Review: Afternoon Tea at the Cambridge Hilton

One of my book group buddies shares her birthday with John and my dad (yay, December 27th), and she suggested a Girls' Day Out in Cambridge for afternoon tea.

We were recommended the Hilton by another friend who had been there for a party a few months before, so off we went, on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year.

I knew I'd be cranky if I went all the way to 3pm with no food, so Anna Karenina (on my Kindle) and I went for brisket udon just before noon.

The first thing we noticed when we rolled up at our appointed hour was how EMPTY it was. Granted, the weekend between Christmas and New Year isn't going to be their top weekend of the year, but Cambridge itself was packed with people. There were two other tables (and about 4 staff).

First, it took them about 10 minutes to figure out where to seat us. Why, I have no idea. But whatever.

Then, it took at least another 10 for them to ask us if we wanted tea or coffee. I said that we did, but that I had read online that there was a full "tea menu." The waitress looked surprised, then thought for a few moments, and then wandered off and returned with the tea menus, as per teh interwebs. I had a darjeeling, and the other two had Russian Caravan (apparently didn't taste of either Russians or Caravans, which was probably a good thing) and Earl Grey. The tea was lovely, and was in rather snazzy pots that held the leaves in a funny little basket. Only drawback with the tea was that you couldn't remove the leaves to adjust the strength - it got rather stewed by the end.

After about half an hour, the platter below arrived:

On the bottom, sandwiches: salmon, egg & cress, and cucumber & cream cheese. Slightly stale bread (they tasted like they'd been made that morning or the previous day), but otherwise fine.

For the middle tier, the scones were excellent - warm, with very tasty jam and clotted cream.

On the top, a selection of cakes: slices of fruitcake, a chocolate square thingy with raspberry mousse, mince pies, and a cake/cream concoction with a gilded blackberry on top. It was all rather pretty, but I thought that the cakes were too sweet (and the mince pies DEFINITELY came from a factory).

Um, we ate it all.

Overall, I would give the service 2 out of 10, the scones 8 out of 10, and the rest of the food 6 out of 10. We were right next to the window, on very comfy couches, which made the terminally disinterested waitstaff less of an issue. I think there are plenty of other places to eat in Cambridge, where our £14.95 would have produced less food (it was WAY too much), but of higher quality.

The Cambridge Hilton have a great location and good facilities, but it was let down by indifferent service and mediocre food. I would HATE to be there on a busy weekend in the summer (unless possibly we were the victims of "all the normal staff are on vacation." If anyone else has had a different experience, let me know!

Tom Holland in Cambridge

We went to Cambridge a few weeks ago (my iPhone speaker was buzzing and I wanted to get it checked out; Apple replaced the whole phone and sent me on my way!), and we wandered in to Heffers. We were walking over to check out the knitting books, followed by YA fantasy (me) and the model train books (John). I spotted an author doing a signing, and recognised one of the books as one that we have at home (Persian Fire, the blue book in the bottom right corner of the picture below).

"Hey, husband, don't you have that book?"

"Wow! It's Tom Holland!"

"You should buy his books and get them signed!"

The line was 1 person long (not really a line at all), so we stood and chatted to Mr. Holland for about 5 minutes while he signed 2 books for John. Then someone appeared in line behind us and we stopped hogging the author.

It turns out that the copy of Persian Fire we have at home is actually John's second copy; he gave the first one away to someone who he thought would enjoy it. When we mentioned that to Mr. Holland, he looked like he wanted to give John a medal.

We now have 2 new Tom Holland books, both signed. Sweet! I haven't read any of them yet but John thinks they're great.

Review: Breaking Dawn, Part 1

We went on an adventure to Cambridge today. We rode the park and ride bus in to town, and sat downstairs because the bus was crowded. I think we were ahead of schedule, because when we got to the first stop (in record time), the driver pulled out a paperback and started reading (the bus was parked). Teehee! A fellow "I have 30 seconds spare so I may as well read a page or two" reader.

We window-shopped for a while, and then met up with my previously-of-Buxhall bell buddy Alison, who I hadn't seen in ages. We went to Jinling Noodle Bar again (with a backup plan in case they were "full" again), and had three bowls (one each, obv) of brisket udon. YUMSTERS.

Then we went and watched the Best Sparkly Vampire Movie So Far.

A few things.

1. To the Guardian: please do not send a grumpy-ass middle-aged man who does not like the books to review a teenybopper sparkly vampire movie. He will not enjoy it, and we will not enjoy his review. Thank you.

