A Little Outing

One of the difficult things about having CFS/ME is that going out can be rather a challenge. I’ve managed to cope with going out for meals, but I haven’t been to the cinema since before I was ill. The idea of going to the cinema fills me with horror. It encompasses two of the biggest factors for tiring me out: Lots of people and noise. I’ve wanted to find some way to ‘test’ how I would cope with a cinema outing for some time. 

Towards the end of last year I came across Barnsley House, a small hotel in the Cotswolds, and whilst browsing their website I came across their ‘cinema evenings’. The hotel has a small cinema and you can go and watch a film followed by supper, or have afternoon tea before watching the film. The cinema has sofas in it and is relatively small. I thought this would be an excellent way to test how I might cope with going to the cinema, and this seemed a good intermediate step.

So I made a booking for my husband and I to go and see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two. And we went on Sunday. Well, I have to say the whole thing was a complete success. We were a little late, but we plumped ourselves down on the extremely comfy sofas and were provided with drinks and cones of popcorn. It was larger than I was expecting, but I think it seated about 30 people. The sound was a little quieter than it normally is a cinema, for which I was very grateful as I find cinemas too loud at the best of times. We enjoyed the film very much, and my only complaint is that the room was a little chilly for me.

Afterwards we went to the restaurant and had an excellent meal. The cinema club offer covered two courses, but we opted to have the extra third course and a glass of wine as well and pay the balance. The whole thing works out as a very good deal and Barnsley House is absolutely lovely. Even in the dark the grounds and buildings look beautiful, inside was stylish and comfy and the staff were attentive and helpful. Hopefully we will be back to visit again, sometime in the not too distant future. 

I got home only a little tired after our outing and it has given me the courage to try going to the cinema in town. I still expect a cinema trip to be a lot more exhausting than our lovely evening, but I am now confident that I could cope with it reasonably well.