Grandma and Lunch at Great Queen Street

Posted on 2015/11/15 10:04:29 (November 2015).

[Saturday 14th November 2015]
Mum/Grandma had her AGM thing to attend in London today, which mean we saw her briefly in the morning (she popped up to the flat for a coffee on arriving in London before heading down to her meeting), and then again in the early evening, when we met up at dinner in St. Pancras.

Between that we met a former work friend of Chie's and his family for lunch - he has a two year old daughter, and Chie thought it might be nice if she met Erika. They apparently wanted to try Great Queen Street, so that's where we went, and booked a table for when they opened at midday, so it would be quiet. I quite enjoyed the food - I had an interesting dish, simply described on the menu as "wild mushrooms and beans", which turned out to involve chanterelles/girolles, I think a bit of porcini, and cannelini beans, made into a light stew. Erika didn't really eat much though, and it was very difficult to keep her in her seat - one of those awkward situations where somebody else's child is doing something (in this case running round the neighbouring table) and it's very difficult to tell your child not to when the other parents seem fine with it. Our section of the restaurant was empty, so I doubt it was bothering any other customers much, but still I felt a responsibility to try and instil some sense of dining etiquette in her, which was obviously falling on deaf ears.

I think the original plan was for some kind of "play date" (what a ridiculous term) after lunch, but I could see Erika was starting to get a bit tired and irritable, and it was raining outside, the Transport Museum obviously therefore had long queue to get in, there weren't any other obvious places to go in the immediate vicinity, so I advocated that we should just go home instead. We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the flat, did some painting and origami and various other things to keep Erika amused, before heading out just after 5 to go down to St. Pancras and meet Mum.

Mums train home was at 8, and she wanted to have dinner before heading back. I'd looked through the various options in and around St. Pancras and settled slightly reluctantly on Carluccio's we just seemed the most compatible with various constraints. I'm generally not a fan of chains, and have found the food to be a bit lacklustre at this one the last couple of times we've tried it - I think the restaurant's namesake sold his stake in the chain some years ago and is no longer involved. Erika had fallen asleep on the way down to St Pancras, Chie woke her up not long after we sat down for dinner but she was not really in the best of moods for pretty much the whole meal, and only really started to liven up a bit in the last few minutes before Mum headed off to get her train. Again, she didn't really eat anything. I resolved to just eat in all day tomorrow.

After waving Mum/Grandma off we got a taxi on the way back, as it was still rather unpleasant weather out, and I didn't want to be back too late. Erika finally ate her dinner - which we brought back in a takeway box for her - around 9pm, and we didn't manage to get her to sleep until almost 10. Rather a frustrating day from a parenting point of view, all told.

Post a comment