Re: Oaklea.
I went to the bar and ordered a white wine, a coke, a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a bag of quavers. The barmaid put the drinks and crisps on the bar but couldn't find the codes on the till for the crisps, she said that they'd had problems with the electricity earlier and it had affected the tills. She said she would have to go and check the codes with someone so I paid for the drinks and told her that I would pay for the crisps when she returned.
I took the drinks to the table and then took the crisps and we started eating them (we were hungry, we had planned to eat there but they don't serve food until 5pm) . When the barmaid returned she was not happy that I had taken the crisps off the bar, even though I offered to pay for them. She told us that she is not allowed to sell them, that is why there is no code on the till for them. We offered to give them back, however as we had eaten half of them she reluctently took the money for them instead.
I am confused as we still don't know why she could not sell them to us, no explanation was given. I don't blame the barmaid, she was just following instructions and she looked as confused as we were. To be honest I got the impression that she was worried that she would be in trouble.
It did put us off the Oaklea, which is a shame because they have done a fantastic job of doing it up and we now need to look for somewhere else for our group to go for a meal.
