Choice Blog

Never Apologise for a screwtop

We have just spent a fantastic weekend visiting our son Murray at university. My son had been asking us for a while if we would come down and stay and offered us a room in his girlfriend's flat (she has a shared owned flat with a friend and it is stunning). These kinds of short trips always sound great in theory to us, but with 3 dogs and 2 cats to think about doesn't often happen. We arranged to stay in a local hotel and planned to meet for drinks and go to dinner with our son and his girlfriend. We got there at lunchtime on the Saturday and went to see Sammy's flat (where our son has stayed since September). The room in a flat share that we pay for hasn't even been used since September, but that's another story! We admire how well her Mum and friend's Mum have turned it into a beautiful home with chandeliers, sumptuous bedding and clearly well though out and practical home wares e.g. shoe and coat cupboard in the hall.

After we had checked into our hotel, we met at The Slug and Lettuce and 7 for drinks. Two 'Pornstar Martini' sharing glasses and two bottles of Prosecco later, we slightly staggered to the hotel where we had booked dinner in the brasserie. The last time my husband had a few drinks was on our skiing holiday back in April where he proceeded to tell the waitress that she looked like Cery Matthews from the band Catalonia and asked if she knew who that was. Language issues aside, we had been discussing how she looked like someone, but couldn't remember the celebrity's name for ages, so thought it unlikely the waitress in France would! Funnily enough we ended up with a different waitress for the rest of the meal that night.

When our waitress at the brasserie was bringing out wine and explained it came with a screw top and apologised, the was like a red rag to a bull for my husband; he worked in the drinks industry for 30 years. He launched into a 'never apologise for a screw top on a wine bottle' speech and spent a few minutes explaining why they are in fact better. She smiled through the whole explanation while my son and I inwardly cringed. Again, we didn't see her for the rest of the meal.

The next day we met Murray and Sammy near the beach and had a walk followed by lunch at a seaside restaurant and then we set off for home. My son said later that it had been one of his best weekends at uni do far, which for a 19 year old in his second year seems a bit difficult to believe but also lovely that he enjoyed his time with us.