Ursie's Blog

2012-01-04T18:06:00.006Z

We’ve stayed in many, many different types of places over the
decades: from campsites to B&Bs; five-star hotels to hostels and everything
in between. They all have their qualities and often their charm is inherent in
their quirky nature and unique characteristics. So to find a place with a
mixture from two ends of the spectrum is unusual, for me personally, deeply
unsettling and in this case disappointing...

At first glance – or even after a few stays here, all is
well at the Alston House Hotel (AHH). The food is fabulous, prepared personally
by owner Michael with 30 years experience. The produce is mostly
locally-sourced and/or produced, unpretentious in nature and attractively
presented and priced. Michael’s wife Carole is an ever-present friendly smiling
face, always eager to help and very hospitable.

We decided to return to the AHH after an enjoyable one
nights stay some time ago. Knowing AHH to be a reputable, decent, dog-friendly
hotel in a quiet town with lots of walking opportunities, it seemed the ideal
get-away for a short break over New Year. Just the luxury we deserved to
recharge the batteries before returning to work and study.

We couldn’t fault the food. Lovely menu, beautifully cooked
and seasoned (although perhaps too heavy on the garlic for some palates). The coffee in particular a welcome speciality. Local ales and good selection of wine available at the bar. Breakfast was also a delight with everything cooked to order and very appetising (no kippers offered though – that was a disappointment). This is the main C2C cycle route, so many passing walkers and cyclists make a stop here. Its the perfect location. Unspoilt in many ways.

We thought it was strange that the TV didn’t work in the room, but we weren’t there to watch TV anyway - there are more than enough beautiful walks nearby - as you can see from the photos - my favourite was the South Tyneside Railway, now restored and running steam trains during the summer. We forgot to mention the TV issue to
Carole. However, upon check-out another guest mentioned this problem too, so I’m not sure whether this was a hotel-wide issue (?) Also worth a mention - the radiators go off during the day and at night. We were fully aware that there
were ‘additional heaters available if required’ (according to the guest information folder) and that actually the weather was unseasonably warm outside. However, I think in the depths of an English Lakeland Winter, it is reasonable to expect to have the heating on for most, if not ALL of the day and night (or am I being greedy?). Fortunately, our bed had the benefit of an electric underblanket,which was a God-send during the night – especially for Dizzy (but don't tell anyone)!!!

This was our fourth and final evening here and we thoroughly enjoyed New Years Eve dinner – served to the usual high expectations. It was a quiet, civilised evening with the company in the restaurant being mainly older adults, some of whom had obviously made an effort to dress formally in black-tie. The candles on each table were burning, the log fire was ambient and
the Christmas music was low. Everything seemed perfect.

Strange then, the sudden and dramatic metamorphosis that occurred after ten o’clock - just when we were congratulating ourselves on finding such a wonderful, relaxing place to spend celebrating seeing-in 2012.

This apparently four-star, classy, family-run hotel, with food of Bib Gourmand
standard and outstanding customer service, within half an hour, became a
setting of a teenage rave. A disco had been set-up and I was expecting some
loud music, but not on this scale! I did get slightly concerned when I saw the
Christmas decorations getting removed for what Carole said were “safety
reasons”. But within a few minutes, I saw what was reminiscent of the Youth
Club run at Woodnesborough Working Mens’ Club, every Wednesday night during my
schooldays - which involved paying an entrance fee and smuggling in a bottle of
cheap cider rather than paying the bar prices. Indeed, this materialised into
reality as I witnessed scantily-clad youngsters, queuing-up at the AHH
reception to pay £5 and have their hand stamped to enter the hotel’s disco.
Sadly for the owners, there were far fewer new guests that those leaving – and
I know what kind of customers I would have preferred to have stay! Many of
those leaving had (like us) enjoyed a lovely relaxing meal and would have
happily preferred to stay and spend additional money at the bar on champagne (even
though, like the white wine, someone had forgotten to put it into the fridge)
had the adult atmosphere been allowed to continue. Instead of that however,
most left to go to the more ‘grown-up’ atmosphere in the Cumberland Inn over
the road (also serving fabulous, honest food) where you could actually hold a
conversation without having to scream into each others ear over the thud, thud,
thud of whatever unrecognisable rubbish the ‘DJ’ was playing. Whilst on the
subject of the DJ – make no mistake he was useless. The best DJs, like any
presenters are always the most receptive to their audience. At one point he
actually said ‘well, it seems most people are leaving rather than dancing’ at
which the obvious remark came back “because all your music is crap”. Instead of
changing his choice of ‘music’ (and I use that word in its loosest sense), he
continued until it was nearly one o’clock (by which time we had escaped
upstairs) before I heard a Michael Jackson song (‘Dangerous’) which was the
first one with any identifiable lyrics! Oh dear, I must be getting old. But
surely this isn’t what others wanted either? The place was virtually deserted
by midnight with hardly anyone ordering at the bar.

