Birthday Weekend

Another year older, another year wider. Actually, that's not true - a few minutes in the pool at the gym every morning are improving my health and keeping that middle-aged spread under control.

Saturday we went to Rockers Steak House, on Mill Road in Cambridge. We noticed it at about the time it opened, wandering along at the Mill Road Winter Fair, and had a meal there earlier this year. That was pretty good, so we went back for more. And the food and service were again excellent - we had the sharing platter, the sirloin and rib-eye, and I broke with my normal tradition by having the chocolate brownie. There are a number of new steak restaurants in Cambridge; Rockers gets my vote.

It's a long bank holiday weekend. We went out Norwich way and stayed Sunday night at Dunston Hall. We keep getting these offers mailed to us by Secret Escapes, and this was about the first time we could use one. The weather was fine, we just wanted to relax and chill. In the afternoon we simply had a drink on the terrace, and I had a basic cream tea - one of the best scones I've had in years. The only real criticism there was they seemed very short on staff, so it took a while to get served. In the evening we skipped the main restaurant for the bar - I went for a different arrangement and had the cheese board (in the dessert section) followed by a lemon tart, both were excellent. And the included breakfast in the morning was pretty good too - sausage, egg, and bacon were just right which makes a change for a hotel - although again they seemed a little short and were struggling to keep everything stocked. But overall, a relaxing and enjoyable day away.

We had a couple of sessions in the pool, which is a decent size. Once we had found it - the hotel is a bit of a rabbit warren.

We asked about spa treatments as well, but they were full. So we went to Imagine at Blofield Heath, just down the road. We had the Luxury half-day for two, which basically means chilling out in their facilities for half a day and having an hour's worth of treatments. We both went for massages - speaking for myself I'm not overly fussed about skin texture, but anything to soothe tired and aching muscles is good. This time, I had the hot stone massage, which was a new one - and worked really well with the heat working on those tense muscles. I found the little stone between the toes a litle odd at first. As well as the usual spa facilities, there's a relaxation room, and a couple of pods in the garden for chilling out in as well, which are really nice. To finish, we had afternoon tea in the garden, sitting by the ponds with a family of newly hatched ducklings for company.