Review Of My Boy Dylan

Dylan is nearly 9 months old.  In fact he has now spent 2 more days outside of the womb than he had spent in the womb, having been 9 days early.

I hear all the time about how great other peoples babies are.  Every parent seems to be of the impression that there baby is the best one.  Either the cutest, the smartest, the most advanced, the most fun, or the stinkiest.  Sometimes all of these things.  But very few parents would know how other baby's are rated, as this information is not usually available.  So how could you possibly know if your baby is better than someone else's?

So this post is to give an open and honest review of my boy Dylan.

Appearance

Tall and handsome.  He is one of the tallest babies you will ever meet.  He is measuring in at a whopping 76cm... putting him taller than 91% of all babies his age.

Chubby cheeks.  The chubbier a babies cheeks, the better.  Dylan's cheeks are so flabby, he could store a hamster in each cheek!

Dress sense.  He is dressed by his mother, who is a bit of a stylish yummy mummy.  So naturally he dresses well.  Even down to his underwear (cloth nappies) he looks like a well dressed baby stud.

Smell.  As a boy, smelling bad is a must have attribute.  I can certainly say, he STINKS.  His nappies are so revolting that I have nearly thrown up on my own son more than once.

Behaviour

Dylan is a charmer.  He woo's the girls, the mums, and grandparents.  No matter how his personal life is going, whenever he bumps in to someone else, he has the biggest smile and is the friendliest baby you could possibly picture.

Perfect sleeper.  Although this has not always been the case, now that he is past his teething stage, he often sleeps a good 14 hours each night.  Only occasionally does he wake in the night.  And when he does, its normally to tell me something important.

He is very well mannered.  He is also polite.  When he see's you he waves 'hello' very enthusiastically, with his arms waving around like a washing line in a hurricane.

Special Traits

Every baby has a few specific things that they do that make them stand out.  A few of Dylans favourites are:

When he has had enough food, he will stick his tongue out at the spoon to refuse it entry into his food destruction chamber.

He has a strange sense of humour.  He finds it fun to hold his food out at arms length, and try and reach the food with his mouth.


Early Progression

He is a very advanced baby.  He may not be crawling of walking just yet.  But he is extremely good at algebra and long division.  He is also a good talker.  He talks to me all day about all the things he finds boring... "blah blah blah blah" ...

Not many animals would let their young in to the wild on their own at such a young age.  But Dylan has been practising being a dinosaur for a long time now, and can often be found prowling around remote islands eating anything and everything.  His roar is enough to scare many away.  What doesn't run away is devoured by his super sharp sabre teeth.

Value For Money


Dylan only cost 8 pounds 10 at the hospital.  Since then he has had many items of clothing given to him as presents, he has been breast fed for the most part of his life, and his re-usable cloth nappies (apparently) are saving money too.

So all in all he is a very cost effective baby.  Especially when you factor in that he already has an arranged marriage with Harper Seven Beckham.  He is also tipped to be the next youngest billionaire, with his fortune expected to reach the milestone at the ripe age of only 12 years old.  He already has many patents under his name and is getting close to creating a 101% efficient use of energy.

Overall Rating

Taking in to consideration all of the above, I think it is a fair representation to rate Dylan a modest 100% perfect.




I will be posting pictures to go with this post over the next few days.  I'll keep you posted.  Although if you follow by blog, you will be in the know already, and you will be my new (2nd) favourite person :)


If you wish to have a blog-off with me, please post a review of your own :)

The first blog off can be found here - http://www.downssideup.com/2012/04/little-light-hearted-blog-off.html

If you wish to join in please just post away and let me know, and i'll be sure to link to yours too.

Dad For The Day

Today was the first time I have had Dylan (now 8.5 months old) for the whole day, start to finish, without The Mrs being here.

Today has been her first day back at work.  So with the exception of the first 10 minutes of the day, the boy has been mine all mine.

I realised something about parenting today.  It's harder on your own.

We started the day well.  He was happy, and we played, and he ate his breakfast nicely.  He was due a nap, so I put him in the buggy to sleep while I went out for a walk and to get some shopping.  He awoke as I returned to the house.  Then he was upset for the rest of the evening, crying, and needing a lot of attention.  I put this down to him missing his mummy!  After feeding him dinner I finally got him to bed.

