As I have mentioned in previous posts, Allan and I had a few days away from Sunday to Tuesday and I thought I would let you know what we got up to!
For Christmas Tommy and Michelle very kindly got us a voucher for a night in a hotel with dinner and breakfast. The voucher included a big list of hotels that we could choose from. As we had already planned to go away to Manchester on the Monday night (I will tell you more about this in a minute!) we decided to use The voucher on the Sunday night so that we could have a nice couple of nights away and make it a nice little mini holiday. After studying all the hotels on the voucher we decided on The Mercure Kidderminster. We chose this hotel because it isn't too much of a journey both from home and to Manchester (it took around an hour and a half to get there from home and around and hour and 45 minutes to get from there to Manchester) and it also had good trip advisor reviews.
At around midday on the Sunday afternoon we dropped Rosie off at my mum and dads (she was very excited to be staying there for a few nights, she thought she was going on her own holiday!) We made sure Rosie was all settled in then we set off fo Kidderminster. It was a very nice drive, lovely surroundings and the traffic was great. We arrived at the Mercure Kidderminster at around 2pm just in time for check in. First impressions were great, it is a very lovely building in beautiful country surroundings. We instantly felt relaxed.
We went to reception to check in and were greeted by a very nice lady who made us feel very welcome, checked us in very quickly and gave us directions to our room. The voucher included a standard double room however Allan treated us to a room upgrade which meant we got a bigger and more modern room, robes and slippers, unlimited movies and much to Allan's delight a nespresso machine. We walked into our room and were very impressed. It was very modern and clean, smelled lovely and thanks to a big bay window it was very bright and airy.
Thanks to the big window and our room being on the ground floor it meant I managed to get a lovely picture of the beautiful sunset, it really was so peaceful.
After a nice lazy afternoon/evening in front of the tv it was soon time to get ready to go down for dinner. We had a table booked in the restaurant for 8pm but decided to go down at 7pm and sit in the bar and have a drink before dinner. Again the staff were all very friendly and we felt very comfortable and welcome.
At 8pm we went into the restaurant and chose our meals. Allan chose Pork and Duck Terrine to start and The Fusion Burger (a spicy tandoori chicken breast topped with onion bhaji and mango Mayo between 2 Naan breads) for his main. I chose not to have a starter because everytime I have one I always end up too full to finish my main and I chose to have the sirloin steak cooked rare for my main. Allan's starter arrived very quickly and it looked beautiful, he confirmed it tasted as good as it looked if not better. After allan had finished his starter we both waited for our main courses which again arrived very quickly.
Allan's fusion burger came with sweet potato chips and smelled absolutely scrummy. He gave me a taste of it and tasted even better than it smelled. He said it was the best burger he thinks he has ever tasted.
My steak was HUGE and came with chips, salad, garlic mushrooms, peppercorn sauce and onion rings (which I shared with Allan). It was SO yummy. The steak was cooked perfectly rare and the chips were by far some of the best chips ive ever had (although I'm sure they were probably the most fattening, the best always are!). Safe to say I couldn't finish it all, especially when I've been dieting and my stomach has shrunk a bit.. I mean just LOOK how much there was!.. Soooo good though!
We gave it a while, had a drink and a lovely chat, then ordered desserts. Allan ordered the Salted Caramel Sundae and I ordered Strawberry Ice Cream (I didn't wasn't anything too filling as I was already still pretty stuffed from the steak!). Again, these were both delicious.
The voucher we had gave us £22.50 per person towards dinner and we only ended up having to put £5 towards it. Therefore that means the whole meal only came to £50. For the quality of food we got we felt like this was a very reasonable price and we would have happily payed it even if we didn't have the voucher.
After dinner we decided to get some more drinks from the bar and go back to our room to put our pjs on and watch one of the movies.
