A leap back in time...

The last few days have been filled with so many new experiences. I'll start on Monday night when we pulled into Nuwara Eliya after a long and very windy drive. We'd taken in some spectacular views as we climbed to 2000m and entered the heart of the tea growing area but nothing had quite prepared me for the sight of our hotel. Set back from the road in its own grounds, you could be forgiven for mistaking it for an English manor house. This feeling intensified as we disembarked from the bus to find that the temperature had dropped at least ten degrees and that there was a definite drizzle in the air.

The Hill Club, as it turns out it is called, was altogether charming and well and truly stuck in a time warp. When I say that nothing has changed since the 1930s, I mean nothing. Sri Lanka's answer to Manuel from Fawlty Towers served us a welcome drink in the drawing room whilst we placed our orders for that evening's dinner in the formal dining room. The menu? Mushroom vol-au-vent, cream of pumpkin soup, lamb and veg and then strawberry cheesecake for dessert. The bedroom I was shown to was very sweet but the only concession to the modern world seemed to be the addition of a rather ugly electric heater stuck in front of the original fireplace - which I hastily switched on whilst digging out that one jumper I'd judiciously packed.

After a short stroll around town in the now torrential rain, we dressed for dinner and met in the 'mixed' bar. The lads in our group had diligently hired their jackets and ties for the evening and it was remarkable to see how well we all scrubbed up given that we spend most our days 'glowing' in T-shirts and shorts. Dinner itself, at a lovely long table near the open fire, was sadly not quite up to scratch but, as an experience, you couldn't beat it. I only wished Mum had been with me to enjoy it as we'd have found a lot to smile about. 

The icing on the cake though? Returning to our rooms to find that hot water bottles warming our sheets. I fell asleep with toasty warm feet, imagining myself as part of some old black and white movie...