Here is a list of the things I planned to do today that I DID get done:

1. some washing up
2. leave the house and get some shopping  (Dylan was asleep at this point)
3. take some photos (Dylan was asleep at this point)

Here is a list of things I wanted to do, but DIDN'T get done:

1. eat breakfast
2. eat lunch
3. start on preparing dinner
4. unpack the brand new dyson and do some hoovering
5. find the charger for the digital camera
6. finish the washing up
7. the laundry
8. have 5 minutes to myself

It seems that you can't really get anything done when you have a child.  Unless you have a partner to pass the child to (which then prevents them from doing anything!).  I didn't eat anything more than a cereal bar all day as I didn't get time to eat.  The only things I did manage to do where when Dylan was asleep.

I remember pre-baby, I used to think that days weren't long enough to fit in all the things that you want to do.  When you do have a baby, you have zero time to do anything at all unless your baby is asleep.  And Dylan doesn't sleep for anywhere near 24 hours a day!

I think I know now why The Mrs is so skinny... She cant have eaten for the last 8 and a half months.  She clearly hasn't had time.  

I'm sorry, this post is going to be a short one... I'm tired. I'm going to relax on the sofa until The Mrs is home to cook me dinner. :)

Daddy Time - Blog Hop

Why do you blog?

To be honest, it's because my partner does (themummyadventure.com).  She asked to me do a guest post for her one day for Real Nappy Week, as being a Dad who is enthusiastic about cloth nappies is apparently a rarity.  So I wrote a post for her, and then decided I would also use the same post to start my own blog - you can see it here.

She had also attained a free £50 voucher for our local Frankie & Benny's restaurant to review the food.  So as I was there too, I also reviewed the food.

With these 2 things, my blog was started.

If you could choose a performer to see in concert who would it be?

I do go and see a few bands these days.  Its something that when I was growing up a dreamed of doing.  Now I go to a festival or two each year (Download festival and one other more chilled festival like Lounge On The Farm).  I've been to some amazing gigs, such as seeing prodigy at Brixton a few years ago.


If I could see any one band that I haven't already... I'd probably have to think about it for days and then I'd come up with a shortlist.  But in a rush, I will give you two.  If I could go back in time, I would have loved to see Red Hot Chilli Peppers back in their hay-day.  I think they're playing London this year, but even though I might still go, its not going to be anywhere near as good as it would have been 10 years ago.  If it had to be a band today, it would probably be a chilled band like The National.




How is your blog influenced by you being a Dad?


My blog is still taking form.  My posts are not your typical parenting type posts.  They are (so far anyway) posts about life as a dad.  My boy is a huge influence on my life, so everything I do now is influenced by him.  The activities I do.  They way I view things.  Its all changed because of him.



What is your favourite film?

This again is one of those questions where there will never be just one answer.  To name but just a few:

• Shaun of the dead
• Alien
• The green mile
• Inception
• Iron man

Who gets up for your kids in the night?

Its not me.  I do get up sometimes, but not my 'fair share'.  At the moment Dylan sleeps very well. 12-14 hours is normal for him, with the occasional wake in the night.  He's a perfect baby!  However when he did used to be up many times a night I didn't do my fair share.  


I like to think this is partly justified because Dylan was 100% breast fed.  My breasts are out of favour.  And when he woke is was often because he was hungry.  Also partly because Becky can nap in the day.  Dylan normally has a good hour or two sleep around 9am.  So Becky can catch up on her sleep.  Whereas I would be off at work, snoozing at my desk.  Not good!  


Saying that, I could and probably should get up in the night more now, as he is no longer breast fed.  But he doesn't wake up often in the night any more, and old habits die hard.  (Please add 'die hard' to the films list above).

Healthiest Dad In The Kebab Shop

Recently I have been on a bit of a health drive...

Now I know full well that diets are for girls, and they don't work anyway.  There are possibly a million tips on how to lose weight, when all you really need to know is that you need to eat healthier and do more exercise.  Its a balance.  Tip the scales slightly more to the healthier side and you will lose weight.

But my eating habits are horrendous.  And I have not really had much of a desire to improve it.  So by my own theory, I need to do a lot of exercise to balance the scales. A LOT! (My BMI is around 27.5, so I'm smack bang in the middle of perfect weight and obese.  A perfect overweight weight)

This is my belly's ideas of a gooooood time!

I have been 'going to the gym' for over a year and a half now.  Although I should point out I have not really been so much for the last 8 months or so, except the odd visit here or there.

I recall when I joined the gym, I was asked what I wanted to get from it.  My answer was 'to lose weight'.  From day one I only really did weights and so I burnt minimal calories.  My arms got bigger, my chest got bigger.  But equally my belly got bigger too.

