Great News For 2 Reasons,

firstly it was Diana's day off so first thing we were out, 

I should say I am only making one post today as it is Wednesday, so first thing I am off to visit Duncan, back to Tuesday the second piece of good news was that Jil called us from the Philippines, we had a brief chat as we were almost out of the door, but he will call back in a couple of days, so into the car and 10 minutes later we were in a traffic queue due to roadworks, it took an age, as wait for it, the traffic lights for the road works were stuck on red, both ways! just our luck as we wanted to make an early start, 

ignoring the red light we made our way through the lights, the trees by the road side having been trimmed for the winter reminded Diana of the Baobab trees in Madagascar, 

we passed signs of spring, cherry trees in flower everywhere, the satnav advised us of major road works, 

so it took us the scenic route, 

past lots more spring flowers,

the roads got narrower, 

and more twisty,

as time went on, on reflection it would have been quicker to have suffered the traffic jam, but at least we were seeing a part of Surrey that we had not seen before,

and then there it was, the Dorking chicken, 

we were here, so car parked up, 

and into Dorking High Street, 

we made our way in the drizzle looking at the shops, 

and pubs on the way, 

to nowhere in particular,

a quick look into what seemed to be a new shopping mall,

which was deserted, 

but there was another chicken here, 

keeping its beady eye on the mall,

back into the High Street, 

cakes!

this looked interesting for breakfast/lunch, 

a hotel/pub/restaurant, The White Horse, 

a little about the history of the building, 

we carried on walking, past a florist, 

that had a show of flowers, 

on both sides of the pavement,

shops opposite,

many of an age, 

one thing about Dorking, 

it has so many antique shops, even more antique shops than charity shops, and that is saying something nowadays!

but this was more me, 

a model shop, 

with completed models in the window,

in this one, 

although difficult to see a huge German train gun, in all it must have been over 3 feet long, fortunately the shop was closed, or I might have been tempted to buy a model,

we carried on our walk,

looking at the different buildings,

like this pub, 

the Kings Arms, the legend outside,

I thought at first this was the old town hall, but it was in fact a church,

so many wonderful old buildings in the town,

a quick pose as we made our way back to the main High Street,

we just had to call in here, for some local produce, 

a shop made pork pie for later this evening,

we had decided on The White Horse for our meal,

so inside we went, 

a coffee latté, 

as we waited for our starters to arrive, no alcohol for me today as I am driving, our starters arrived,

Diana choose rope-grown Fowey mussels in a white wine & shallot sauce, with a baguette,

for myself a prawn and crayfish cocktail, with lime & paprika mayonnaise, avocado and a king prawn topping,

'Cheers!',

then it was a double 'Cheers!', from Diana, we both ordered the St Austell’s beef and ale pie, with mash, baby onion & mushroom gravy & a Tribute Ale taster,

talk about the fates being cruel,

 the one day I can not drink and 2 ales, 1 each are included in the meal!

of course Diana thought it was hilarious, 

in all of the meals we have had, not one has included as a part of the meal alcohol!

Diana tried her best, but she really did not like the ale, 

I had to laugh, looking at the ales, 

so eyes down and tuck in, the bill including service charge came to £70.95, there were so many road works on the way to Dorking I choose our route home carefully, 

but not carefully enough, 

if only they had let one more car through we would have made it, but no the powers that be made everyone walk into the road in front of us, 

after a few attempts, 

and what seemed like an age the artic finally made it, 

we drove past a familiar sight, Coombe Road garden, we have visited here a few times before, 

we were soon on the home stretch, 

but first,

a call into Waitrose for some coleslaw and potato salad to accompany our pie for this evenings meal,

into the park, 

and past the magnolia tree in one of the residents gardens, arriving home it was feet up for a coffee,

image IMDB and a Dickenson's Real Deal, followed by one episode of The Chase, 

time for our evening meal, the pork pie we bought in Dorking along with beetroot, silver skin onions, gherkins, coleslaw and potato salad, delicious! it does not look much, but it was so filling, 

we settled down for the evening watching a film I had watched before but Diana had not, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which was directed by Wes Anderson, a delightful film of 4 stories by Roald Dahl, 

we rounded off the evening with another film that I had watched before, The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese starring amongst others Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, what more could a gangster movie want? at three and a half hours long the movie looked at the life of those involved as reminiscence of an old man as he prepares for his own death, what a great movie, after which we were off to bed.