If the owners really cared about their paying, staying
guests, then they would perhaps have been more responsive to their needs. We
obviously did not want to be surrounded by teenagers getting increasingly
drunk. As guests of the hotel, we were there for the main reason that we share
the owners’ philosophy in appreciating good food, in a stylish, relaxed
atmosphere in pleasant, quiet surroundings. None of these things are in line
with what occurred here on New Years Eve. I am truly bewildered. If the owners
felt that they needed to provide a place for the teenage children to get
together with their friends for a rave/disco, then hire the village hall which
is specially designed for such a purpose. Needless to say, many of the
youngsters did not want to attend the perceived ‘pretentious’ hotel setting,
preferring instead to hang around outside without paying the £5 entrance fee,
mixing with the smokers who had.

Two bottles of decent champagne alone would have easily
covered the relatively trivial amount raised through this thoughtless event. I
can’t understand hoteliers not wanting to keep their own customers happy first
– and increase the potential recommendations for profitable business. After
all, profits are definitely NOT to be found with drunk teenagers – especially
with all the cleaning-up required the following morning (yuk).

One last point. On Boxing Day there was a tragic car
accident where a young man was killed in the town – apparently after drinking
at AHH as well as other pubs. I have yet to read the full report, but
apparently he was drunk and deliberately drove his car into a house at a
junction. Of course, no-one can blame anyone for this horrific action, but the
local landlords do have some responsibility. It is no surprise or secret that
there is a huge teenage binge-drinking problem, combined with a drug problem in
this isolated area of the Lakes. High unemployment and little for young people
to do has had a polarising impact on local communities where more than half the
properties are holiday homes owned by wealthy ‘outsiders’. I would hope that
professional business people and conscientious parents would want to take any
opportunity they can to support their young people in a town like Alston and
provide a safe, responsible environment for them to socialise in – especially
when celebrating the New Year. What the AHH promoted did not fall into this
category and if anything only proved to further alienate the different groups
of locals and visitors.

My recommendations for the AHH for next year? Do what many
of the best hotels and restaurants do – charge extra for a set menu for dinner (easier
for Michael in the kitchen) guests can book in advance or turn up on the day
(and pay a premium). Formal dress only. Hire a professional musician – a
harpist or a pianist perhaps. Close the doors firmly at 11pm and let your
guests (and you and your family) enjoy a peaceful, grown-up and happy New Year
celebration, profitable and memorable for all the right reasons.

2011-10-04T12:14:00.010+01:00

A Multi-Fuel Stove - a problematic experience!

Well - its certainly been an experience! We spent the inevitable three months waiting to buy this house, and during that time did lots of research about what wood/multi-fuel stove we wanted and (perhaps more importantly) who we wanted to fit it for us. the first thing I visualized in the front room was where the stove needed to be. And here we are, finally, EIGHT MONTHS later! We have a stove - admittedly it's not entirelyfinished (bits of wood to paint, floorboards to replace etc) but it is IN, it is LEVEL, the flue is (just about) true, and crucially IT IS WORKING!!! (A bit ironic after the temperatures recently have been hovering around 30 degrees with swims in the sea a daily ritual to keep cool (my dog that is) !

