Hot Chocolate, hot beef sandwich and fries. Blog #2

Hello friend 

Welcome to the second of my Mike53onthemove travel blogs. As you'll soon discover, I haven't wandered too far for this one, although in my last blog I had suggested that I might write about my earliest travel memories, well, that'll just have to wait. 

Memories of a day out aren't always about the place you visit, sometimes they are about the people you meet and chat to. Take yesterday, for example, when my wife and I had a day out at RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate. 

Usually the gardens are busy at this time of day, but not today; we almost have the place to ourselves. No queues for drinks or ice-cream, not that we would entertain an ice-cream in this coldness, no, it's got to be a hot chocolate, the one advertised as 'Luxury', the one containing alcohol, that'll warm us, I am sure.

On our way to the Bird Hide we say hello again to the lady in the tinsel decorated fur hat. People are definitely getting into the Christmas spirit. 

We thought there wouldn't be anyone on the Bird Hide, but we were wrong. It was not quite, standing room only. The smell of soup drifted around the quiet air, when one of our fellow bird watches broke the silence and commented that the soup smelt nice. This started a conversation about the cost of the bought soups compared to the hot chocolate, and the general agreement that the soup was definitely better value.

On our away again, we upped our walking pace: the warm feeling derived from the hot, alcoholic chocolate was beginning to wear off. 

We chatted to one of the gardeners who updated us about a couple of ongoing building projects in the gardens. Later on our attention was caught by another gardener who at first looked as if he was counting buds on tree branches. We stopped to chat. He was actually trying to learn the appearance of 40 tree branches, 20 of which he would be tested on as part of his apprenticeship. This chap, who was probably in his 30s, had had a change of career almost forced upon him during the UK 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. Not an unusual thing, probably. 

Our stomachs began to tell us that it was lunchtime. On another of our trips to Harrogate we'd stopped off for a coffee at the Crimple Bar and Kitchen, which we'd said we'd revisit for lunch sometime. Today was to be that revisit. 

We were greeted by the same man who'd welcomed us last time, but today he and indeed all of the waiting staff were wearing Christmas jumpers. Remind me, how many days is it until Christmas?

An hour later we were on our way home, having each had a hot beef sandwich, that was almost over-filled with the most tender beef, and dressed with just the right amount of tasty gravy, accompanied by sides of fries, all washed down with an above average Americano. 

I took photographs of a few of the trees and bushes in the gardens, but our memories of this day will be of a discussion about hot chocolate versus soup as a Winter warmer, chatting to the apprentice gardener and hearing about his training, oh, and not forgetting the hot beef sandwich on the way home.

Thanks for giving up your time to read this. I look forward to engaging with you in my next blog.

You can follow me on Instagram @Mike53onthemove,  and on Twitter #mike53onthemove. 

Cheers 

Mike. 

© Mike Young 2022.