Work Experience at Chesters!

The beautiful langdale fells near Chesters

Monday to Friday this week has been work experience for pupils at my school and I decided I would like to go to the cafe and shop 'Chesters by the River' near Ambleside.Trust me to pick somewhere awkward in terms of location from where I live, it's quite a bit further than the rest of my year's placements, but I've always loved going there with my family. Cafe and shop work is something they sadly don't teach in schools which is a real shame because it's a lot different from all of the subjects they teach (all the subjects I've taken for my GCSEs anyway). It's always been a place I've loved to visit (you should definitely stop by if you get the chance) because it has such a friendly atmosphere, the shop feels really open and light as well as being full of a variety of things to buy. You would only have to walk into the cafe to understand why it's usually heaving! It has generous portions of extremely yummy cakes which you would have to do very well to ignore. It has a pizza oven serving crispy pizzas and flat breads, the chefs even let me make some for my lunchs, as well as exciting salads and much more. I suggest arriving with an empty stomach!

My crispy margarita pizza! 

just an itsy bitsy peak at some of the cakes

My week at Chesters was brilliant and I learnt so much that I now have a headache and feel my brain shall soon explode. It's worth it but I feel tomorrow may be a power nap day, I truly don't understand how all the fantastic staff there never stop. They couldn't have been more friendly and made me feel more welcome, I'm surprised they don't all have sore mouths from their permanent smiles and collapse from exhaustion from their rushing around.

the thank you card

To thank all the shop staff, the cafe servers, chefs and bakers I made a card using their logo (Chester the dog) their moto/ slogan (bad dog no biscuit) and, of course, cake. I also got some flowers and chocolate since I thought all the staff must be sick of cake so bad idea to bake one!
At the end of the day when Ashley (the amazing manager who organised all this, she should be called amazing Ash!) had filled in the extensive forms for my school I was given presents too! (much to my suprise since they were the ones who put up with me all week). I was given a chester top, apron and beaker all with the logo on from the shop, five cakes from the cafe staff, a sourdough starter from the kitchen (I'll have to start trying out some sourdough recipes if I manage to keep her alive, she's called Susan the sourdough starter) and a Saturday job offer.

My unexpected gifts

I hope you had a nice week too and take a visit to Chesters if you happen to be in the Lakes!