This was how the living room wall began its transformation (right) - originally (on the right of the picture) the wonderful 1970's 'sauna-look'!LOL! Determined to keep so me of the original 'retro' character of the house - I wanted to keep it, but update it. Wall lights had to go, then it took alot of sanding and lots of paint...

So what went wrong with the stove? Why did it take so long? Well, it all started when we went against our better judgement.

You know when you always say to your yourself (with the benefit of hindsight of course) why didn't I just 'trust my instincts'? Well, there you go.

You should.

If you don't get a sense of confidence out of someone, why would you give them thousands of pounds to do a job on your home - arguably THE most important job in your home (i.e. one that provides the heating), something that you will look at every single day for as long as you live in the house (well, OK, hopefully). There's no doubt that a wood-burning stove is a massive investment. Something that needs to be considered carefully, especially (as in our case) when you have no chimney to install it into (and don't want one built).

It's a can of worms! Even after you've decided which stove to go for (you can spend anything from £200 to £20,000). We opted for a Morso 3440. The convector seemed to be the best option because we wanted to heat the whole of the downstairs space - which will eventually be twice as big after the next big project (conservatory - EEeek). I learnt that the retailers get a 40% discount from some of these stoves, so they take the p*** when they ask the customers to pay the full RRP. In the end, we managed to save hundreds of pounds by ordering directly

online. Although we had to wait over a week for delivery, it was well-worth the wait.

The location of the flue is the next big decision. Different legislation

for different stoves in relation to the distances to the walls for the single and twin-wall....the exit from the roof, etc etc. We had to carefully consider where the fitted wardrobes were to (eventually) go in our bedroom upstairs. (It seems environmental and

financial madness to send

all that warmth outside) Next? The hearth material (we opted for an original piece of Welsh Slate as a opposed to an imported piece of granite - I like to support genuine products and J has some Welsh blood, so it kinda made sense to us). The guys at this family-run quarry were really helpful: http://www.berwynslate.com/ and recommended the method of fitting and provided a type of stain-guard etc. It made me a little nervous when Mark and Dave were fitting it (Slate being so brittle) but it all came together nicely in the end.

(Left) - the beginning of the

flue system - through the roof (between the rafters - not THROUGH them and not through the ridge tiles)! and cut through the bedroom floor above....

Overall, I think I ended up speaking to everyone in Kent with (and without) a HETAS certificate. (It's essential to have a HETAS cert if you were ever considering renting/selling your house). It was Bill Hayward from Barham's 'Absolute Chimneys' who let us down badly at the last minute. The slate we wanted had a four week lead-time from the quarry, and one week before the installation was booked-in, Bill Hayward realised he hadn't ordered it! Oh dear. Suspiciously, he has just moved location and re-launched himself as 'Wingha m Wood Burning Stoves' . I wouldn't recommend them for a number of other reasons. Thankfully we paid by credit-card and so insured ourselves against any risk. Worryingly, apparently there's a number of stove companies locally who are struggling to keep afloat. Is there too many perhaps, trying to cash-in on what is perceived to be a fast-growing environmentally friendly option for home-owners? After all, even Grand Designs is constantly singing the praises of multi-fuel stoves and boilers. All I can say is, if you want some advice about getting a stove; do your research, decide on your stove and pay on your credit card!

To the right - flue painted and with the ventilation plate on - and with the slate hearth fitted - tricky as the floor wasn't level....

In the long run, it was more effective to leave the retailers behind - once we had the stove, we ordered our hearth ourselves directly with the quarry and found an independent HETAS fitter from the HETAS website to do the job. Dave & Mark Harlin were absolute stars. They worked so hard until 10pm to get the job done, despite a few technical set-backs.

Yes, there's still a few 'bits' to do - floorboards to renew, paint to the fireboard to finish - but overall with the stress of the (unnecessary) drawn-out purchase and (dusty and noisy) installation behind us, I'm looking forward to keeping the cold weather firmly outside, and our home nice and cosy in the most efficient, cost effective and environmentally-friendly way we know...bring on that snow!!!

