While we were in Italy earlier this month, Kristy and I made a bet about how often the bells from our local bell tower chimed in the morning – 15 minutes said I, whilst the wife went for every half hour. The loser of the bet – which turned out to be me – had to take the winner out to dinner at a restaurant of their choosing, and so on Monday night, off we trotted to Charlotte’s Bistro on Turnham Green Terrace.

Currently – perhaps as an opening special – they’re offering a great deal of a 3 course meal, plus a glass of wine, and unlimited sparkle sparkle for only £25 a head. Not bad at all! Their menu is fairly short and sweet, yet we each found ourselves with multiple selections that we had to whittle down. I ended up with mushroom risotto followed by the steak; Kristy went for watercress soup followed by the chicken. All of the meals were delicious, though perhaps a little on the heavy side – the chef’s motto seemed to be, “when in doubt, add more butter”. Indeed.

Though the meals were delicious, it was dessert where they really shined. My honey tart was great, and its side of peanut butter ice-cream was amazing! And check out Kristy’s macadamia brownie with pecan ice-cream!

Overall a smashing success, and with a very friendly cast of staff members, there’s really not a bad word to be said about it.

Stacey is down for the weekend! It’s so good to see her again; it feels forever since we’ve seen her! But unfortunately I’ve woken up with a touch of a cold (sore throat, low energy, headaches), which is totally not good! Things didn’t get any better when we discovered the house is almost completely void of food, so figuring that a decent meal is needed for some cold-fighting energy, and to finally finish off the £5 breakfast challenge, we headed to Natalizi for the full English. Kristy joined us later after she’d finished up at the gym.

As you can see, it was a very comprehensive breakfast – two pieces of toast with butter, baked beans, a sausage, bacon, eggs, tomato, and mushrooms. In terms of taste – sure, it’s not the best breakfast you’ll ever eat in your entire life, but it was good – really good, actually, given that my taste buds were suffering a bit with the sickness.

But the big winner for Natalizi is the service. The staff were so, so nice! Everyone was happy and smiley! And if you look closely, even the meal is smiley!

The breakfasts were £4.90 each, which included a coffee or tea of choice. We both went for tea since we had coffied before leaving home, but I was pleased to see they used Lavazza beans (which generally is a good sign), and their espresso machine was quite clean. I’d feel confident in ordering a latte there. Each of us also had a large glass of very freshly squeezed OJ, which at the reasonable price of only £2, brought our meal total to £13.90.

Given that all of the restaurants offer a pretty similar meal for around fiver, there’s really not much you can use to differentiate between them. And yet, Natalizi was by far my favourite – simply because of how friendly the staff were. They really made you feel like you were their favourite customer, who they were pleased to see every Saturday morning. It’s now my new favourite place for breakfast, and I will definitely be going back there. gerrod.com rating: 10/10.

Venue number four in the £5 Breakfast Challenge was Sandwich Box, which is the last one on our side of the road before Acton Lane. Given that it’s right next to the Luna Caffe it’s pretty easy to miss, or at least to mistake them as the same place!

Coming in at only £4, including a coffee or tea (with no extra charge for a latte), their Full English Breakfast is easily the best value that we’ve encountered so far. Their coffee was really good, too – a little on the large size for me, but the favour was great.

As you can see, the food was also generously proportioned: two eggs, two pieces of toast, a sausage, two rashers of bacon, a hashbrown, baked beans, mushrooms, and tomato. On the plus side, the eggs were perfectly cooked, with solid whites but runny yolks. I also quite enjoyed the sausage – a little salty, but it had a nice smokey flavour, like at Luna.

The rest of the meal tasted good enough (though once again I wasn’t a fan of the bacon); however this is the first place we’ve eaten at and felt a bit shady afterwards. Perhaps it was from the sheer quantity of food, though we both think that the quality of the ingredients may have been on the lower side of average.

