Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree Inn

The singlest most delightful highlight of the day must have been a thoroughly indulgent lunch with the lovely Anne Thomson at Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree Inn at Highclere.

Anne, a friend and client, is a successful Advanced Hypnotherapist who runs Mindset Hypnotherapy in Newbury - you may have seen her mentioned in earlier entries on this blog? Recently she launched a new venture: Diets Make You Fat, which draws on her own experience and grasp of the insidious nature of the diet industry and the plain and simple fact that it does not work.

What does work - and the testimonials coming in to her website are a good indicator - is her audio approach, with a 10 CD set that combines coaching with hypnosis to provide a method to achieve weight loss that is permanent.

And remember that Advanced Hypnotherapy differes from traditional hypnotherapy in that it tackles the root cause of a problem, rather than the symptoms. For example: a traditional hypnotherapist might make a smoker feel repulsed by cigarettes. An Advanced Hypnotherapist would ask your subconscious why you started smoking in the first place - and persuade you why that might not be such a good idea!

Anyway, we digress! The Yew Tree provided delicious food and generous portions too. There was a heart-stopping moment when we were asked if we'd booked? (we hadn't!). Uttered in that way that we were buffoons for thinking we could just drop in and eat! As it turned out we could and were shown to a table. It was quietly busy, but the truth is we could have eaten on a variety of empty tables if we'd wanted to!



However, that was the only real pretention in this restaurant, and there was an honesty to the food that was refreshing. We wanted a nice restaurant, but you suspect you may feel a little uncomfortable with such decadence at lunchtime! However, as pressed as the linen was, and as wide ranging as the menu might be, it was a good place to be!

In a wide-ranging conversation we covered work, rest and play and some more work. However, technically this was my birthday lunch! I bought Anne a lunch for her birthday last year - some three months late. She was returned the compliment!