Dizzy enjoying the heat from her new stove! (shame about the lovely 1970's orange vinyl floor tiles - another job, for another day)....

2011-08-25T13:40:00.007+01:00

I’m always fascinated by the complexities of our English language and it often leaves me wondering how people cope when they are trying to learn it. Especially the idioms and strange sayings. But what about the actual words that don’t mean what they are supposed to mean? My students, for example, are always using the word ‘ignorant’ to mean – not lacking knowledge – but stubborn or condescending.... Likewise, those of us who teach will recognise that ‘satisfactory’ actually means ‘UNsatisfactory’ if it is spoken by your manager or Ofsted! But what about the term ‘all-inclusive’? When does ‘all-inclusive’ mean ‘all-inclusive’ and when does it mean ‘some-things-are-included-but-others-not-and-it-also-depends-on-what-time-of-day-it-is’???!!!

Destina Hotel, Hisaronu, Turkey

OK, so I’ve been a five-star hotel in Egypt so perhaps I’ve been spoilt and know what ‘all-inclusive’ really means, and perhaps my expectations are too high. So the ice-creams weren't included - so what? (Although I guess if we'd had kids that would have been a problem) and there were no fruit juices at the bar (so have a cold beer instead) and at breakfast there were (strangely) no fresh fruit salads (so go down to the village and buy some from the market for a few pence)! I guess wherever we go there is always a way around these types of issues. It appears that some British people would prefer to complain about them though!

But actually, we did our research before-hand and knew that our expectations should be - i.e. low at this particular resort. I didn’t kid myself – after all, we’d only paid £550 each for 2 weeks ‘all-inclusive’ (or not, as the case may be)! There’s not many places within a few hours fly-time of here where you get that kind of value for money. Obviously that’s why Turkey’s becoming so popular. But lets not fool ourselves – it’s rise in popularity has everything to do with the blasted European Union and the dreaded EURO and nothing at all to do with the great British Public wanting to indulge in their wonderful Byzantine cultural history. Not from what I saw anyway. In fact, it was the largish fellow who after reading the Sun, drank 20 pints before passing out for 2 days (my sympathies to his poor neglected 10 year old daughter) who brought it home to me who the typical visitor was to this place. He had a lovely tattoo of “Made in England” around his protruding belly-button. (YUK)!

But really, if you can manage to drag yourself away from the poolside in 45 degree heat and walk down the hill on the shady footpath from the hotel to the lovely town of Hisaronu – you will get an idea of some of what Turkey is all about. Here the local people and some tourists chill out in the many cafés and people-watch and maybe catch the local bus (cost 2.75TL) to the beach. Once, we got on a bus which was full and one of the locals kindly got up to let us have a seat! They really are wonderful people with a great, simple sense of humour.

On passing a shop one day, there was an item that had fallen out of one of the shelves and onto the pavement. I’m convinced most British people at home would have just ignored it, maybe even kicked it out of the way and into the gutter. However, a passing Turk picked it up and replaced it in its proper place – singing along to one of their famous pop songs (The Turks have a really successful pop song culture apparently).

Another day we were waiting for a bus and the owner of a local restaurant which we had been to recognised us and stopped to offer us a lift. He was so friendly and jolly – even with the limited English he spoke – we didn’t dare offer him any money!

The food at the hotel was fabulous, and the service – even though most of the staff spoke virtually no English – was excellent. We tried learning some Turkish words with the restaurant staff and they seemed overjoyed with us for making the effort. It’s so sad that the majority of guests there did nothing but moan! You can read my Tripadvisor review here.

Overall a fab holiday, as usual we read lots – details of some of the books on my other Blog – and did little other than swim in the sea and chill-out in shady cafés. Now home to catch-up with Beachbox projects – oh, and the PhD of course! J

2011-08-23T13:52:00.005+01:00

I had an interesting experience, working as a temp at the recent Golf Open championships at the Royal St George’s Golf Club, Sandwich. I had a few days spare after finishing my teaching projects and other commitments before going away for a well-earned holiday from my doctoral studies at Canterbury Christ Church University. I was prepared to accept the assignment of selling a few programmes for the minimum wage for a few hours a day, on the basis that it would probably be fun; my expenses would be nil (I could cycle the 2 miles there and back with ease); it would be extra pocket money and it would widen my experience at a local ‘prestigious’ event. I know nothing about golf and I’m always keen to get to know something about everything.

