AWOLNATION and Wroxham Barns

This weekend my husband Nik, Aurora, and I visited my parents in Norfolk, which we do as regularly as we can, living in Essex. We went up to see the band AWOLNATION at the Waterfront in Norwich, giving my parents a good few hours of quality time with Aurora.

Pictures from the gig

AWOLNATION vinyl and our 1970s record player... in the dark

I absolutely love AWOLNATION, of course I have the vinyl!

That was Saturday night, during the day we took Aurora and her older cousin out to Wroxham Barns. We didn't have much time to spend there, as we were going out later on, but we had a look around the shops, a bite to eat and Aurora's cousin had a go on some rides.

For Aurora's cousin, who will be 3 years old in a few weeks, Wroxham Barns is excellent: she's an animal lover and has been to the Junior Farm with her parents before, and loved it. We had a look around a couple of shops, including Sugar and Spice - a children's clothes shop - which had a lovely range of baby and kids clothes, and a very nice owner.

We then decided to get some lunch at the The Old Barn Restaurant, this ended up being a total disappointment and ruining the day.

We got a table straight away and given our menus. One of the (many) young waitresses came over to take our order after about a 15 minute wait, but we got the feeling we were an inconvenience to her. Two Paninis, two of the day's specials and a Knickerbocker Glory (a toddler's main meal, apparently!?) were ordered, along with soft drinks for everyone. I had a Brie and Cranberry Panini which came with a side salad and my husband had the chipolata Panini - mine was pleasant, but my husband found his to be dry.

It turned out toddlers get it wrong sometimes, and they don't necessarily just want a Knickerbocker Glory for their lunch, so I shared some of my Panini with my niece, thinking I'll treat myself to my own Knickerbocker Glory for dessert (I didn't particularly want to share my niece's after her... oniony additions).

We ordered out desserts, which included three slices of cake and a Knickerbocker Glory and waited eagerly... and waited some more... and then waited some more.  Then my niece got bored so my brother took her outside to look around. Still we waited. We noticed the staff standing around chatting to each other a lot. After probably 20 minutes we got the attention of one of the waitresses and said we were still waiting on our cakes and ice-cream. She went to look for our order and couldn't find it, so had to ask us again what we wanted. As the cakes only had to be taken from the display cabinet, my husband, brother and dad got their order straight away - feeling a bit annoyed and yes, petty, I cancelled my Knickerbocker Glory. I knew it would take a while (not THAT long, I know) to make up but I was so annoyed about our order, I just wanted to leave. My mum felt the same too, so went to pay the bill. It put a real dampener on the visit.

We would have gone home after the meal but my niece knew there were rides and activities, so we took her to the fair ground area.

The tokens are £1 each and she had an excellent ride on the train, a round-about ride and water-squirting activity. She loved it - my mum and I however were still having a moan about the poor service t the restaurant though.

 Apart from the meal, we thought Wroxham Barns was great and I look forward to visiting when Aurora's older, so she can enjoy the activities (although we will probably take a picnic).