We met at the church car park as usual and the convey made their way over to Irthlingborough, that place made famous by the local football team, Rushden United. Oh, I'm in trouble now. You see once upon a time Rushden was a flourishing small town and had its own footy team called Rushden Town, now it's just a growing expanse of housing and reducing infrastructure to support it (listen up local council, time to bring some shops and entertainment to the town - cinema, bowling etc). Then there was Irthlingborough who also had a footy team called Irthlingborough Diamonds. Someone made the decision to bring the two together. Formally the team is called Rushden and Diamonds, but locals depending on where you sit and outsiders call it "The Rushden", Rushden Town, Rushden Football Club, Irthlingborough Wheelers and all sorts of things. If you go, they also have a special name for the Referee. I never could understand how some normal human beings go to a football match and turn into a ranting raving lunatic. Don't get me wrong I love armchair football, but it's just a game. Anyway where was I, oh yes, so a load of us (around 18) descended on the Eastern Spice. The deal was a full meal at a set price.
We sat down, ordered so drinks and got talking. Discussion included jobs and why we can't work 4 days a week and have 3 days off. Or even better, like Pastor Ian, just work 1 day a week - now I'm really in trouble from the man that probably works 7 days a week! We also discussed the Wii and in particular the Wii Fit. It seems that several of the members have one and there maybe a challenge in the new year.
The starters arrived after a while, a bit delayed but the restaurant was filling up I guess. Nathan necked a pile of Pickled Lime and then confessed that he thought it was Cucumber. Just shows it never touched his tongue, let alone the sides of his mouth.
The having finished the starter and drank more pop, waited, and waited, and waited. During which time Tony decided to referee and game of spoons. Now I have to try and describe this to you. Picture the scene, Tony is sat between Nathan and Luke (Luke is Tony's 10 year old son). Nathan starts by holding a spoon in his mouth. Luke bends forward and Nathan hits Luke on the head with the spoon. Try this, you will find that you get no power from just a flick of the neck (nodding as it were). Then it is Luke's turn and with Nathan now bent down, Luke inflicts a powerful whack on the head. Sitting opposite is the audience including Alan and Simon. Nathan protests at Luke's obvious technique and powerful nodding ability. They each had another 2 goes until Nathan decided to surrender with a sore head.
Now, the audience could see what Nathan could not ... every time he bent down for Luke to hit him with the spoon, Tony sitting in between using perfect time whacked Nathan on the head with a spoon in his hand! We did tell Nathan the secret and he was most put out and attempted to attack Tony with various items left on the table.
Anyway, eventually the main course arrived. Everything was complete and nothing missing. So to the scoring .. Ambiance got 4.2, Quantity got 4.5, Quality a useful 4.4 and price 4.5. All set for a reasonable score, until the staff score came in, which includes speed of service. Here it went a bit wrong as only 3.6 was awarded. Total score 21.2, which was let down by keeping the guys waiting. It was over an hour between courses, which is not good. Anyway, as usual the views and opinions expressed here are entirely our own and represent the experience we had on the night.
We paid up and left for home having had good quality food, but just taking a little too long to arrive. Until next time ...