We went through the list a few times trying to decide what to watch, there were so many films on there that we hadn't seen. However we ended up going with one of our faves, love actually! (Yes, even Allan loves this film, I think everyone does even if they don't want to admit it!) it is just so funny and makes you feel all fuzzy inside, just love love LOVE it. It was the perfect film to watch on a nice evening away as a couple and we laughed non stop all the way through it.
Once the film had finished we settled down to sleep in the really comfy bed. We were woken in the middle of the night by the couple in the room next door shouting but I smacked on the walls and shouted "shut up" a few times and they soon got the point!
The next morning we got up nice and early and went down for breakfast. The waitress came over and took our hot food order and told us to help ourselves to toast and the continental buffet while we waited for it to arrive. Just like the food the night before, breakfast was really delicious,
After breakfast we went back to the room, had a cup of coffee and watched some Jeremy Kyle (I know, I know!) then checked out at around 11am.
I must say, we were very disappointed to be leaving the Mercure Kidderminster. Our time there flew by and we really did enjoy it. We have already said that we will go back again for a few nights sometime.
Although we were sad to have to leave Kidderminster we were also very excited to get to Manchester! This is because we had tickets to go and see..
We booked the tickets the day they went on sale and have been super excited about it since! We are both massive fans of Peter Kay, particularly Phoenix Nights. It really is genius.
We decided to stay in The Trafford Centre Premier Inn and drive into manchester for the show (we pre booked a parking space in the arena car park). This is because staying there and paying to park was still half the price of the hotels in the city centre (we all know how much they put their prices up if there is an event on!). We arrived at The Trafford Centre at around 1pm and as we couldn't check into the Premier Inn until 2pm we decided to go for a walk around The Trafford Centre for a while. Now, I usually love The Trafford Centre but this time it was just SO hot in there that we couldn't wait to get out of there!
We checked into the Premier Inn at 2pm and just spent the afternoon watching TV before driving into Manchester for Phoenix Nights. Now if you ever go to Manchester Arena for anything I highly recommend pre booking your parking space. As some of you may know, trying to get out of an arena car park after a show can be a nightmare. However, we arrived, the machine recognised our number plate that we had put in when we pre booked, the barrier came up and we were shown to our dedicated parking space by a member of staff. The space was right on the ground floor and reserved spaces even had a special lane meaning you could get out straight away at the end. It was only around £5 (maybe even a bit less?!) extra to do this and I promise you it's well worth it!
We walked into the arena and found our seats. Not bad ones actually!..
Now.. The show.. We weren't sure what to expect but we weren't let down AT ALL. In fact, it was better than we ever imagined it would be. You really did feel like you were sat watching a show in the actual Phoenix Club. It started with Brian Potter (Peter Kay) coming down a stairlift, getting stuck and having to be airlifted down by emergency services (with his trousers falling down in the process). Straight away you knew it was going to be hilarious..
The show had all the favourite characters in it including Brian Potter, Jerry "the Saint" StClair Dignan, DJ Ray Von, Les Alanos, Young Kenny, Kenny Dalglish Senior, Holy Mary, Clinton Baptiste and of course Max and Paddy. It also included lots of the best bits and catchphrases from Phoenix Nights. One of the best bits had to be Jerrys compilation of songs including "Real Slim Shady" "Gangsters Paradise" "Dont Cha" and the best of all.. "Black Bin Bags"!!
It really was a fantastic show and I don't think I have ever laughed so much at a show. The fact that they are giving every penny they make from it to Comic Relief just makes it even better. Well done guys, you should be extremely proud of yourselves!. Now here's hoping they make another series!
After the show, we drove back to The Trafford Centre and had a bite to eat before going to bed, we were shattered!
The next morning we had planned to go round the Trafford centre for a few hours then go for lunch before heading home. However because it was so hot and uncomfortable the day before we decided to stop off in Chester on the way home instead.
We really did have a lovely few days away together. It was so nice to be just the 2 of us as it doesn't happen very often. We laughed non stop and made some more lovely memories, hope we can do it again soon :) Thank You Allan for being such good company!
Anna
Xx