Little did I know the realities of what was behind the organisation that was behind this event - the R&A. Indeed, had I know about the systematic gender discrimination, the bureaucratic pedantic rules and the general condescending attitudes of the pompous hierarchies surrounding the Royal St Georges, I never would have agreed to work for them. By the end of the week, even the weather had changed for the worse, I felt totally taken-advantage-of and really quite angry that no-one seemed to be standing-up against this institutionalised antiquated, corrupted organisation. Thank God for the brilliant team I worked with - without the jokes and banter I wouldn't have bothered going back after the first shift!

Let me give you an example of the issues, why are there no women in the R & A? Perhaps you would like to read this article which explains about the history of the problem here

I find it incredible that despite fighting for equality in all kinds of different communities, that our English law condones this systematic discrimination. How can it be allowed to continue?

As to the practicalities of the event, there were so many problems, it’s difficult to know where to start. e.g. Why were fields given over to car parks when there were more than adequate proper car parks in the town of Sandwich and at the (now virtually empty) Pfizers site? Without proper shuttle buses from the train station (other than for disabled guests) there was travel chaos as people arrived from all over the world at the small town of Sandwich assuming that the golf course was actually in the town (when actually it was a 30 minutes walk –no bus - no fun in the pouring rain).

Why were mobile phones and cameras not allowed on the course? I was told (as I was frog-marched to the ‘secure’ stand to surrender my Nokia) that it was to do with ring tones potentially interrupting golf players whilst under concentration. Understandably, lots of guests got very angry at this and one was even arrested apparently. It was interesting to note that towards the end of the week, this rule seemed to be loosened and on more than one occasion I saw cash exchanged at the security gates for those ‘businessmen’ who persuaded the security guards they needed to keep their phones with them. Later, discussing this issue with a member of staff, it turns out that the actual reason for phones/cameras not being allowed on the course is to do with ‘illegal’ photographs being taken of the golfers. Strict rules apply to their agents apparently, who allow only specific photos to be taken (and therefore benefit from increased revenue from their manipulation of the market).

It was also interesting that the local roads were taken-over by re-directions for the visiting traffic - with no thought for the locals. Instead of taking the ancient highway route on my bike (primarily a bridlepath) this was restricted to cars only (one way) to the event (although later this rule wasn't upheld). I thanked God I wasn't living in one of the roads affected by the diversions - especially around Golf Road at the North end of Deal.

The poor weather did nothing for the badly managed footpaths and access areas. There was little gravel or chippings down on the mud around the exits which turned them into quagmires similar to those seen at Glastonbury. The state of the toilets was particularly disgusting….

Interestingly, the R&A deemed it necessary to ensure that most of the tickets (i.e. those NOT on a corporate jolly) were marked ‘no re-entry’. This has lots of consequences – most notably those for the surrounding local shops. As reported in the local East Kent Mercury and in the National Press – shops in Sandwich had stocked-up in anticipation of an increase in footfall. Instead, they saw a ghost-town, where people came in and out through the train station or along the ancient highway to the ‘fields’ of car parks, without any need to stop at the town.
However – for those who needed to get out of this enclosure – this practice encouraged corruption – I regularly saw (corporate and therefore ‘re-entry allowed’) tickets changing hands for cash at exits at lunchtime.

With limited food shops and a merchandise shop which physically ran out of stock more than 48 hours before the end of the championship, what point was there in artificially trying to keep members of the public inside the course? Those in-the-know came prepared with picnics and thermos flasks. Those NOT in-the-know sadly had to make-do with expensive stale sandwiches outputs from one of a number of burger-vans.

