Hay-on-Wye part two

We had some wonderful meals & conversation together too-- despite the fact that I was completely deaf in my right ear, I did fairly well in keeping up with all the lines of conversation. I had to ask only a few times for people to repeat what they had said, or to ask what they were talking about, if I'd missed the beginning of the conversation.

The place we went to for dinner the first evening was fabulous-- it's called the Swan Hotel. They have a really posh restaurant, and a really cozy pub-like room called the Mallard room. In the pictures on the website-- the room isn't really done justice. At the opposite end to the bar, there is a large open fireplace, gas one, which was lit and beautiful and warm as we arrived-- it was a chilly evening, and the B&B was only down the street from there, so we didn't really wear coats. We had a lovely meal (I had the fillet steak/filet mignon) and it was really scrummy.

During dinner we were talking about various films and books and things, and Lord of the Rings came up. At some point when I was talking, Kevin asked me what the actor's name is who plays Aragorn. And you know how it feels when you're mid-thought, and someone asks you something you know, but you can't for the *life* of you think of what it is, well that was me! I was sat there racking my brain trying to remember. I finally got out that it started with a V but that didn't help because I knew it was an unusual name and Lori & Kev started throwing out normal names that start with v. There was a young cutie of a waiter who had just started working at the pub the day before and so we thought he might know-- or be able to ask the girlies in the kitchen or the other servers-- so we asked him. He didn't know, but said he would ask the others for us. It was really driving me crazy so I ended up ringing Ione on Andy's mobile and asking her!! She answered it straightaway (thank you Ione!!!) and put me out of my brain-frozen misery.