bringing '88 back

last weekend i had a shoot in abergavenny. 

thats's right, i was working in god's own country.

it was going to be magic darts or whatever welsh for magic darts is...

my guess would be... er... mgyc ddyrtydd but i could be wrong.

anyway, we decided to make a long weekend of it and set off on the a40

to spend the night in the cotswolds. 

we stayed at a corking little hotel called cotswolds 88

that's right... like mick boogie remixing adele, we were bringing '88 back.

i reckon cotswolds 88 is what you'd call a boutique hotel.

every little thing in the place seems to be a design classic.

apart from the wallpaper in our room.

what the what ?!

leigh bowery !

why ?

apart from the wallpaper the room was outstanding and if i didn't like the 

view inside, i certainly liked the view through the window...

my jam jar !

after unpacking and frowning at the wallpaper we headed out to the garden

which was through the bar...

i soon forgot all about my wallpaper-based woes when my beer turned up

you beauty !

and what better to accompany a nice beer ?

than some freshly baked scones with cream and jam. 

mmmm...

feeling happier now, i decided to take a portrait of mrs w...

as she studied the back page of the guardian magazine for comic effect.

i don't know what the cuss is going on with clocks in the cotswolds...

i've never seen anything like this in all my 29 years ( leave it )

perhaps the local hoodies had half-inched all the other numbers apart from the 4 ?

after a walk around the village, a light meal and a cheeky beer, 

it was time to make the hot tub work...

( i did this by using a combination of sarcasm, brute force, industrial language and 

finally a phone call to reception, who informed me of a hidden switch, which did the trick )

in the morning, well that's my favourite part of staying in a hotel...
breakfast time.
as a starter, before the traditional full english breakfast ( but without
mushrooms and tomatoes ) i chose this little fella...

some sort of jar with a load of yoghurt and raspberry compote.
it's a shame i didn't take any more photos of it, though in fairness it was
difficult to photograph. what i'm saying is, this was top notch.
i'm recommending cotswolds 88 anyway, but i was almost tempted to tell you
to go there just for this yoghurt / berry thing.
to cut a long story short, i'm giving it two enthusiastic thumbs up.








as surely as night follows day, next up was this...

full english breakfast without mushrooms and tomatoes.

how do you feel about this breakfast ?
do you think i did right to have a poached egg instead of fried ?
are you like me, a little disappointed that there is only one egg ?
are you upset at the lack of baked beans or does that not concern you ?
what are your views on hash browns being included here ?
surely an american potato based item has no place in a full english breakfast ?

i'd like to hear your thoughts on this breakfast.
what would the perfect full english breakfast consist of ?

just to warn you, i will not print any comments which try to tell me that mushrooms
and tomatoes should be included. you can have them but i don't want to hear
about them ok ?

oh and obviously i threw the green leafy thing onto the floor !








after the above breakfast, some fresh orange juice and black coffee, i sat in the
garden to read the newspaper and to frown at the other hotel guests

check out time was 11am though so after flicking through the papers and frowning
quite a lot, it was time to do a runner from cotswolds 88








all in all i highly rated our stay

if you are in the cotswolds, perhaps on the way to god's own country
or if you just fancy a weekend away from the smoke
i recommend you check-in at cotswolds 88.

you might want to see what the wallpaper is like in the other rooms though
before you opt for room 9.


www.cotswolds88hotel.com