This is NOT me!  I'm way more muscly!

So for the last month or so I have tried to get in to running.  And I maintained this effort for a few weeks, running a little faster and a little further week on week.  4-5 weeks later and I had run maybe 12 times.  Not too bad, really.  But hefting my gargantuan belly around has been taking its toll on my legs.  And so although I have not yet given up on running, I have been thinking about cycling as it is a much less punishing on the legs.

I often describe my belly as my fun store.  All of the late night drinking, burgers and kebabs, restaurant meals, all the thing I love to do, have all stored themselves in my belly.  So for that reason I am quite proud of it.  But since facebook stores photos of the best bits, I don't need my belly to remind me as well.

This is also NOT me. But could be one day.

So I have been toying in my mind with buying a new bike.  A road bike.  I went to my local bike store to take a look through what's available.  I spend most of my youth on a bike.  Always mountain bikes.  And the revelation that there are such things as 'road bikes' is a little alien to me.  Naturally, the bikes I liked the look of just so happen to cost a bit.  £500-1400 were the bikes that caught my attention.

Now if I invest in a bike that costs about as much as 2nd hand car, then surely I will ride it lots and lots and lots and achieve my goal of losing weight.  Definitely 100% I will.  OK so I'm a rather impulsive person, it literally took me about 2 minutes to decide I was going to buy one.  My second trip to the store and I was advised to 'try' one of the bikes that I liked.  I knew if I sat on the bike I would buy it.  I sat on the bike.  I rode it up and down the road.  I got off the bike and told the man in the shop how I don't know why I spent my youth riding mountain bikes (considering I have never even been close to a mountain, or a dirt track for that matter) when road bikes are so much better!  Sold.  £600 lighter.  A £600 investment into losing weight.

This IS my new bike.  Its shiny.

Now this only happened yesterday.  My plan was to start riding home from work (which turns out to be 16.4 miles).  But to do it in stages, using the train to help me build my stamina.  But with the adrenaline of being on a bike again for the first time in 3-4 years, the first day enthusiasm got hold of me and I cycled all the way home.  An app told me I burnt 1100 calories.  I instantly realised that if I cycled to and from work every day, I could double what I eat.  This would keep the scales nice and level.

So now I've done it, I plan on doing it again, and as often as my enthusiasm will allow.  Hopefully the weight will fall right off, and so I can continue to eat like I always have, but reduce the reminders of my good times to the one media of facebook.

So now I am (within the space of 24 hours) a super healthy live forever Dad who will have good health for ever and ever and ever.  Obviously.  Because I have a bike.

An equation to sum this up is:

Food + fun = fat

Gym = 0

Food + fun + burgers + kebabs + beer x beer + vodka + chocolate cake + pizza + chinese + BIKE = Live forever healthiness

I tweeted earlier to ask if anyone cycled to work... very few people did!

What do you do to keep the scales balanced?

Or are your scales very much weighted to one sided?

Thanks again for reading. (PS. I'm desperately seeking more blog followers :p )

Coffee - From hate to love in 12 months

I used to hate coffee.  Now I'm a coffee drinker and proud!!  This is my story...

I was told that as a young child I used to drink coffee.  From what I remember of such a young age (I assume somewhere from the age range of 3-6 years) it must have been Nescafe, as I recall the brand being in the house growing up.  I think these days parents are a little wiser to feeding children caffeine than they used to be 20 odd years ago.

But from as far back as I can remember I have always hated the taste of coffee.  The taste revolted me.  The smell was off-putting.  And the accidental coffee flavoured chocolate induced a repulsive ejection from my mouth.  Over time I have tried old foods I once disliked, such as marmite, mustard, curry, and even sausages.  Many of these things I have tried with my more mature taste buds to find that indeed I do like the food after all.  Looking back I can see that my teenage rebellion against certain food types were unfounded.

But even until a year ago, coffee was still firmly on the hate list.  I had even toyed with the idea and tried a sip of Nescafe every now and then just to make sure.  The taste as horrid as my memory would have me believe.

My view on coffee, pre-2010

I work as an inbound sales adviser for a certain telecommunications providers business division, and so the nature of my job requires me to be a rather happy and enthusiastic personality for 8 hours a day, including the dreaded Monday mornings.  Only a very few (incredibly insane) people I have ever known have a natural chirpiness on a Monday morning.  They clearly have some kind of chemical imbalance that means they do not succumb to the miseries that mornings bring to most of the world.

