Our Anniversary (21st) started well. I awoke to an email from the premium bond people who advised that I should, ‘take a seat before before clicking the link’ to find out how much I’d won. Of course I didn’t have the account number and couldn’t check the winnings as I’m new to Premium Bonds. Instead I clicked the link to discover the newly made millionaires but could find no males in mid Wales that were suddenly minted. I scrolled down to the £100k brigade but none fitted my description. The list gave out at £5k and a ‘woman in Wales’ had won that prize. Later, Sally logged on and found I was the proud winner of £100!
Our Anniversary breakfast was at a pavement cafe in Welshpool where the pre-COVID bustle had been restored. By mid afternoon I thought it was time to book our Anniversary dinner and that’s when things started to go wrong. Warm summer weather during half term meant that all tables everywhere were booked out. I phoned everywhere I could think of. Eventually I rang a very posh place in Berriew where the lady almost considered opening specially for us when I told them of my anniversary foul-up. ‘But wait’ the nice lady said, ‘our friends run a very upmarket Chinese in an otherwise down at heel pub called the Brithen. They’re sure to have a table for you’.
The route to the Brithen Inn is quite cross-country and a our satnav showed a wiggly line that we tried to follow until we discovered it was the English/Welsh border! Eventually we pulled up in the pub car park and confirmed that it was indeed as shabby as described. ‘No matter, the food will be great’ I told Sally, hopefully!
But the food wasn’t great and the tables were somewhat sticky. The internal decor was carefully chosen to match the external appearance.
The good thing was that when the bill arrived I’d still got plenty of change from my winnings!
The 40 mile return journey up and down sun bathed narrow lanes and national borders took us 1 hour 28 minutes and used 8 KWatt hours of electricity. That’s £1.20 in real money leaving Sally (the treasurer) pleased with the celebration even if her Anniversary meal wasn’t all that it might have been.