They also lose points for not offering any fresh juice; I had trouble with the bird’s accent and couldn’t work out if they had run out or if they simply didn’t have it, but I suspect it’s the latter.

To their credit, we walked away feeling very full, and at only nine quid for our two breakfasts and a bottle of juice, my wallet didn’t even take too big a hit. If I was only after a coffee, then Sandwich Box would be top of my list of places to revisit, but for breakfast, I think we’ll be taking our money elsewhere. gerrod.com rating: 7/10.

Definitely the biggest problem of all the snow is all the ice that forms afterwards. And, since temperatures have regularly been below zero, the ice has taken an age to melt. Thankfully, neither of us have fallen victim to it yet, but I’ve certainly seen people who have – and it doesn’t look like too much fun!

This is what the platform at Gunnersbury station looked like on Friday morning.

And here’s where our car is parked on the street. The ice on the footpath was about a centimetre thick, which made it pretty tricky getting in and out of the car doors! On the upside, it was a bit warmer on Sunday (somewhere around two degrees) so the ice finally started to subside a bit. Plus, all the build-up on the car meant I got to put my ice-scraping skills to good use!

We took Gazpacho for a spin on Saturday because we were out of groceries (and we weren’t the only ones with that idea; Tescos was rammed). That’s the first time I’ve ever driven on ice, and I’ve gotta say, I don’t like it. It’s somewhat discomforting when you spin the steering wheel but the car doesn’t actually start turning. Thank goodness the brakes still worked!

Suzie convinced me to come for a drink or two after work on Thursday, which – for two reasons – is never a good idea. One – Suzie is trouble; and two – it was a school night. As you can see in this high quality photo, even after a glass of wine and three pints of peroni – and all on an empty stomach – I managed to completely retain all of my dignity.

In fact, I was of such perfectly sound mind, that I thought taking a photo of myself at every station between Victoria and Gunnersbury would be a right laugh for Kristy, whom, at that point, I figured would be snuggled warmly under a blanket next to the fireplace, with a glass of port in one hand and a book in the other one.

Victoria

Sloane Square

South Kensington

Gloucester Road

Earls Court

West Kensington

Barons Court

Hammersmith

Ravenscourt Park

Stamford Brook

Turnham Green

Gunnersbury

As it turns out thought, not only do we not have a fireplace, but Kristy wasn’t even home! She was out on the turps as well! I had to cook my own dinner!

Life can be so cruel.

Thank you for writing to us.

We have carefully considered what you say but we have decided not to cancel your parking ticket.

You were given a parking ticket for parking in a bay that had been suspended. There were yellow signs saying ‘Warning. Parking suspended. No waiting, loading, unloading’. Bays are generally suspended to allow for road works or large delivery vehicles.

It is up to drivers to check on their car every day to make sure that their parking bay is not being suspended. It should be noted that warning signs are erected 7 days in advance before the actual suspension takes effect.

You have these choices:

• You can pay the discount charge of £50.00 if your payment reaches us within 14 days of this letter’s arrival.
• You can pay £100.00 within 28 days of the date your parking ticket was issued.
• You can formally challenge your parking ticket by using a Notice to Owner form. The vehicle’s owner will automatically receive the form if the parking ticket has not been paid within 28 dyas of being issued. The form offers you the chance to formally challenge your parking ticket or pay the full £100.00. If you decide to formally challenge your parking ticket, please do not write to us again but wait until the Notice to Owner form arrives.

Yours sincerely

Business Support Officer
Parking Services

I’m writing to challenge a Penalty Charge Notice issued for parking in a suspended bay. I was not aware that the bay had been suspended, and suspect that it was done on very short notice, therefore not allowing me a reasonable opportunity to relocate the vehicle.

As recommended by Hounslow Council, I regularly check the bay where my vehicle is parked to ensure that no suspension is due. In fact, at the time of the PCN, the car had been parked directly opposite the entrance to our building, which meant that my wife and I both walked past the car at least twice a day on our way to and from work.

