Partly in preparation for the impending birth, and partly to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary next week, we left Emma in the hands of her grandparents last night and decamped to a nearby hotel. Chilworth Manor is not the most luxurious of places (it used to be the University’s conference venue) but it served our purpose and the new leisure facilities provided for a very nice swim in the morning. We did, however, make the mistake of walking to the nearby Chilworth Arms for dinner. The walk itself was fine – we even stumbled in to the Chilworth Conservation Area whilst strolling around the grounds of the manor. The service once there was pretty poor: we were given someone else’s starter, the table next to us were brought the bill when they hadn’t asked for it, and the man on the table behind had asked whether a sauce was gluten free when ordering but it was brought to the table without anyone having checked. The food was also pretty variable. The “rustic bread” starter tasted pretty foul and had been drowned in olive oil. Christine enjoyed her salmon but my chicken, mushroom and leek pie mysteriously came with no pastry or other topping. Even the waiter commented that he thought this a little odd for a pie. As with our last visit a few years ago when Christine received a burnt starter, we didn’t pay for the entire meal as Christine found a piece of broken plastic container in her dessert. I think it’ll be a while before we eat there again…