Posts Tagged ‘deer park’

Last week we had a family trip to Tropical World in Leeds. It was a pretty poor experience.

We started off trying to buy lunch at the Roundhay Fox. They said no. Apparently they do not serve bar food on a Saturday lunch time. This turned out to be a piece of luck though. We headed up the road to the Deer Park, who were willing to sell us some food. They have really upped their game: my pork belly and scallops was a massive winner.

Tropical World was somewhat disappointing too. They are currently renovating, which means that some of the exhibits are closed. This includes the best ones: the waterfall, the terrapins, the snakes. They are still charging full price for this reduced experience.

They are giving you a free hot drink in the cafe, but that only lasts until 3:30pm, and we finished at 3:40pm. Boo.

At least we did get to put some coins in Ollie the Octopus. Elina laughed at me when I did the entire Ollie speech before we got there. And again when she heard it in person. He also now has a cousin called Rodriguez, in the South America section, which we are pretty sure is racist because nobosy was called Rodriguez back when the Mayan civilisation was going strong.

Went to the Deer Park with Si and Sarann on Monday for old times sake. All the bar staff seem to know us now which is weird as they never seemed to when we lived round the corner but now I only go in there occasionally they seem to love us – maybe that’s hint 😀 .

Things have changed though. I didn’t get a mixed grill, Si didn’t get a burger – what has become of us? Actually I did get a mixed grill, but it was a fish rather than a meat one. I also had to stop Si in his tracks ordering me a WKD as I went for a white wine instead. Crazy times.

I’m also considering doing a survey on how many of my blog posts end in either crazy or fun times.

Headed out to the pub on Wednesday with Si and Sarann. Having had a lot (and I mean a lot 😀 ) of mixed grills at various pubs recently I can testify that the Deer Park is really worth the extra cash for their mixed grills. That said the service was a bit shakey all night.

There is just something wrong about everyone driving to the pub though. It seems part of my decent into young adulthood. Still, at least I still managed to spend the evening gossiping about people rather than having productive, mature discussions. Win.

Diane and Nick having arrived in Leeds (after a brief stop in London en route from Canada) we headed out for a meal last night. Being all the way over in Chapel Allerton already we headed to my old haunt, the Deer Park where we enjoyed rather nice meal. This was followed by a few more drinks back at my grandma’s before heading back to my parents where they were staying.

Early night was on the cards but we ended up getting talking and looking at a few photos and videos and next thing we knew it was gone 1am. So by the time I had got home and got all the work done I needed to do before this morning it was heading towards 3am! Never the less a very enjoyable night.

Having got the night off on Saturday and Kate being bored as well we decided to hit the pub along with Norm, Liz, Oli and Si. Not that any of us live near the Deer Park any more but I still really love the pub and most of us drive these days (not like back in the day) so it seemed like a good enough choice.

Afterwards we headed into town which has always seemed like enemy territory on Saturday night – full of angry drunken locals, many of which I probably know and choose not to associate with for good reasons. Still Bourbon is always a good place to be as it wasn’t overly busy but there were enough people there to keep it lively.

Monday saw saw myself and Si, along with Sarann, Michelle and Moz head to the Deer Park for one final dinner before we all dispersed.

I don’t think I’ve eaten that much food in a long, long time. Actually when I say a long time it was probably since we went to all you can eat buffet at Spice Quarter for the Atheist Society End of Year Ball but it would well be that I ate even more tonight making my way through loaded jacket skins to start, a full mixed grill for the main course and an ice cream sundae afterwards.

I would feel it was excessive but everyone else ate almost as much. That said I am still letting it settle now lol.

On Monday myself and Michelle headed out to the Deer Park to celebrate a number of different things including someone having received her teaching application (this is a landmark achievement for the Royal Mail).

It occured to me though that are days at the Deer Park maybe be looking limited. If you include the fact that I am spending the weekend after next in Warwick for the AHS national conference I only have 9 days left in Roundhay!

I will certainly miss it, there aren’t any overly nice pubs on my door step next year though there are plenty of cheap ones such as the Library and town just a few minutes walk away. In any case though I think a few trips out to the Deer Park at some point may be in order.

Having had to cut down on the time I’ve spent at the Deer Park recently it was a welcome return to make it there twice in two days, once on Sunday for Sunday lunch and again on Monday night.

After all, you have such a good excuse to go home via the Chinese once you have spent an evening there 😀 .

I’m starting to notice a pattern in which all my blog post titles turn into just a list of pubs 😀 .

Certainly many of the posts do but that is the way it should be really. On Monday I headed out to The Deer Park with Si as well as the housemates in tail (I like to throw them a pitty invite from time to time).

Luckily I made it there in time that they were still serving food. I had already eaten and all that which resulted in me having to get an ice cream sundae – which of course there is always room for. Good times.

With the Easter holidays having arrived activities have somewhat subsided and so I was able to get an evening free to head to the Deer Park with Si for some dinner. It’s been a while since we’ve been out for some good and the odd bottle of coke so I actually really enjoyed the short catch up even if in the grand scheme of things a few weeks isn’t that much.