Sabbatablog day 9 - dinner at Dell Quay

 Due to an excellent piece of poor organisation on my behalf - I'd tried to book to take my mum to dinner on her last night visiting us, but managed to get the date wrong ! (we ended up barbecuing at home), I had a spare dinner reservation at a local waterside pub - The Crown and Anchor at Dell Quay.  It's one of the few local places, that is on the water and gets the sun in the evening.

With the weather continuing to be excellent, we had a lovely evening in the sun, a cheeky pint and a burger with the family, the place was heaving but service and quality of food and drinks were excellent, highly recommended.  

Tip for the non-locals, book an outside table if the weather looks good, but a covered garden pod if the weather looks iffy, but note, these don't have a sea view/ in the sun.  The garden pods do get the inside (broader) menu, but the outside table have a slimmed down burger menu (with kids options).

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Sabbatablog day 9 - morning beach trip

 We decided to take a quick early morning run down to Selsey this morning to sit in the sun and have a swim.  Traffic was fairly clear, and the car park was empty (East Beach car park - £1.70 for the day !)

Very quiet and peaceful, had a lovely swim even if it did take a couple of minutes to get used to the temperature.

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Sabbatablog weekend 1 (family celebrations)

 Continuing the theme of celebrating Mrs W's birthday, we enjoyed the extended spell of lovely weather with a family barbecue, hosted by my brother and sister-in-law.

My Brother in law did sous vide steak, blackened on the barbecue, which was excellent, we also managed to fit in watching the British GP over a beer or two, so a very pleasant Sunday all in all

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Sabbatablog day 5 - Mrs W's birthday

 Mrs W's birthday today, so out to dinner (again) to Purchases in Chichester.  We travelled back from Bath today, and slotted into sabbatical life (watching the British GP practice, and The Open).  Enjoying a beer in the back garden in this rather lovely weather...

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Sabbatablog day 4 - Visiting Bath

 We're in Bath for a couple of days primarily to celebrate Mrs W's birthday, but it's also the first night we've spent away from the kids for about 18 months, largely due to the pandemic.

It won't go down as the most cultural of trips, but much fun was had spending time together, being indulgent (shopping, daytime drinking, and lots of eating), so a much needed reconnect and recharge.

We stayed at Hotel Indigo (recommended, we like the one in York, and while this one is a bit posher, all the bits you want to work still do (great, attentive staff, free mini bar etc.). It's got a lovely city centre location, and a great bar to sit outside at and watch the world go by.

We ate at Pintxo the first night (good, very reasonably priced tapas), we sat outside among the main young diners, definitively raising the average age.  Food from the daily specials was great, if not that far off the beaten track.  We did also get a recommendation for Ole tapas, but didn't get to try that.

Last night we ate at Henry's which I'd guess you'd call modern European.  A fixed 5 or 7 course tasting menu, also with veggie options.  We went 5 course, with meat and fish. Yellowfin Tuna, crab raviolo (the singular of ravioli as I learnt last night). Followed up with an amazing beetroot dish (generally I hate beetroot), then amazing lamb, and finished with Chocolate tart.  Top menu, with no set wine flight (yup we're food snobs) we (with the help of the very attentive waitress) fashioned our own, with a lovely Shiraz and nice Tokay to finish.

Here's the view from the Southgate shopping area !

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Sabbatablog day 2a - Lordington Lavender

 I hate posed photos, so when Mrs W said we were going to have some photos taken, I was somewhat suspicious.  However two things mitigated my mood, firstly the photos were going to be taken at Lordington Lavender (link) and the second was that school friend photographer and all round good egg Ali Gaudian (link)nwas taking the photos.

Ali made the shoot lots of fun and very relaxing, and the setting was amazing, so hopefully the photos will come out nicely, but here's a couple I took on the way out last night

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Sabbatablog day 2 - Beer and Jazz in Oaklands Park with Nelson

 10 weeks off, no travel plans - all feels very strange

Today’s post is from the Chichester Festival Theatre, where it’s press night for South Pacific. We actually went on opening night last week, but tonight I’m guessing the great and the good are expected. Still there’s a jazz band playing so after our walk Nelson and I stopped off for a beer (well I did anyway)

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