Date Night - Jan 09

A while back, when my husband and I realised how little time we actually spend together, we decided to set aside one night each month just for us - Date Night. The rules of Date Night are pretty simple: it never gets cancelled, it's just the two of us, and we treat it like a date i.e. we do something fun and there's no talking about work or other heavy problems.

This month is the first time we didn't have Date Night on it's established night. One of my husband's colleagues is moving to New Zealand and his leaving drinks were booked that night. Ordinarily, one or the other of us would simply send regrets to the event, but this was different, him moving so far away. As an alternate, we decided to take the dog and drive out to the shore this weekend, have some lovely walks on the beach, and lunch at a gastropub, The Sportsman Seasalter, that some friends introduced us to.

We had a great time, especially since we had blue skies and sunshine yesterday, missing all of the heavy showers that came later in the day. The fresh air and beach were exactly what we needed to refresh ourselves from London. Lunch, as always, did not disappoint.

A nice surprise was that the pub had some sparkling wines by the glass, so we each started with a glass of Pol Roger White Label, a champagne I've often seen in shops, but one that is so 'name-brand' that I had never bought it before. Shame on me, as the champagne was a slightly sweet apple, with loads of bubbles. It was fantastic with the home-made foccacia and brown soda bread that quickly arrived on our table, as well as with my husband's starter of whisky-smoked salmon. It didn't hold up quite as well with the almost pure-cream broth of my mussel and bacon chowder, but the apple flavour was wonderful with the big chunks of bacon at the bottom of my bowl.

Part of the ensuing conversation we had was about how often we were reverse wine snobs. This champagne was very drinkable, but we had passed it by so often in pursuit of smaller champagne houses - less-well-known varieties and makers - because we never know when we're going to see them in the shops again. I'll have to make more of an effort to buy the name-brands even though I know I'll see them again and again, simply because they don't disappoint.