Birthday fun!

I have just celebrated another birthday, all good fun and they seem to come around faster & faster ..! I thought as last years was so low key I'd try & get out & about & DO something for this one.

And I sort of succeeded..

The lovely FSTeens took me out for lunch on the actual day - to the café at our local garden centre, The Olive Tree. They have recently improved and expanded and now offer wood fired pizzas and waitress service so I was looking forward to it. Luckily we had booked as it was a Friday & rammed and we were pleased to be given a lovely table by the window. But sadly that was the best bit!  Waitress service only works if the waitress / waiter pays attention and puts the correct order in! We ordered 3 pizzas as there were 3 of us. And one pizza, we even pointed to directly on the menu and spelled it out. So imagine our surprise when only 2 pizzas turned up! And the one missing was the one we spelled out ...! We waited about 5 minutes trying to catch someone's eye then I went up to the till to be told "it wasn't on the order". No apology just a pointing out of the "facts". Eventually the pizza arrived (to be fair the boy who brought it did apologise) and then we (foolishly) ordered puds & coffee.

The puds arrived - 3 of them this time - but no sign of any coffee despite the fact I saw the waitress write it down on her order pad. FS-Stepdaughter decided enough already & she went to ask for the manager. Now FS-Stepdaughter is 20, blonde and gorgeous and the way she was treated by the manager was APPALLING! He was beyond patronising - she explained the situation and he offered her a pathetic £3 discount on a £50+ bill then - the best bit - gave her 3 small wrapped biscuits - the type you would get with a coffee!! She was flabbergasted as was I. We will NOT be going back there again in a hurry!!

The next day we all headed out to The Brooklands Hotel near Mercedes Benz world in Weybridge  for "posh" afternoon tea. And learned a salutary lesson in going online for discount vouchers / deals. We were the ONLY people in the whole restaurant paying the full whack (£25pp) for our tower of cakes & sandwiches! Virtually everyone around us had some sort of voucher which got them exactly what we were having PLUS  a glass of prosecco for only £9.50pp! That will teach us. The internet is a wonderful thing. That said the tea itself was delicious and beautifully presented and came with an AMAZING ginger milkshake that was YUM. And I had Happy Birthday written in chocolate on my plate! Plus it was FS-Stepdaughters first experience of an afternoon tea so all was good in the end,