Saturday 14th August 2010

The intention for today was for a cycle ride to the Honest Miller in Brook. All of the weather forecasts said that there would be heavy rain by 1pm so we decided to find somewhere else to go. I did a Google search for “cheap pubs kent”. Somehow a pub in Iden came up, The Iden Bell. The menu looked good, plenty of choice for Kat and starting from reasonable prices too, so we amended our plans and set the sat nav for here. We arrived at 12.30 and met up with Heather who was already there with Michael happily snoozing in his pushchair. As soon as Batty arrived, we ordered our dinners. I had scampi and chips, Heather had burger and chips, the boys had steak and mushroom pie, Dave had a pork stuffed marrow special and I had scampi and chips. Four of us had puddings but not me. They were home made and looked lovely, but far too filling. The bill for 6 of us, with drinks, came to £105. Definitely another place to come back to. I had a lovely cuddle with Michael after he had finished his milk. We realised that this was his first trip outside Kent.

We left here with the intention of going to World of Water at Rolvenden but we changed our minds en route and went to Tenterden Garden Centre instead as there is more to see. They have beautiful fish tanks – marine, cold water and tropical - as well as the reptiles, etc and the massive catfish called The Stig. Dave bought some pond accessories. We wandered up to the new spa shop. I bought some crystals for Jose and Maria. We now know where we may be able to get them a present for Christmas.

Home again, and the boys went to the fishing tackle shop. I had to get ready to go to the quiz night in Hastings as we had to leave about 6.30. The venue for the quiz was at The Bullet which is a cafe in Robertson Street. We made our introductions, got our drinks and found seats downstairs. While standing outside with the smokers a little later, I found Dad who was looking even more lost than we were when we turned up earlier. We ate some food from the buffet before the quiz started. Dad joined our team. The quiz was in 2 rounds, 30 questions each round and worked very well. Well done to Jay for doing the questions. With our combined brain power, not mine, we managed to win. We gave the prize money back to the charity. There was a raffle too which Jose one the first prize which was a Blackberry. This went to Maria who is well happy with it.