: Anna, Viv, Danni, Amanda and James
Served by: The same man who we may have startled with out enthusiasm last week. Spotted today that his name badge read Phillip. There was also a girl there helping.
Bought: Well - today was not so much coffee as lunch! We'd spotted their meal deals and determined to sample them! I had a panini meal which consisted of a panini (funnily!) which had been warmed and served with salad, a drink (I had Pepsi - the coffee jitters from the two coffees consumed an hour before were still jittering) and a slice of cake (to the value of £1.85!). I chose black cherry and almond slice. The others had sandwiches or baked potatoes.
Cost: My meal deal was £5.49. It meant the cake cost me just 20p.
Busy?: Well it was quite, or at least the tables were not full but the queue was longish. The two staff were working hard but things were not super speedy. My panini sat by the toaster for a few minutes before being 'done' for example.
Food: Well my Tex Mex Chicken panini was lovely - spicy and tasty. The cake was perfectly pleasant. The others reported their food was good too.
Complaints: I had to ask twice for my cake even though it should have been given to me on order. However - this is a minor gripe.

And? Very nice. Good value and a nice place for a post lunch browse. Did a bit of shopping too.

11th May 2010 - part one

The Arthur Robertson

Sneaky Coffee-ers: Anna, Viv, Danni, Jane, Amanda, James (Amanda's 18 month old son)
Served by: Nice chap - asked his name as we visit so regularly. He is called Paul.
Bought: Various coffees - we had two each! I had two black coffees, one large and one small. (Or regular as the menu would have it!)
Cost: Well - the first coffee was free!!! This was thanks to the loyalty card which gives you every 6th drink for free! The second was bought by Jane (thanks!)
Cafe: We got our sofas
Busy: We regularly go immediately after shopping on a Tuesday morning. The earlier we arrive the quieter it tends to be. Today we arrived about 10.45am and it was filling up a bit. Thankfully it is getting busier generally as we would hate it to close due to poor business.

And? I came away with mega caffeine jitters! Two coffees in close succession is not good for a girl who only has de-caff at home (that's probably another post!). Also (and excitingly) I was able to have 'milk' today as I had spotted, on the lowest shelves of Tesco's coffee aisle, a box of ten 'jiggers' of milk which isn't milk if you see what I mean. I bought a box and siphoned two jiggers into my handbag at the checkout only to find, when my precious and kind friend Danni arrived, that she had also spotted the product and bought a box for me! I now can have eighteen more coffee's out without it having to be black! Maybe even a fortnights worth!

As always, with this fine group of friends, conversation was abundant, entertaining and uplifting!