Ladies Who Lunch, Dahling!

Life for me is still a bit non-stop but "I swear I shall not whinge about not nuffink no-how on my blog" is my motto. So I'm not. I'm very grateful that I'm so busy and that everything's going so well. I just mention my busy-ness as a reason why I haven't blogged for days on end.

As the Brecons retreat sold out in a matter of hours *Chrissie raises both eyebrows and shakes her head in a 'how mad is that?' manner*, we decided to have 'overflow' accommodation at a hotel in Crickhowell, which is less than 2 minutes' drive from the Manor Hotel. So Sue and I had the arduous task *snort* on Monday (20th) of going to beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful Crickhowell and its environs to scope out hotel numero dos with a view to opening bookings there.

The Dragon Hotel, it turns out, is just lush. In fact Sue said, "Mmmm...I like this hotel. And THIS *she points into a doorway of a bedroom we were looking in* is my room. 'Kay?!" Oooookaaaaay then! It overlooks the quaint High Street in beautiful beautiful beautiful Crickhowell, and the bedrooms are very well decorated (the owner has taste...there's not a piece of 'Fusion' paper in sight...I think Fusion paper looks like dodgy hotel curtains...peachy early 90s throwbacks of gack-ness). And it's all very clean and so on, blah blah blah. Lush.
Here's Susie-Woo standing in the doorway of the hotel (which I admit is terribly pink on the outside, but not so on the inside!). To the left of the hotel is the little drive that leads to the car park at the back, which is plenty spacious. However, that entrance way is not, and Sue and I were both terrified for the very lives of our vehicles' paintwork as we were driving in. You can see how close the two buildings are in this piccie. We both had to bring our wing-mirrors in to ensure no scrapage and I'm willing to bet Americans hyperventilate and go park their cars halfway up the street rather than negotiate it! LOL. Those pesky people in the 1600s just were so self-absorbed, and didn't take one moment to think about us poor car drivers. Tsk.

When we left The Dragon we timed our journey up to The Manor Hotel, where the retreat will take place, and it was 2 1/2 minutes flat, including edging out cautiously from the narrow walls, which (scarily) had car scrape marks up either side. However, I reckon it'll take our retreat guests a couple of hours to get up to the Manor (at least) one morning, because they'll discover all the lovely lovely lovely lovely shops on the high street and be sucked in, spending time pottering in their loveliness. Butchers shops with homemade chutneys and goose eggs on the counter, or the faaaaaaaabulous art gallery which Sue and I wanted to steal things from last April (see here under entry of Sunday, April 9th). We had a good wander around a couple of the shops again on Monday (I was looking for a birthday present for Mother-in-Law and found the most gorgeous vase - when MIL wrestled the wrapped package out of my hands that evening, I said "If you don't like it, I'm taking it back 'cos I LOVE it." But she did, so poo-bums.) Here's the view of the hotel from halfway up the high street, with the mountains of the Beacons in the background (horrid isn't it?).

We then had a ladies that lunch afternoon of pampering. It's my birthday on Saturday and I thought, "Oh what the heck!" We drove up to Peterstone Court Hotel, which is a stunning Georgian house about 10-15 minutes further into the Brecon Beacons (and sister hotel to The Manor), and indulged in having a pedicure, chilling out in their relaxation room (and I very nearly did fall asleep), and then ate the most delicious lunch. We felt terribly spoiled and it was GREAT! Gorgeous building just for starters...which I told Sue she had to buy for me because it was my birthday *stamps feet in a petulant manner* and she did say "okay" so "yey...go me!" Johnny Depp was there in the summer apparently. Can I have him thrown into my birthday present package as well please?

Here are our pretty feet. Well, okay...perhaps not 'pretty'. Pampered...yes, pampered would be a better word! They were washed in a lemongrass infused bowl of warm water, followed by an exfoliating scrub, followed by toenails being decuticled, cut and shaped, followed by hard skin being got rid of (sorry if you're eating while you're reading this - LOL), followed by hot paraffin wax being painted all over them (very strange sensation...I felt like a candle!) and left to warm and soften my feet, followed by a moisturiser and foot massage, followed by pretty pretty toenail varnish. My feet have never had it so good!

And here's our lunch.

Ah me...what a lovely afternoon. And then, on the way back to Crickhowell to get Sue's car, we took these pictures of the countryside...these shots are 2 or 3 minutes' drive from the hotel, and no Photoshop doctoring of any sort done on the colours or light or nuffink. So, all you Brecons 2 Time Outers out there...how much of a happy dance are you doing now then?!!

Oh. And the Dragon Hotel? Booking went live last night at 7.30, and every room bar ONE had gone by 9.15pm. So...if you want it...