Lunch at the Wheatsheaf

Posted on 2012/11/19 21:26:10 (November 2012).

[Monday 19th November 2012]
We hadn't wanted it to be too much of a flying visit (and also never much like travelling on Sundays, when the trains always seem much slower) so I'd taken today off work. So we had another leisurely morning at Vera and Robin's house - Robert popped in for a coffee - before heading out for a drive through the countryside and lunch at a country pub. Apparently lots of them in the area are closed on Mondays, but I suggested we try the Wheatsheaf in Llanhennock, partly motivated by the fact I'd been daydreaming about their wonderfully simple rustic Ploughman's Lunch. As an added bonus it took us most of the way to Newport, so we could cut one leg off our return train journey.

The Wheatsheaf is a lovely little unspoilt pub, and although the mostly elderly crowd of regulars who were also having lunch there looked a bit apprehensive on our arriving with a baby, she was pretty quiet the whole way through, and they were a friendly bunch - it seemed a bit like everyone knew everyone else. They serve really genuine home cooked food, a million miles from the banal homogenous pub grub which regrettably blights a lot of London pubs, now that so many of them are owned by a small handful of chains. It was a lovely way to round off our weekend in South Wales.

From there, Robin drove us to Newport station, and we got on a train just after 3. The train was pretty quiet on the way back, and we ended up spreading out over four seats. As the train pulled away I was filled with an enormous sense of satisfaction that we'd actually managed it. There had definitely been a sense of something lacking before Erika had been able to meet Vera, and so I was delighted that she'd finally been officially welcomed into the world by the head of the family. It was a really serene journey home, Erika slept most of the way through, and we felt so relaxed and confident that we decided to just get the tube home from Paddington, and despite it apparently being rush hour that was just fine too.

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