Living a Nightmare

THE WOMAN - MARKUS

I enjoyed the time I spent with James. He showed me a lot of Llandrindod Wells and the surrounding area.

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One day he took me to Llandrindod Lake, probably the main attraction in Llandrindod Wells.

We arrived early in the morning. I think it was around eight o'clock. James wanted to leave so early, because he said that the Lakeside Café and Catering apparently made the best full English breakfast and I had to try it.

So, we went to the Lakeside Café and Catering and sat down outside on the patio overlooking the lake. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and the weather was pretty warm for Wales too.

A young woman, with beautiful long dark hair came towards us in a waitress's dress.

"Good morning. What can I get for you today?" she asked, smiling warmly at us.

"Two teas and two full English breakfasts please," James replied with a smile on his face.

"Coming right up," she replied, smiling at me before heading off to the kitchen with our order.

She returned about five minutes later with a tray of food and two cups of tea. She placed the food and drinks in front of us.

"Enjoy," she smiled and went back inside.

The plate of food looked delicious. The Full English Breakfast consisted of baked beans, two sausages, two large fried tomatoes, some pieces of back bacon, some British sausages, fried mushrooms and black pudding. I had never seen such a full plate in my life, so I tucked into it.

After breakfast, which really filled me up, James took me for a walk around Llandrindod Wells. He showed me all sorts of things, but the one thing I still found most impressive was Llandrindod Lake.

Later that day, James had promised to take me to a real British pub. I had only ever heard of a British pub before, but never seen one, so I was really excited to actually go there.

We arrived at a pub called the Middleton Arms at eight o'clock in the evening. James showed me to a table and went to get a drink.

A few moments later he came back with a pint and some pork scratchings, which James explained are what people like to eat with their beer.

"But I have ordered a pie and a pint for in a minute. It's a tradition here," James continued as he downed his pint.

So, not wanting to look like a total fool, I decide to drink my pint too. And I have say, I have never tasted anything so delicious before in my life. It had a bitter taste, but it went down my throat like butter. And before I knew it, my glass was empty.

James started to laugh when he saw the empty glass in front of me. "You seem to have enjoyed that a lot."

"Yes, I have never tasted anything like it before," I replied with a twinkle in my eye.

"Well, let's just hope that you will like the pie then too, ey," James continued, still laughing.

Pie definitely sounded like something nice to me. But I was quickly disappointed, when the waitress came over and served us our pie and it did not even remotely look like the kind of pie I was expecting to get.

James saw the puzzled look on my face and burst out laughing again. "I see, you thought you were getting something sweet, like an apple pie. No, we do not get pies like that in pubs. But then again, if you think about it, it is better that way. Imagine eating a sweet pie with a bitter beer, that is a very odd combination, don't you think?" This seemed to be a rhetorical question, as he did not wait for me to answer, but continued "This is a steak and mushroom ale pie. It is difficult to describe exactly what it tastes like, but it is definitely not sweet. Try it though and if you don't like it, you can just leave it."

Steak, mushrooms and ale... The combination really did not sound at all appetising. But James loved his, as he was scoffing it.

'Okay, I will just give it a little nibble, and if I don't like it, I will just fake a stomach ache or something like that,' I decided, carefully picking up the fork that was lying next to it. 'Okay, here goes nothing!' I slowly stuck the fork into the pie and took a small piece out. Carefully, I lifted the fork to my mouth and took a bite... Then I swallowed... That really did not taste that bad... My fork took another chunk out of my pie... to my mouth... and swallowed.

"Wow, this stuff is incredible," I exclaimed. And as soon as I had finished the sentence, the pie was gone.

We sat for a couple of hours, talking a lot about what had happened since we saw each other. And drank a lot of beer while we were at it.