Quarter Century

Twenty five years ago today, I married Melanie at St Aldates in Oxford.

So, recently we've been celebrating.

We had a party just over a week ago for family and friends. Having had a look at several places, we selected The Gonville Hotel here in Cambridge, and were very pleased. They gave us a superb lunch (the beef was rare, just as we like it, and they did salad without tomato, just as asked). We had a good buffet in the evening as well, although I have to confess to being rather full and not having much room to do more than sample it. We had a regular cake at lunchtime, and then a pile of cupcakes from Dorringtons in the evening. (They do a cardboard stand, but we bought a rather posh perspex arrangement and it looked stunning.)

This last weekend we went down to Ipswich and stayed for a night at the Salthouse Harbour Hotel, on the waterfront. We've never been to Ipswich (except to change at the railway station) so thought this was a good excuse to go to a decent hotel somewhere different. We stayed in one of the penthouse suites (after 25 years you get to treat yourselves) and, yes, it does come with a telescope. The room was spacious and comfortable, the bed luxurious, although the bath and shower were slightly compact and some of the bathroom fittings a bit the worse for wear. We treated ourselves to a joint massage at Flawless Image as well, the Vespers Drift Away, which was really superb.

Just to be silly we walked along to the cinema to see Johnny English Reborn. An OK film, with some really funny bits mixed in with some quite average scenes. In Cambridge, we prefer Cineworld (over the alternative Vue) because the seats are better and there's a better angle to the seating so you can see over the people in front; the one in Ipswich felt a bit tired and tatty.

Before eating, we had a swift drink at Isaacs, the pub on the waterfront next to the Hotel. A decent pint, although clearly it must get a bit rough - plastic glasses and bouncers at the door.

Dinner at the Hotel was good, but slightly disappointing in that our first two menu choices weren't available (we fancied sharing the Chateaubriand), and they had run out of our first choice wine as well. The scallops for the starter were really good, but slight disappointment with dessert as well - no blue on the cheeseboard. The quality of the evening meal we had was good, no doubt about it, but we were just put out a bit by not getting what we were looking forward to three times.


Here's to the next 25 years!