Like many of these events there were radios sold (£9 a pop) which informed the public about what was going on when. Our team thought it strange that the sellers of these radios finished at 2pm each day. We laughed out loud when they sold-out completely before the last day and then buggered-off early. Especially when we later discovered the last batch sold were all faulty! There was no-one to direct them to so that they could vent their anger at being conned. How unprofessional. R&A you should be ashamed.

Overall, it was a very disappointing experience. But I took the money, like everyone does and left feeling glad it was all over. Would I do it again? You must be joking! But at least I know now WHO the R&A is – and what it stands for. Something else to fight against. So much for Mr Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ dream….

2011-07-01T08:57:00.004+01:00

I'm just gonna quickly stick this on here for now because I haven't written anything on here for so long and feel so GUILTY about it (Why?)!!LOL

I'm be loading some photos of the house in due course - so that you can see its evolution. I'm currently getting rid of the "1970's-sauna0look" in favour of the "contemporary-beach-hut-look" and you'll see what I mean in a bit.

First, however, time to do some prep for my meeting this afternoon. And a trip to the sports centre to see whether the classes there are any better than the (frankly horrific) gym facilities. Oh well, she says to herself, it is cheap (especially with my student discount) ;)

The above is a little side-line that keep me sane. Like this little thing I made for my friend out of the growing amount of driftwood I've collected:

More later - must dash!

2010-11-08T12:00:00.011Z

It was a fab sunny day on Saturday before the weather turned (it's blowing a hoolie through this door frame as a type). And we treated ourselves to a trip out to Wye to look at the Farmer's Market. Delish sausages from Burscombe Cliffe Oganic Farm. Even more lovely home-made chocolate truffles from a local lady. I hadn't realised that Wye was such a lovely place.

There was even a couple of young musicians making the atmosphere very medieval and relaxing. Next door was a book fair which kept JP occupied for hours...
then we treated ourselves to a stop for lunch at the famous Battle of Britain Pub: the Cat and Custard Pot - (fabulous name) which J has lots of memories about from his ATC days.. We were glad to see it doing so well. Hardly a place to sit!

It made me realise just how many lovely days out we've had out since we've been here.

Like this one at the Deal Folk festival last month. Again the sun shone for us and the Morris dancing was in a fab location outside the Kings Head opposite the beach.

It went on for hours and the costumes were fantastic!

More pictures of Deal...

At the end of it all, we were too tired to walk back, so we caught the bus. This was a first for Dizzy - who as you can see was a bit scared!

Just incase we ever forget what it was like in this little place - here's the view of the men relaxing in the garden. (This weather already seems so far away)!

But yesterday, guests all disappeared (for the time-being) it was a time to be lazy and watch the F1. Well, some were more interested than others...

2010-10-04T21:12:00.004+01:00

Being a tenant (at the same time as being a landlady) for the first time in my life is proving to be an enlightening experience. I'm the first to point out people's personal prejudices, after all that's what I teach (and research), but here is a new one on me: tenants are (so I've learnt) thick, dirty, disrespectful and generally people to be avoided at all costs.

Perhaps because I've spent many years around Post Grad students who of course often HAVE to rent in order to study, naively I've been oblivious of biased views from other home owners... After a month of being here, I have to admit to being quite bored now of trying (with some difficulty at times) to justify myself.

Take the latest 'little niggle' I have: my shower screen. It's old, knackered and doesn't fit properly against the wall.

The somewhat obvious 5mm gap between between the plastic and the glass means that water gets onto the bathroom floor everyday (and has done probably for 3 years prior to us moving in). Yet it took me 20 mins (and a lot of deep breaths to maintain my patience)of repeating myself before the 'plumber' (and I use the inverted commas for a reason) actually understood that I wasn't going to believe him that it 'was the design of the screen' and that yes, what I wanted to happen was for a new shower screen to be fitted (one that actually works). "Look at it this way" I explained to the very large bloke "I'm a lanndlady and if this leak was happening in MY house, I'd want it sorted asap before more damage to the floor was caused". Oh. UUUrrrrrmmm. Yes - that shocked him.

Another little lesson in life: don't make assumptions about other's circumstances from outward appearances!

