Slightly Drunk Parents Conference: Ashton

With extensive holiday carried over from last year, this weekend we take a long trip down to our favourite West Country resort in Ashton-Under-Hill. It's noticeably our sober-est weekend yet, entirely due to Lucy letting her guard down for a moment and getting up spout, but still an ace weekend of putting the world to rights nevertheless.

I say 'nevertheless' but perhaps it was more-than-usually ace because we were mainly sober-ish?

Anyway, the culinary highlights were thither:

• Because we haven't had it for ages and ages, on Friday night I cook a chilli! I know, crazy, but it just felt right. Like an old friend coming back, this time with a soupcon of cinnamon included into to the spice base. Don't know where I got that idea from..
• Two curries. The first was at Gordon League RFC, and very pleasant it was after my impromptu extended kicking workshop! The second was made by Brenda and DT, and was a lamb and spinach creation by Anjum Anand, which was an amazing combination of spicy, meaty and with a silky texture from the spinach.
• A post cinema visit to Nandos for the boys, followed by party food for Ben's birthday - featuring possibly the 8th or 9th best birthday cake I've ever seen. Points deducted for anatomical incorrectness.
• A less-exciting Thai take away from somewhere in Evesham. It was okay, just a bit cold and underwhelming, so we won't be ordering to deliver here anytime soon.
• A frankly huge ploughman's from the pub.

By the time we got back tonight, I really couldn't be bothered to cook but luckily Ana managed to find some chilli in the freezer - who'd have thought it! So, more chilli for dinner tonight... *sigh*.