First Class

A few months ago I spotted a competition on twitter, run by East Coast Trains @EastCoastUK.  There was a photograph of a train arriving at a station which we had to name.

I knew straight away that it was York Railway Station as the track curves into the station. Many others people would also have answered correctly but my name was drawn out and I was the lucky winner of the competition,  my prize being  two return train tickets to anywhere where East Coast Trains ran.

A lovely lady called Hannah from East Coast Trains phoned me and to my delight told me the tickets would be ‘First Class’ tickets.

Helen and I (with Evie 4 and Isaac 10 months, who don’t as yet need tickets), decided that a trip to London would be great so we chose tickets  from Leeds to Kings Cross.

Many times over the last few years we have had trip to London for a couple of nights but usually book ahead and get the cheapest tickets, so travelling First Class was a new delight for us.

It was more convenient last Sunday to catch the train from Wakefield Westgate and when we boarded, the First Class carriage was quiet and we chose unreserved seats close to the door.

The seats are wider in First Class and recline. There are also blinds on the windows which we pulled across when the sun was in our eyes.

Sunday doesn’t have the same full service as during the week and for the time of day we were travelling, sandwiches and snacks were on offer.As lunchtime arrived a glass of wine would have been good but for some reason complimentary wine is not available on a Sunday. Nevertheless we enjoyed the top ups of complimentary coffee.

On our return journey, we made use of the lovely newly built First Class lounge on King’s Cross station which was quiet until we arrived with the children. There was a separate area with toys which we decided to sit in and the children loved it.

Here in the lovely new lounge were complimentary drinks, snacks and newspapers and the toilets were obviously new and pristine too.

On our late afternoon journey home on the train, hot food was available and we enjoyed a tasty Chicken, leek and ham pie with mixed leaf salad and we also availed ourselves of sandwiches for Evie.

We also enjoyed a glass of wine on our return journey too.

We had a great few days in London sightseeing and our fantastic First Class experience made our mini break even more special.

A trip to remember.

Thank you East Coast Trains

The tastiest of lunches

I’ve just had the tastiest of tasty lunches.

So tasty in fact that I’ve made it for the last 3 days!

Another reason for having it 3 times is that I used a tin of corned beef and used a third on each day.

I suppose left over vegetables could be used but I cooked fresh veg each day.

 

I microwaved 3 new potatoes and then cut them into quarters ( actually cooked all the potatoes I had left but only used three in this dish).

Boiled some of my home grown runner beans.

Chopped an onion and fried until soft and browned.

Added a handfull of cherry tomatoes and continued frying until they burst open.

I added a third of a tin of corned beef and also added the quartered new potatoes and runner beans

I stiirred everthing together over heat until the corned beef was softened and all the onion and corned beef coated the other ingredients.

 

Nothing tastier!