2. To the parents in the theatre who brought two 9-year-old girls to the 12-A movie: there is blood, sex, nudity (sort of), and lots more blood. It's a movie about vampires, for pete's sake. Please leave the kidlings at home. (We actually commented that we enjoyed it less because we were worrying about the long-term emotional impact on aforementioned 9-year-olds.) 

3. To my husband: you rock. Thanks for coming on a girly day out and letting me knit while you drove all the way to Cambridge, took us out to lunch, and then sat through a 2-hour teenybopper sparkly vampire movie.

4. To those of you who enjoyed the first three movies and the books: GO SEE IT. Fun sparkly vampires gazing soulfully at each other and running through the woods and jumping around in their underwear. AND they make fun of the fact that Renesmee is the most redonculous name ever.

ROAR!

Small Cambridge Adventure

We went on An Adventure to Cambridge yesterday, and stumbled upon a really delicious lunch, at Jinling Noodle Bar.  We were walking past, on our way to Wagamama for lunch, when we noticed it. We peeked through the windows and saw lots of happy customers slurping on noodles. Wagamama would wait. This looked better.

I asked the waitress what she recommended, and she said the brisket noodle bowl. Somewhat unlikely, but there you go. It was delicious - the noodles were tasty and just the right consistency, the cabbage was crispy, the brisket was meltingly tender, and the broth was really savoury and not too salty.

Here's the before:

 And the after. Yes, I ate ALL of it.

We were also in John Lewis, where I thought this display of plates was really funny. I've been told by the Husband that we are NOT buying any commemorative Royal Wedding stuff (not even a teatowel!) but the It Should Have Been Me plate cracked me up. As did the Kate's Wedding List plate. She wants a toaster, a dinner set, throw pillows, a new tiara, and Oxfordshire, apparently. Tee hee!

Adventures on two wheels

I spent a day in London a few weeks ago, where I went on a Fat Tire Bike Tour. I went on the Paris tours (and applied for a job as a tour guide) when I lived there. I think Paris is a slightly more bike-friendly city, since most of the London tour was through Hyde Park/Kensington Park/Green Park.

Lovely parks, all, (and the guides were great), but if I only had a weekend to see London and spent it on the insides of the parks, I might be annoyed. As it is, I know London pretty well and enjoyed the spin through town on the bikes. Especially as it was Sunday so the roads around Buckingham Palace were closed.

The bikes all had names (of people mentioned on the tour). I was being shown the town by a Mr. Eric Clapton. We got along very well.

I learned in Paris that taking a picture from the bike while riding is...er...hazardous to your health.  So here is the back of 10 Downing Street with the London Eye in the background.

Continuing the bike theme, John and I took our bikes to Cambridge on the train last weekend. In spite of the extortionate ticket prices (and recent railway strikes by overpaid but disgruntled employees), it was actually pretty painless. Bringing your bikes on the train is free (woot!), and there are special racks for them. I could see how the racks might get kind of full on a weekday, but we had plenty of room when we were going.

We met up for the day with some family friends from New Ro, who were enjoying a vacation in Paris/London/Cambridge. We rode our bikes out to Grantchester, where we hit up The Blue Ball Inn for some extremely tasty warm, flat beer of the Adnams variety. YUM. We then wobbled to another pub for more beer and lunch. Tough life. Then we went into Cambridge itself, where we walked through the gardens of Clare College and went into the Kings' chapel.

If you can't make it good, make it RED.

We had a blast of a day - the weather was gorgeous, the company was great, and we have now decided that the ONLY way to get around Cambridge is by bike. It's a long walk from the station to town, and the car situation is a nightmare. There was even a free bike parking garage at the mall. What more could you want?

Photo Catchup

I'm lazy and have only just uploaded a few weeks' worth of pictures from my camera to the computer. Here is Kate Rusby, singing up a storm:


This one was taken from a rooftop parking lot in Cambridge - the light was so wintry and cold - I HAD to take a picture. Brrr.


And this is the Stowmarket Santa. I think it was the Rotary club or something similar- they were blasting carols and collecting money. It was really funny and oddly surreal, though. Sorry he's a little blurry - I still haven't quite figured out all the camera's settings.


Mom & Dad sent us a care package, which arrived yesterday. It had great stuff: some English Christmas lights from the 1980s that had somehow made their way back to New Ro (and still work!), some personalized ornaments, an ornament from my Grandma's tree, matzo ball soup mix, two of my Harry Potters, and all of my French Horn sheet music. YAHOOO! Since I didn't have the matzo ball soup mix when I was sick last weekend, I had chinese noodles with chicken stock and lettuce - it's definitely in the same genre.


It's been really frosty lately - this is our honeysuckle bush, looking like a Christmas tree (according to James).