Fish and Chips on the Isle of Wight
This may not have happened in the way you might expect, but it is really true.
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My friends were very very keen on fish and chips. They had it every time they went out for a meal. One day they thought that for their spring holiday they would go to the centre of the fish and chip world, to the place with a lot of five-star fish and chip shops. They would go to Yorkshire, to Whitby.
They packed and drove the three hundred and twenty miles to North Yorkshire. With the lunch break at the motorway service-station, they got to the hotel eight and half hours later, but as they travelled the weather started to fail as the sky got darker. They booked into their hotel and because it was so unpleasant outside they decided to have supper in the hotel and have an early night.
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The next day the weather was worse, but they braved it to walk into town. And using the local paper and the “What’s on in Whitby” pamphlet they chose the chippy to go to that evening. They found it down a side road off Whitby High Street and they went in, full of anticipation. They sat down and ordered their fish and chips, rubbing their hands and drooling slightly in gleeful expectation.
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They dug in and savored it one chip at a time. Quite quickly they looked up at each other, each could see that the other was thinking the same. The fish and chips was horrible. Not what they were expecting at all. Their disappointed faces fell. They finished the plate, did without a pudding, paid and went outside holding hands to comfort each other.
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Back at the hotel that evening they discussed the day’s experience and the unpleasantness of the weather. They decided that they would call it a day and go home early, which they did.
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When they arrived home on the Island, they unpacked their damp clothes and had an early night. In the morning, they decided that they would keep the day as the last day of their spring break and that they should go out somewhere they had not been before on the Island. They remembered a hotel they had driven past often that had been shut for some time and was now having a brave new opening.
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They parked and went in admiring the new decoration. They sat down and looked at the menu. It had fish and chips. Oh, come on, we can’t not try this. So they did and to their pleasure it was amazingly superb. Proper fish and chips.
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As they left, they spoke to the new hotelier, thanking him for the best fish and chips they had had for a very long time. “Thank you” he replied, smiling, “we have a new chef who has recently joined us in our new venture. He has just moved down to the island from Whitby.” Their gobs were truly smacked.