SWMBO and I spent New Year away this year, combining my middle god daughters 21st birthday with a chance to escape home life. We had eighteen for Christmas dinner and then 40 odd on Boxing Day as well as Emma's 30th on 23rd Dec. Two big do's back to back will not be repeated.
Anyway, we spent six hours on various parts of the English motorway system, stopping only for petrol and a coffee, trying to get to the 21st birthday. We left Scouseland at 10:00 expecting to be there for lunch, but arrived so late that that was all finished. The motorways in England are a bit like EasyJet, great when they work but the worst of the worst when there is even the slightest problem. The invitation did, however, motivate me to book a New Year's break. The challenge was where to go, as we had never done this sort of thing before.
The first thoughts take one back to tried and trusted locations. The Manor House on Dartmoor , now called Bovey Hall, has a wonderful golf course, and as well as laying on cookery demonstrations, there was ferret racing, organised walks and cream tea's. The price for two nights over New Year was over £2500 so I gave that one a miss. Moving closer to the party location, the New Forest had a certain appeal, so I tried the Lyndhurst Park hotel which I used to use when I was running education classes for IBM in the late 70's and early 80's. The girl on the switchboard was a bit slow and did not really do a good job of selling their gala dinner to me, so it was down to random hits on the internet.
The Christchurch Harbour Hotel won the vote, so tired and hungry we arrived in Mudeford to enjoy four days of unbridled pampering.
The first day we went to Highcliffe to blow away the cobwebs, then hit a Thai restaurant in the local pub. It was quiz night, but no drag queens in sight on this occasion. Next day we went to Burley and surprised ourselves by buying a walking guide and yomping through the New Forest for most of the day. This will shock our walking friends, although they will be reassured by the fact SWMBO had on a full length camel coat and I was in my pea coat!! You can't beat spontaneity
Joy of joys on the way back as we stumbled upon a Fuller's pub not too far from the hotel so a couple of pints of Pride were consumed in no time!
Our final outing was to Poole harbour and Sandbanks. Poole harbour has a most interesting and concentrated array of pub's as well as being home to the SunSeeker motor cruiser industry. Sandbanks is one of the most expensive areas of real estate in the Country. Not sure why exactly as very few properties have much land, and there must be equally impressive sea views elsewhere.
New Year's Eve was very pleasant. 140 people sat down for a black tie event which was relaxed and entertaining all at the same time. We may well do it again.
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