So to be able to hold down such a job, I require lethal doses of caffeine to wake me up to give me that little buzz that gets me through to lunch time.  From lunch time onwards I am a normal human being, caffeine or no caffeine.  And for the past however many years now, I have relied heavily upon energy drinks such a red bull, relentless and monster.  During my poorer months I have resorted to the cheaper brands.  Either way, I cant function without it.

This may seem dramatic, to assume that without caffeine I cannot be a nice friendly lively person most of the time.  But I have proof!  A few years ago I had a new year health drive.  I decided to eat lots of fruit (in itself is a huge lifestyle change) AND to stop drinking energy drinks and high sugar soft drinks.  I decided to be a true Englishman and drink tea instead.  And just so you are completely aware, tea does not contain much caffeine.  Virtually none.  Its like giving a smack addict a cigarette instead.  No bloody good.  And I stuck to living like this for around 3 months.

The result of this courageous attempt at living healthily was a tremendous drop in my sales at work, and a hugely noticeable dip in my commission.  The money I was saving on not buying sweet beverages every day was in no way counteracting the financial loses.  So here was the proof that I am not a particularly friendly or enthusiastic person before lunch time.  Like no good human should be!

After reverting back to my high sugar high caffeine ways for another year or so, I could literally feel my insides rotting.  I knew I had to get off this stuff!  I dreamt of being a coffee drinker.  So much healthier, so much better for my insider, and still giving me the good stuff.  So I made the decision that I'm going to like it. Failing that, I am going to drink it and not like it.

Attempt one was to try a cup of good old Nescafe.  Nothing much had changed.  This is simply too revolting.

Attempt two was much more sensible.  Drink flavoured latte's from Starbucks and Costa.  Tonnes of milk, tonnes of sugary flavours to mask the awful bitterness of the coffee itself.  And it worked.  I had to add a few extra sachets of sugar, but I could drink it. Perfect.  Gingerbread and caramel lattes were my saviour!

As the weeks and months went on, I slowly reduced the amount of sugar, and tried flavoured syrups which were less overpowering such as vanilla and hazelnut.  

This eventually led to drinking lattes without flavour.  Then moving on to cappuccinos.  And finally on to buying a cafetiere and some ground beans from the shops.  The moment I new I had really achieved my goal was when I had my first black coffee with no sugar.  The flavour was still a little hard to take, but not so bad that I would say I disliked it.  

Now I find myself drinking all kinds of coffee.  Well, all except one.  Nescafe.  In fact any instant coffee I still find rather disgusting.  So now I feel like a coffee snob, only drinking the best.  Tomorrow I have been advised to try a flat white.  I'm excited.

COFFEE FOR MEEEEEEE

Do you like, love or hate coffee?

Have you found your taste buds have changed a lot as an adult?

Have you ever forced your taste buds to change like I did?

Thanks for reading :)

Tweetybloghead

Tweetybloghead [tweet-ee-blog-hed]

Tweetybloghead is a new word which derives from modern English.  Tweet has a lovely onomatopoeic sound, which is why birds such as the robin choose to use this as their vocal noise.  Its much nicer than many land mammals choices, such as woof, or moo. The word has now come to influence many things, such as the social media site Twitter, and more recently, tweetybloghead.  For this, we can thank birds.

Robin Van Tweetle (above) invented the word 'tweet'

A tweetybloghead is a word used to describe people that not only use the Twitter site obsessively.  But it is also characteristic of such a person to be a keen blogger.  A blogger is someone who believes that by posting on the internet, they are an author, such as Dan Brown, Virginia Woolf, or J K Rowling.  This is a modern day myth, much like global warming and artificial intelligence.

Head is a word which has been around since the creation of the humans.  This takes very little explaining.  But the concept of bringing these three words together to form a new word, which is essentially a description word (an adjective if you prefer).  For example, if you have a partner or child or parent who will have most of their daily conversations through Twitter, and who blogs excessively (and also has a head), then you would be accurate to call them a tweetybloghead.

It has been rumoured that this word originated on the school playground.  This rumour is childish at best.  Children do not write blogs, although they have been known to be on twitter.  This word was actually created in a scientific laboratory.  It is also said that Glaxo Smith Klein may own the rights to the word, although a spokesman has not been available to confirm or deny this today.

[Ref: The Dictionary]

Real Nappy Week

As it is real nappy week, I have a few things to say.

