The Pryordurkins

Posts Tagged ‘john lewis’

After following their website closely, waiting for new stock to arrive, I today finally placed an order for the John Lewis Picnic Hamper we had set our minds on.

Picturing long lazy summer evenings lying on ‘outdoor blankey’ while listening to classical music in the grounds of a stately home was the primary driving force behind this decision.

So to is our ambition to have a picnic on the side of a busy road, with foldaway deck chairs, a pot of tea and a slice of battenburg cake.  (Sam – we’ll be sending you the pictures!)

John Lewis have promised 1 day delivery so it could well be used for the first time, this coming weekend!

Pimms anyone?

We decided to take a trip to a second  local National Trust property now that we are fully fledged members.  This time it was Beningbrough Hall near York and within thirty minutes of leaving home we were there.  Pulling into the car park we noticed quite a few people having picnics and given we are still trying to buy our own from John Lewis it made the wait all the more worse.

We spent the next two hours walking around the gardens, grounds and the house itself. (check the photograph gallery).  The grounds, even under a cloudy sky were wonderful to walk around and Paul seemed to fall ever more quiet as we walked through the gardens planted with many varieties of fruit and vegetables which they serve up in the Wall Garden Restaurant which was to be our final stopping point (more of that later).  The house itself includes a good number of paintings on loan from the National Portrait Gallery and (while not our cup of tea) a good deal to keep the kids happy as well.   We did of course happen to play with the virtual portrait computer; the output of which you can see in the photograph gallery!

As mentioned our, final stop was the Wall Garden Restaurant which like many National Trust properties aims to serve up locally sourced and produced food.  We originally planned to stop for a quick cuppa, but when we saw the Roast Beef Sunday Lunch being served up to those people queueing up in front of us, our stomachs got the better of our minds and we had the full works instead.  Followed by home made Apple Pie and clotted cream (for me, not Paul!), it was a nice meal.  The bill came to just over £24, which could be a bit pricey for those with large families, but the quality was certainly there.  The beef was very good indeed.

All in all, well worth a visit.

Pryordurkin rating 3 stars.

The trusty 20gb Ipod classic we bought many moons ago in the old John Lewis store in Cambridge has finally been retired after years of good reliable service.  This particular Ipod held fond memories because when we went into the old John Lewis store, we had to remind them that they were never knowingly undersold and having seen the same Ipod for a few pounds cheaper in Argos, they sent a Saturday girl running down the road to confirm this before lowering the price to us, so that it matched the Argos price.  (we do like a good deal)

Anyway, what brought about this early retirement is our music and photo library now exceeding 20gb which meant we could no longer keep all our Ipods in sync.  So this morning with the arrival of a slimmer younger, more stylish model, it was time to erase its memory, delete its profile and throw it to the back of the cupboard to gather dust for ever and a day.

The younger sexier model is now configured in Pauls name, has all the latest tunes and photographs installed and looks clealy eager to please Paul when he gets home from work.

John Lewis reports this week a huge drop in profits at it’s department stores over the last six months. Evidence surely that we are now in recession. What this means to our hope a new John Lewis store would open in York, remains to be seen. Rumours still abound but there is no real sign it might actually happen. We would settle for a Waitrose store; if Hull can have one, then why not York is what I want to know. Nothing against Hull of course.

While visiting Huntingdon this weekend, we took the opportunity to head into Cambridge, where we used to live until moving to Yorkshire. The new John Lewis store is now open, so we just had to look around.

Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. We thought it was great. Big, spacious and full of quality merchandise. For a brief moment, we even wished we had never left Cambridge.

When are they going to open a store in York is the only question we were left pondering after exploring all five floors of excellence.

Let us know what you think.

Score: 5 Stars. Visited November 2007.

Normal opening hours:

Telephone:

01223 361292