2010-08-09T15:46:00.005+01:00

the view from the bottom of the cliff walk (outside the pub of course)

the poor neglected back garden...

the front - in desperate need of sweeping up and some plants in that porch!

the front garden - J can't wait to get his chainsaw out on that lot!

the back garden - 2 apple trees and lots of brambles - but not a decent shrub in sight!

2010-08-03T13:25:00.003+01:00

Being absent from Kent for several years, we were intrigued to discover recent positive reviews of the group of new Foodie pubs overseen by the now notorious I'm-a-celebrity-Michelin--starred-chef John Burton-Race.

We were particularly curious about ‘Harvey’s restaurant’ in Ramsgate. Had we blinked and missed Ramsgate becoming the new classy Dartmouth of the South East? Had Whitstable finally fallen off the Champagne & Oyster podium? We looked at the website with wide-eyed anticipation – "Oyster & Wine bar and their own fish market"!!? "Newly refurbished premises right opposite the marina""?
Quick!!! – lets get there for lunch before the rest of the world finds out about this….or so we thought....

Having (at last) secured a place to live; back ‘home’ in good old Kent, this was an excuse for a family celebration. My brother-in-law lives in the area and is a wheelchair user, so we decided to ring the restaurant in advance to book a suitable table. Despite the Disability Discrimination Act, we occasionally are disappointed to find that restaurants are not as flexible as they should be in accommodating their customers who are less-able bodied. At the time I dismissed the fact that no-one rang me back after leaving a message but in hindsight this should have sent alarm-bells ringing....

We booked for a sunny Friday lunchtime. We were assured by the staff-member who took the booking that the tables were “fully accessible”. However we were surprised upon arrival at 1pm to find the doors closed and no outward evidence of the restaurant being open. Despite this, we accessed by the side door and found the two staff present very helpful and courteous. Sadly, the tables laid out were all inaccessible to a wheelchair user – down a foot-deep drop - and it was with some considerable and somewhat embarrassing encouragement that the staff moved a table to a central place in the room. I was unsure where the toilets were but suspected they were also inaccessible. Of course Harvey’s is a very old building and it was highly likely to have problems with making appropriate modernisation. However, I cannot understand why the large step down to the eating area was not made into a ramp during the recent "extensive refurbishment" (or at the very least made clear upon booking).

More bad news followed: the website advertised ‘set lunch offer’ was off (with no explanation). So we ordered from the daily menu. The food was only average. Presentation was good but lacked vegetables. My sea trout was undercooked in places and over-cooked in others and the fish-pie was lacking in seasoning and had no smoked haddock (isn’t that illegal?!! LOL). The staff openly admitting that it indeed included "cheap off-cuts of various fish" (but this didn’t stop them charging us £14 for it)! The service was good, but without ANY fellow diners there was little ambience and the music was a repetitive irritation (Level 42 – no doubt because they have a forthcoming reunion tour at the nearby Margate Winter Gardens). Were those strawberries in plastic tubs on the bar from a supermarket? Oh dear… perhaps I'll skip the £8 desserts.

Overall, perhaps it was not surprising that the restaurant was empty. The four of us enjoyed the meal, but when the bill came and totalled £90 we were shocked. We had ordered one starter, no wine or desserts. Interestingly, during our lunch some other customers were drawn in, but declined the menu when they discovered the set lunch was not available. They really have got it so wrong here. Are they forgetting this is RAMSGATE!?!

We exited to the nearby ‘Belgian Cafe’ for dessert and after-dinner drinks, where the accessibility, ambience and prices were much more welcoming.

Ramsgate the new 'Millionaires Playground"? Eh, ...well , actually no. Not yet anyway.....Raspberry beer anyone?

2010-06-15T20:20:00.014+01:00

Can you believe it? So soon! Another academic year has well and truly reached its Autumn and slowly but surely my seemingly-endless ‘marking’ pile has subsided into a boring pile of filing in a bunch of colourful cheap (collapsing) lever-arch files. I feel change is now well overdue and am having difficulty motivating myself with thoughts of potentially delivering the same lessons to (yet another) wonderful bunch of university-aspiring naive students in a few short months. Another 150-odd new names to learn? Mmmmmm…..

