March 2013 Wins & Dumfries Break

1st March 2013:  I received an e-mail to say I'd won tickets to see the illusionist Pete Firman in Blackburn.  Unfortunately we can't make it so the tickets will go to friends.

The third part of our trip exchanged for our theater weekend win, was to the Friars Carse Hotel near Dumfries.

Rather than driving directly to our destination we detoured to the market town of Moffat.  Not over impressed but enjoyed my first haggis of the break in a pub where Robbie Burns had visited.

We arrived at Friars Carse mid afternoon to find a lovely period property.  All the rooms had tree names rather than numbers, ours being Aspen, with lovely views across the fields.

We rapidly unpacked and set off for a walk along the river, the hotel having its own salmon fishing rights along the river.

Our evening was spent in the town of Dumfries strolling the streets, enjoying an Indian meal and ending with a stoll along the river bank.  Cold but enjoyable.

The following day we decided to follow the 'Red Kite Trail' with the intention of spotting the majestic birds and enjoying the spectacular scenery.

We started the day with a walk at the RSPB reserve at Ken Dee Marshes.  We spotted our first Red Kite before we had even reached the car park.

We saw red kites, red squirrels,, willow tit, nuthatch and lots of wildfowl.  A lovely morning.

We continued along the 'Red Kite Trail' spotting lots of the birds. We enjoyed a pleasant lunch in the Smithy Tearoom in New Galloway along the trail.  In the afternoon we visited a red kite feeding station.  Amazingly we saw over 70 of these magnificent birds.

We enjoyed a lovely meal in the hotel that night and slept well.  We awoke, however, to blizzard conditions so set off immediately after breakfast for home.  The journey which should have taken around two and a quarter hours actually took around five and a half hours because of the conditions.  Never mind we've lots of great memories.

February 2013 Wins

February 1st : February started well with a lovely prize from Phones-4-U of a Motorola RAZR i smart phone, a bit of a step up from my old very basic phone.

February 4th: I received an e-mail to from Gfk surveys to say I'd won a £2 Highstreet voucher

February 8th: My first phone call on my lovely new phone turned out to be a phone call from a lady at Manchester Confidential to say I'd won a three course meal for two with a bottle of wine at Livebait in Manchester.

I started with a crab cocktail and Mrs D had tempura prawns.  I followed this with a Goan fish curry and Mrs D had line caught sea bream.  We both opted for the trio of deserts.  We also enjoyed a lovely bottle of white wine.  All in all a lovely evening.

February 20th: A copy of the children's magazine arrived from an online competition and was much enjoyed by my granddaughter. 

February 26th: Following a Google search I found I'd won an Audrey Hepburn documentary DVD from Mature Times.

January 2013 Wins

2^nd Jan: Great start to the New Year it’s only the second and over £500 worth of F. Hinds jewellery courtesy of the Trafford Centre.  The Folded Heart Collection by Sian Hughes – created in 9ct gold, a three layer heart pendant set with a diamond and strung from a 18” fine chain plus matching 12mm earrings strung from a hook wire, creating a drop of 22mm.  Each piece is numbered and signed.   Also the Fan Collection by Rosie Velk, also in 9ct gold – a 20mm fan set with a diamond and strung from an 18” fine box chain plus matching 15mm fan earrings also set with a diamond.  Again each piece is individually numbered and signed.

3^rd Jan: I received an e-mail from Gfk surveys to say I’d won a £2 high street voucher.  The small print kindly informed me that I need not spend it all in one go – would have hated to blow it all at once.

Ironbridge Break

This is the second of the three breaks which we had exchanged for a luxury London Theatre break.

We started our trip with a look around Shrewsbury.  Lots of history and nice tea rooms.

Whilst poking around the backstreets I worked out that Butchers Row would have been the meat market, Fish St would have been the fishmongers.  But what do you suppose went on here?

Our hotel was the Madeley Court Hotel near Telford, which is a Grade 1 listed building.  Even though we had a nice room in a more modern extension it was still a lovely atmospheric place.

We spent the first evening at the lovely ‘Restaurant Severn’ on the main road through Ironbridge.  Unfortunately movement around Ironbridge was restricted as the River Severn was close to bursting it’s banks and flood barriers were in place.  This did not spoil our enjoyment  and the  ‘Restaurant Severn’ provided one of the nicest meals I’ve had.

Day two was spent at some of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. Following a nice English breakfast we drove the 10mins drive to the Blist Hill Victorian Village.  A very enjoyable morning was spent looking around the Victorian village, looking in the period shops and workplaces.

Good old days?

The afternoon was spent at the Coalport museum.  I found most of the pottery displays a bit boring but walking in the huge kilns with interactive displays made up for it.  The glass blowing was also very interesting.

We then walked along the river to the Jackman Tile Museum.  I know this sounds very boring and much of it was.

On returning to the car we decided to drive back into Ironbridge as we had not seen the famous old bridge in the daylight.  Again we were prevented from driving into Ironbridge because of the high water levels, but we managed to park across the river and walk back across the bridge.  It was amazing to think that this was the first iron bridge in the world and that this area because of its innovative ways of creating and using iron in its various forms kick-started the Industrial Revolution.

We spent a lovely evening at the ‘Da Vinci’ restaurant a few doors away from the previous nights ‘Restaurant Severn’.  Hard to believe but the food was nearly as good as the night before. Who’d have thought that Ironbridge would turn out to be a gourmet’s delight.

The third and final day started with a trip to Coalbrookdale.  This brought to life the area that I’d read about in my school history, many years ago.  I came away with a sense of just how unpleasant life would have been back then.

We returned home via Llangollen after another lovely break.