I arrived this morning at Stansted from JFK to spend a week with Suzie and her family. After navigating my way past an extremely skeptical immigration officer (who
doesn't have a British girlfriend?) I ducked into the first loo I came across to wash up from my flight while waiting for the luggage to appear. The hand dryer in the restroom was quite possibly a spare Rolls Royce jet engine off a 767--it didn't so much dry my hands as blast the water droplets off. But I digress.
Suzie and her father were due to pick me up several hours after I arrived. So rather than sit idly in the airport, I decided to avail myself of one of the better perks of Platinum status with American Airlines: the use of a "day room" to nap and shower. American Airlines provides elite status flyers with a room at the SAS Radisson Hotel at Stansted, free of charge, to nap, shower, whatever. Very nice indeed. I, of course, overslept, and was awoken by a call from Suzie, who was in the lobby. Like a flash I showered and--Bob's your uncle--I was downstairs with her.
It was a beautiful spring day, and Suzie's dad took us on a short drive in the country to an amazing pub, The Cricketers, in Clavering, where we had a fantastic lunch. The pub is owned by the parents of a famous chef named Jamie Oliver, and as you'd expect, their food did not disappoint. I had sea bream fish and chips, Suzie had the beef and her her dad lunched on roast duck with rhubarb and ginger compote. For dessert we had a pavlova with pears, hazelnuts and chocolate. Food was simply amazing. So much so, that I availed myself of a signed copy of the Oliver
fils' latest cookbook.
As you can see by the pictures, the pub is in a very very old building--note the low ceiling, which was probably perfectly acceptable to the denizens who built it several hundred years ago. Not so much for a Brobdingnagian American.
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