Real nappies work much better than imaginary nappies.  We have tried imaginary nappies once or twice.  They smell better than real nappies but they leak quite a lot.  Definitely not the best option to use overnight.

As with many (but not all) dads, nappies have been forced in to my life.  My relationship with nappies is a bit love/hate.  I do hate nappies.  But I couldn't live without them.  Since having a baby, The Mrs has decided to swap her girly obsession of buying new handbags and shoes, and replaced it with an insatiable addiction to cloth nappies.

The idea was first put to me as a 'save the world' thing.  Which it kind of is.  I have noticed that our bins need emptying a little less often since the big switch over.

Also as a money saving idea.  Why have an additional weekly expense of nappies when you can pay a little money up front and save loads of money over the next few years.  OK, so now I'm swayed.  Lets get some.

So we purchased some pretty looking nappies.  Nice funky designs.  And of course very soft and fluffy.  Very similar to many of her handbags, scarves and other miscellaneous piles of clothing she hoards.

At first (much like any addiction), it started with "Oh this ones so pretty.  Can we buy this one?  The Boy NEEDS this one.  Pleeeeeeease?"  So the cost effectiveness was reduced a little.  But the variety and The Mrs' apparent happiness has increase significantly.  £20 for a happy relationship is a cost I am prepared to pay.

However, now several months in to her addiction, we now have a collection.  We have all sorts.  We have TotsBots Easy fits, custom designs from Weenotions.com, Close Parent Popp In, TotsBots Bamboozle Stretch and Flexi Wraps and a whole world of nappy brands I couldn't possibly name them all.  They have Velcro, they have poppers, they have build in bits, removable bits, washable bits, and all kinds of extravagant designs and fluffy technologies that make the bum happy, but the mind boggle.

The use of the nappies is about as pleasant as any nappy.  They still contain the same vital ingredients.  They still require changing just as often.  Its true that you do need to get rid of the gooey brown centre.  One benefit is that once you have disposed of the brown nugget, or chocolate mash, or whatever variety your offspring may produce, it doesnt sit around in your bin stinking out the house.  And it will work out cheaper... It will.  It definitely will... One day... I hope... If we don't buy any more... OK it may not work out cheaper at all.

One other highly noticeable thing that I have got over these months, is a lot of nappy love coming from me.  It crept in reluctantly.  It sneaked past my logic, my wallet, and found a home in some bizarre part of my heart.  I realised just how far this gone a few months ago when we all trotted off to The Baby Show in London.  I found myself surrounded by stools all showcasing various fluffy cloth nappies, most of which are very familiar to me.  I ran around enthusiastically looking at all of the nappies, judging them all and comparing them to my favourites (TotsBots East Fits) and deciding which ones to buy.

The Boy still hasnt started crawling.  I put this down to one thing.  Sitting on his bum is too comfortable.  Why would you crawl around on your knees when your bum is so comfy.  I guess its a bit like being a couch potato but for babies.  And similarly he is piling on the pounds, chubbing out from his belly to his finger tips.

So clearly The Boy is very fond of them.  His world truly is a happier place to pee in.  And I do sometimes wonder if I am missing out.  But although adult nappies do exist, they do not come in such an array of wonderful styles.

Now you might think that my enthusiasm towards nappies is so great that you can picture me sat at home all day changing The Boys bum at every opportunity.  Since you dont know any better, lets say that this wonderful notion is the fairly tale it pretends to be.  After all, I'm a dad that loves cloth nappies.  It makes sense.

So you might be wondering, where can I find out more about these so called wonder nappies?  @themummyadventure is the entrepreneur of our nappy collection definitely-not-for-profit organisation.  She does know possibly everything there is to know about them.  And she certainly knows where to buy them from.  Check out her blog post on them if you think this eco-friendly, world saving, cost efficient method of recycling is for you.

Frankie & Benny's Review, Thanet

The Introduction

We were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to visit our local Frankie & Benny's with a £50 voucher to try their new menu.  So I have left a review for you all.  I hope its to your taste.

The Frankie & Benny's we visited is only a few miles from home, at the Westwood Cross Shopping Centre in Thanet, Kent.  So after a quick run around a few shops, we headed to the restaurant for an early dinner.  Me, The Mrs, and The Boy (8 months) started dinner nice and early at only 5pm, to make sure The Boy gets back home for bed at a reasonable time.