Additionally, this parking bay in question is directly visible from our kitchen window – please see the attached photograph taken Tuesday 1st December, around 7PM.

Our car was parked where the large green container now sits. The signpost on which the suspension notice was posted is also clearly visible from our window (you can see it poking up behind the container), and given that the notice is large and yellow, it contrasts highly with the wall behind it and stands out like a beacon. It seems unlikely that the notice had been posted in advance and escaped our attention.

On Sunday night (29 November), when we returned from a weekend away, we immediately checked on the car. This was the first point which we noticed the suspension notice and consequently our PCN. We immediately moved the car to a bay further down the street. We noticed that our new parking spot was also near a temporary suspension sign – however, this suspension had expired over a week prior, yet the signs were still being displayed. Residents could be excused for being confused and frustrated when notices are posted at short notice, but remain in place after their expiry.

It is my firm belief that we were not given adequate notice of the parking suspension, and hence did not have an opportunity to move the car from the suspended bays. We have attempted, in every way that we believe reasonable, to comply with local regulations, park legally and move our car to accommodate works.

I look forward to your feedback on this matter, and hope that you will look favourably upon our challenge.

It’s getting harder and harder to wake up every morning. Lately, the weather has been very unfriendly – constant London drizzle, coupled with biting wind, and all sandwiched together with the ever decreasing hours of sunlight. In summer, the sun is well and truly up before our alarm comes on around 6:30AM; now, we’re lucky if we catch the sun at all, let alone by the time we leave for work around 8AM!

This is the view looking east from our living room, at 7:10AM. At least it’s not raining this morning (yet!), though the water shimmering on the road suggests that it has been. But the clear skies give me hope – maybe the rain will hold off all day, or better yet, all weekend! We are off to Bruges tomorrow, and some pleasant weather would make for a very pleasant change!

Friday night was quiz night at our place. When I sent the invitation out a few weeks back, I had thought that we’d be lucky to get a moderate response. Boy, how wrong I was – almost everyone showed up! Our lounge room was literally packed!

The quiz took a bit longer than I had thought it would, though I think that was mostly from having to quiet the mob every few minutes. It’s not the greatest feeling when you ask a question which you had expected everyone to get, only to be met by blank looks (such as: identify this heavily modified song)! Thankfully though, this only happened a few times, and overall I suspect most people thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

My favourite question was in the “Back to School” round:

In the sentence: “Zoe stole the the green ball from Tom”, identify the subject, the predicate, a proper noun, an improper noun, and an adjective.

So? Can you do it (without resorting to Professor Google)?

Congratulations to Nick and Aubain who ended up taking first place, only narrowly beating Alex and Leanne. This means the quizmaster baton has been passed to Aubain – lets see what he comes up with!

Who’d have thought that the breakfast places would just keep getting better? Al and Becks stayed over on Friday night, so they joined us for this week’s £5 Breakfast Challenge at the Luna Caffe. Once again, I forgot to take a photo from the outside, so I’ll have to add one in at a later date.

Luna’s breakfast menu was the cheapest yet – only £3.50 for the Full English, or £3.95 with a tea or a coffee. The first thing they served was our toast (which we got to choose from white or brown), and I devoured mine the moment it got to the table. It was delicious! I suspect it’s strongly to do with the amount of butter they piled on, but hey, it’s only once a week…

The breakfast plate consisted of two fried eggs, tomato, sausage, bacon, hash brown, mushrooms, and baked beans; and it was all delicious! The sausage had a real smoky flavour, and this carried over to the beans and the mushrooms. Even the bacon was quite good, though not being the biggest fan I left one of the rashers. Again, I would have preferred the option of an extra sausage over any bacon, and Luna strikes me as the type of place that would allow the change (e.g. Becca had scrambled eggs instead of fried).

The only thing I can mark them down for was that they had run out of fresh orange juice, and my bottle of mango juice really didn’t satisfy. Such a shame – they were so close to perfection! gerrod.com rating: 9/10.