Shopping in Stone

That about says it all for today, really. First though, last night's meal; we arrived at the Star a bit after six and were all done an hour later, the service being very slick at a quiet time. It's a very atmospheric pub on about ten floor levels, none of then more than three steps different from the next, and the beer was excellent. Oh, and we got a free bottle of wine because we ordered two main courses; only Echo Falls red, but perfectly drinkable.

Sheila really enjoyed her black and blue mushrooms (two big flat mushrooms in a Stilton sauce) and scampi and chips with really nice chips. My chips were good, too, but my starter of a fancy paté had been in the chiller until just before it arrived in front of me, and so was pretty flavourless. And they only served one slice of toast with it, cut into quarters, and I do like a decent amount of toast with pate.

I tried one of the specials for my main course, a smoked chicken fillet with king prawns. I'd never fully appreciated the term rubber chicken before, but I do now. It was almost completely bereft of flavour, had some smallish prawns scattered over it and that was it. For £11.45, I wasn't impressed; indeed it was more reminiscent of a Little Chef than decent pub grub.

Next time we eat in Stone, I think we'll go to La Dolce Vita across the canal instead. No matter, you have to try these things to find out; essentially the Star is now a bog standard chain pub (Marstons) which happens to sell decent ale in an historic setting.

Today, we checked out the chandlery at Stone Boat Building and came away with some Jabsco toilet descaler, which seems to be as good as the LeeScale stuff and a bit cheaper. We also topped up the groceries at Morrisons, and bought a new door mat for the well deck from Bailey's, the hardware store in the precinct.

Oh, and Canal Boat have brought out a monthly news magazine, the Tillergraph (ouch!). It's mostly adverts and the same news as in the paid for mag, but as a freebie it's worth a skim through.