Langton House Blog

All About Windsor from Langton House bed and breakfast

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Well today Gordon Brown announces a review into this hot topic. If, and I think it is a BIG if, this ever went ahead then it would be the starting place for a move to scrapping the final salary schemes for all the public sector workers.

The current salary scheme is a rope around the neck of this country and until it is removed I can not see the end to the dire finances of this country.

We, the private sector, contribute to the overall economy of this country, the public sector spend the money we make. If the private sector have had their pensions knocked, what right have the public sector (who work for us) to keep theirs?

I look forward to seeing if Gordon Brown ever gets this through and past his own members – who generally like to line their own pockets as we have seen all too often. Whether this is just political spin will become all too apparent in the future, but I live in hope!

Last night we had a wonderful meal at this very plush and modern restaurant.

It is somewhat hidden away in Bourne End Marina, outside Maidenhead, but not too far from Windsor as to make it a serious trek. In fact, once found I’m sure, like us, you’d be going back more than just once!

The building is a fairly modern structure that has the actual restaurant on the first floor. There is some outside seating on a balcony overlooking the marina, but at this time of year that is not a  serious option, unless you’ve just come back from the Arctic!

On entering we were cheerfully welcomed and taken to our seats, although there is a small bar area to sit in whilst you wait for your table or for friends to arrive.

We were offered some bread and chutneys whilst we looked over the menu, but from past experience I know that this will surely fill me up far too much, so we had a good look at the bread from another table and although it looked lovely we concentrated on our main and starter decisions.

The menu is extensive and there is a choice of an A La Carte Menu or the Thames Side set menu at £16.95 for 3 courses (2009). For our starters we settled on Pan Fried Scallops with Smoked Haddock and Coriander Fishcake and I ordered a Butternut squash risotto with a Parmesan horne filled with rocket salad. All arrived wonderfully prepared and beautifully presented, succulent scallops and the risotto was exceptionally tasty. Both provided a substantial starter to our main course.

The next installment ….I ordered a Wildebeest Steak on Sweet Potato Dauphinois with Kangaroo Sausages and Rebellion Ale Sauce – it caught my eye as something very different and a interesting change from the usual steak offering. Sonja ordered the Trio of Game, Pheasent, Partridge and Venison served on a potato Rostie. Again all served beautifully and I was pleasantly surprised to find my Wildebeest steak to be a fantastic choice, very tender and combined with the Sweet Potato Dauphinois it was a mouthwatering combination. Sonja’s was an excellent array of meats working together and a lovely sauce to complement.

Desserts, which I normally try not to order, were just too good not to try. We decided on sharing the 4 small portions which included a Frozen Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Chip Brownie, Cheesecake and Panna Cotta  – something there for everyone and we both thoroughly enjoyed them all.

We both highly recommend this restaurant (as if this review did not give that conclusion away) and will most definitely be going back.

Check out their web site for directions and menus
www.ottrestaurant.co.uk


Good Luck Obama

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We wish him all the very best. He has undoubtedly got a very hard 4 years ahead of him, but if he does not get it right there will be more than just the USA in trouble.

We had a great Christmas here at Langton House – cold but lovely, in fact as I write this in early January 2009 it is still unseasonably cold at -2C and it is almost mid-day! Lucky for us it starts to warm up tomorrow to the usual temperature of about 7C which will be a lot less painful!

We don’t do this sort of cold here in the UK, and we have even had a small amount of snow, but as usual it never lasts long here, usually gone but lunchtime.

I have been using the slow period to get some decorating done about the place. A bit of fresh paint in the hallway, but I started and had forgotten how much paintwork there is about the place! The Victorian door take forever to do…I had to rope my nephew in to help me!

It was a shame that this year we did not have the outdoor ice skating rink, but we have a permanente rink in Slough just down the road, so really no excuse for not going onto the ice, and we have plenty of frozen ponds around here right now…but I guess tomorrow that will be the end of that.

This coming year looks like it may be more difficult (in a business sense) with the slowdown in the world economy, but at least the exchange rate is going to favour the rest of Europe and North America.

I was on a flight recently flying in to Canada on a Canadian airline.

The flight had been a little rough, but nothing to really make a mention of, but when we landed (and not a difficult landing at all), the plane erupted in applause for the flight crew.

I had to laugh, lucky for me the flight deck had accomplished their job and got us down in one piece. How many of those clapping would have booed them if we had crashed! I for one would had sat there in the flames and booed my head off!

We went here the other night with a couple of friends and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. It is a lovely informal restaurant but the level of food is very high. The problem with Windsor is there are lots of very good restaurants and competition is very high, so I can quiet happily be very picky on the finer points!

My expectations were very high, and although the meal I had was not quite of the quality I expected, overall it was a very good meal. My Rib Eye steak was fairly chewy (more fat than I thought was to be expected), but the fillet was perfect as was the pork special. The Tiramisu was again not up to my expectations as they had tried to improve on the traditional recipe and added nuts and orange, and as I am VERY picky on this my favourite desert, I have to score them down on this. The triple chocolate did however look fantastic! Overall we really enjoyed it and would recommend to others.

There was a parade for the 2nd Batallion of the Coldstream Guards after there recent return from operational duties in Afganistan.

It was a fantastic event with some great support from the locals in Windsor lining the parade route. By the time they had marched up to the castle there were thousands of people cheering our boys! I was very proud to be British and see the support the Army were being given.

Whatever anyone thinks of the reasons for our troops being in Iraqi or  Afghanistan, it has nothing to do with the fact that we should support our troops and the job they  are doing. It is the politicians who have put them there and they have no choice in the matter. If anyone disagrees with them being there they should take it out on the people who put them there, not the guys themselves.

Well Done to all the Army and well done to the people of Windsor for showing their support.

Well as summer draws to a close, it is already starting to feel like autumn and its not even the end of August yet. After last years drought this year was so wet it has almost seemed as if we have had no summer at all. I guess in Windsor we are lucky that there is plenty to do whatever the weather. It was obviously harder for the Legoland visitors – if they picked a particularly wet day it must have been awful, there can be nothing worse than upset wet kids!

But still Langton House had a very busy summer. We have been full most of the time and have really enjoyed meeting all our guests. As usual it was great to see some of the more familiar faces who have been before, but equally good to meet new people.

Its heading into spring and we are now already pretty much full. Legoland has opened and that always brings the families into Windsor. A few things have happened over the last few months that will bring a small change to our business. The other 4 Star/Diamond B&B in the centre of Windsor closed (The Dorset) although another small one room B&B opened in this grade, but Langton House is now the only town centre B&B at this grade. A shame to say goodbye to the Dorset as the lovely lady who ran it was such a character and I shall miss her.

So onward towards summer and some good hot weather!

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