The store is in a nice shopping centre and looks good.  The outside appearance is welcoming, has an outdoor eating area, and the classic Italian American themed music is played outside, setting the mood before you walk through the doors.  We were welcomed in by a young man, mid twenties.  He directed us to our tables and brought over a high chair.  His actions were very helpful, but his nature was somewhat depressing.  He couldn't force a smile, or invent any enthusiasm in his voice.  He sat us down, gave us the menus, and informed us he would be back soon for our drinks order (which presumably was to give him time to go and take his prozac).  The area we were sat in was nice and clean, spacious (we had a large corner sofa to ourselves).  On the table everything was nicely laid out.  However I couldn't help but notice there were 5 knives and no forks.  I assume this is a symbolic pun that the service would be choppy.

The Food

We ordered a little more than we normally would, as we had £50 to spend on 2 and a half mouths.  So we picked out the goats cheese and red onion garlic bread to nibble on whilst we picked out some starters and mains.  The pre-starter was quite delicious.  I guess its not easy to make anything with goats cheese on taste anything less than delicious.  But the garlic bread base was nicely cooked, and the whole thing, with a little help from a pot of soured cream, went down a treat.

For starter we had the chicken strips, which were tender and crispy and came with a tomato based dip, however the crispy seasoning was not quite to my taste.  And we also had the calamari, which for a chain restaurant was spot on.  Perfectly cooked so that it was not chewy at all, and again served with a delicious dip. The only thing I would have changed was that at the bottom of the bowl were a few larger pieces, which were a little on the fatty side.  All in all, 9/10 for the starters and pre-starter.

Fortunately we had a 2nd waiter that served us most of the rest of the meal.  He was refreshingly more like what you would expect.  Chatty, lively, had a little wit and charm; he was the polar opposite of the first waiter.

For main I had decided to go for steak.  Not what I would normally order, however as I was out to review the food, this seemed the more inventive option.  I asked for a recommendation for which steak to choose, and the waiter enthusiastically suggested the 16oz rump steak (so much so I could feel the jealously that I was to eat it, and not him).  The Mrs took the New York Chicken (chicken breast topped with bacon and BBQ sauce).  Both meals we had chips on the side.  As an extra I took some onion rings.

I asked for my steak to be medium rare, and it came out medium rare.  One chunky delicious looking medium rare steak.  The steak itself was delicious.  Very succulent and cooked very well.  It turns out that after eating a starter and a half, that a 16oz steak is a little large to finish off.  But I gave it my best and got pretty close.  The chips as a result didn't really get a look in.  The plate finished with the greenery still in its original state, the chips half gone, and the steak regrettably not finished.  The chips themselves were nice, nice and crispy, but a little on the thin side for me.  Chips should be chunky.  They should also be fried more than once.

Of course I didn't eat the New York Chicken, although I must admit it did look good, and The Mrs seemed more than happy with it.

The Boy had sausage mash and beans from the children's menu.  It was service with a bowl of carrot and broccoli.  It went down very well.  Down his bib, down to the floor, down most things really.  He ate the amount you'd expect an oversized 8 month old to eat.  The amount we picked up from the floor was probably another meal or 2's worth.

Although I ate the rump steak to the point where I could eat no more, there's always room for desert.  I took one of the new items from the desert menu being the East Side Sundae.  It was really the only choice on the menu.  There may be many many delicious things to suit all kinds of people, however the option that contains marshmallow pieces mixed with ice cream and various chocolate bits is the only things that my eyes could see.  It's not difficult to imagine that on a full stomach a whole desert might be hard to finish.  Not this one.  It went down a treat, and in record speed.  OK, so I have a sweet tooth.  Desert is always a winner!

Perhaps the extravagant ordering went a little too far.  Having never exceeded £50 on a meal out for 2.5 before (holidays excluded), I was a little proud to have brought the bill up to a belly filling £77.  With the tip (for the good waiter we were all too happy to swap to) we left £35 down.  The £50 VIP voucher got us a big smile and hello from the manager at the end of the meal.

So all in all I must say that I was very happy with the whole experience.  Frankie and Benny's is certainly somewhere we have eaten at more than once.  But having the voucher and going there with the intention to review the food, we did order food we don't order often (or ever, in my case) from here before.

The Service - 9/10 (would have been lower but I have blocked all memory of the first depressing mumbling waiter)

The Food - 9/10

To check out what the Mrs thought... check out her review http://www.themummyadventure.com/2012/04/frankie-bennys-review.html

http://www.frankieandbennys.com/restaurant/frankie-bennys-thanet