Meal Deal

When does a boy become a man?  I think the time when a boy has the desire and ability to become independent, to be able to support himself and those dependent on him, is when a boy turns into a man.  I often think about ‘Future Darwin’ and I truly hope that when he is a man we will hug, make each other laugh, occasionally wrestle (if I can!), and love each other as much as I love him now.

I was thinking this whilst sat in the ball pool with him at the ‘shit pub’.  He isn't yet old or large enough to be set free in the over 5’s section where kids charge around excitedly like little hippos on acid, so he gets confined to the little people area.

And in this instance it was wrong to call the pub the ‘shit pub’.  We had met up with Kerry’s family due to it being both her Brother and her Mother’s birthday.  The initial plan was to meet at a ‘Harvester’-esque type pub (I say Harvester, I could easily mean Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Hungry Horse, Wetherspoons, Little Chef, Slug & Lettuce, Taybarns, etc...) near Bury.  One of those places where ‘Meal Deals’ occur.  I usually like descriptive words that rhyme but I don't like 'Meal Deal', it has the opposite affect on me.  I don't mind 'Toy Boy' or 'Fag Hag' or 'Bum Chum', but 'Meal Deal' really irks me.

 The Bury thing was rammed.  It was like a farmer was treating his herd of cattle to sugar coated hay on Christmas Day.  But it was full of sour faced people (+ 1 woman in pyjamas!), who had probably watched Masterchef the night before and after spending £4.99 on a 2 Sunday roasts they were disgusted that there wasn't a quail egg or truffle in sight.  At Bury we were told that there would be a minimum of an hour’s wait, and we were also told that it would be no surprise if that hour turned into 2 hours, so we went to the pub in Rossendale instead.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not being snobbish.  Like everything, restaurants are all about Quality vs. Price and they are directly relational.  If I pay £150 for a meal I expect the quality & service to be second to none.  If I pay £5 for a meal then my expectations lower.  And what you get for what you pay, particularly at the Rossendale place, the deal is fantastic.  The service is great, the food is better than what I expect and the cost is fantastic.  Any snobbery I do feel is not towards the food, service or premises, it’s more to the type of folk it attracts.  And I can’t talk because it occasionally attracts me!

Any road, we all had a splendid time.  Piggy enjoyed the food, we got a machine made candy floss and we played in the ball pool.

"Chrissy B"

"Shnai & Piggy"

"Richard & Shnai"