Steak Out - The Crown Inn, Shorwell

Before Christmas SBB and I headed out for dinner one evening at The Crown Inn - I've mentioned before about our love of a good steak. Our usual place - The Lifeboat in East Cowes - gets a little busy at times but also the steak has been a little hit and miss the last few times so SBB and I have been looking for somewhere else as a decent back up.

I suggested that I make our search a bit of a mini-series for the blog, so here's how our dinner went:

We'd been to The Crown before for ghost walk evenings and I've been there once or twice with the girls and always enjoyed the steak which is Isle of Wight beef.

As it was getting close to Christmas I booked a table - turned out we didn't need to and we the only customers there for a fair while. They'd placed us on the tightest booth in the pub - SBB and I kept bumping it when we sat down and SBB's drink spilt over the table, which didn't put him in the best of moods.

Steak was only available on the specials board - not in the main menu - but when I went to order two the serving staff said he'd have to go to the kitchen and check with the chef if they had two steaks to sell.

Okay....
So you've only just started service and you're not sure if you have enough of the specials to serve two people?
Not impressed.

As it happened they DID have two steaks.

The amount of food was quite small for the price - the picture of my plate has SBB's portion of onion rings on it too - and the meat was a little dry and tasteless. The rocket was wilted and old and the mushrooms were overcooked and greasy.

The search continues....

12 week scan

Waiting for the 12 week scan was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience. We were excited to see the baby for the first time but terrified that there wouldn't be a heartbeat.
My appointment letter said to drink a 'large glass of liquid' one hour before the appointment. Now a 'large glass' is pretty subjective - to me that means a pint, and I knew that if I downed an entire pint of water I was going to be distinctly uncomfortable by the time the scan came round. As it was I drank just over half a pint of water and was still very uncomfortable.
The outpatient clinic - running both antenatal and obs and gynae clinics - was surprisingly quiet. As it was I overestimated how much time it would take for us to drive to Newport, park and then walk to St Mary's hospital. My full bladder protested somewhat at the short walk but we ended up arriving 40 minutes before our appointment.
 We headed into the room and the sonographer set me up with the jelly - which was surprisingly warm. I caught the barest glimpse of a baby-shaped being before she announced that my bladder was 'far too full'. She told me to go next door and to take a urine sample while I was there. Then she handed me a pot with a circumference only slightly larger than a test tube.
"You're going to need good aim," she advised.
I didn't empty my bladder, thinking that the letter wouldn't have advised to drink something if a completely empty bladder was acceptable. So I went back in and off we went with the jelly again.
"Your bladder is still far too full," she said immediately. "Do you have trouble emptying it completely?"
"Only since I became pregnant," I replied.
"Well, we can still do the scan. The pictures just won't be good."
And then we got to see our baby - she spent several minutes pointing out various body parts before finally confirming there was a heartbeat. I don't think SBB and I breathed or took in a single word until she did. It was only after she pointed out the heartbeat that the baby finally moved and it was gloriously active.
SBB and I left with 3 photos and walked on air for the rest of the afternoon.