Anyway, whilst pondering (and waiting) for various ideas, suggestions and opportunities to (hopefully) raise their beautiful heads above the ground, I'd like to avoid talking anything 'footie' - apart from to show you how lovely my doggie looks in her new Football Bandana (handmade of course)
......................but now onto more serious matters and what ‘foodie’ things I have been up to lately….

J took me to Brum for my birthday (not YET ‘the big one’ – but getting frighteningly too close for comfort). It was that day over the Bank Holiday when it (inevitably, I guess) absolutely p***** it down - virtually all day. This was a blessing really as we were to be inside most of the day – firstly on the short train journey to New Street, then onto enjoying the culinary delights of Michelin-starred chef Andreas Antona at the now famous Simpsons restaurant. Later on to see a revised version of Barrie Keeffe’s 1979 classic and emotionally raw play ‘Sus’ at the Rep.

Simpsons was originally in the picturesque town of Kenilworth (convenient foodie town to escape to whilst I was at Warwick Uni), but the chef had higher hopes than a shop front and sold-up to invest in this lovely Georgian style place in Edgbaston – which was obviously the right thing to do as he’s won loads of awards since.

We arrived a bit early as for once the train was on time. Although it’s only a 20 minute walk from New Street station it was raining so hard we took a cab. It was a little frustrating that we were a little too early to taste something from the bar (not being residents you see (if only)), but we enjoyed a comfy leather seat in the oak-panelled lounge and a fresh coffee with the papers. It was quite interesting to speak with the staff preparing for the lunch service and the bookings being taken.

Very soon however, others started arriving and we were allowed a ‘proper’ drink and a peep at the menu. There’s a choice at lunch of either the tasting menu (£70 pp) or the (very reasonable I thought) set 3 course lunch at £30 pp inc half a bottle of wine. If we’d had a ‘lazy’ afternoon ahead of us, we would have treated ourselves to the former option, however the play started at 2.45 so we had a schedule of sorts….

The setting is really wonderful at Simpsons. The light and airy ‘conservatory’ area, with rattan-style chairs and brilliant-white tablecloths was just so stylish without being pompous. The outside area looked lovely and green and inviting, but sadly we couldn’t really venture out as it was just too wet! I admired the vibrant Rhoddies though - through the floor to ceiling glass.

I won’t detail here everything about what we ate as I’m sure you can easily find specfic dish details elsewhere, however I will say a bit about what I can remember about the simply glorious food. Everything was perfect. the amuse bouche was a cube of cod which had been deep fried and served on a cocktai stick (may sounds awful but was actually delicious). I had the cod for my main (J had the lamb 'cooked 3 ways') and the desserts were lovely if a little un-adventurous - one passion fruit and pineapple sorbet thingy and mine was a (much better) Simpson's Knickerbocker special. Oh if only we had the time to meander through the cheeseboard! The service was attentive without being stressful or over the top. There was a good mixture of customers (amongst the highlights of the people-watching experience was a couple on the next table who were also celebrating HIS birthday and a large family group ordering lots of champagne because there was “no special occasion – just a get-together” (how wonderful). With almost a cover on every table at one point which made for a buzzing but relaxing atmosphere. The maitre-d was wonderfully experienced and very French of course and went out of her way to make all the guests feel comfortable.

We got to the theatre in plenty of time and it was fascinating to see the players so close-up in this intimate production. I was a bit worried when they were smoking so much on stage (I hate it when someone starts coughing during a performance) but the ventilation was obviously good and I hardly smelt it at all (what a long way we've all come since the smoking ban in the UK). It was a fab performance and very thought-provoking.

"We must visit the theatre again soon"! We always say that. But most importantly, let's go back to Simpsons. Next time we visit I would love to have a table either nearer to the open kitchen area – or - even better outside in the covered area on a warm summers evening...champagne on ice of course....

2010-03-24T14:14:00.007Z

Here we were, not that long ago walking along the Northumberland coastal path again and returning to our cosy cottage at Christmas....but now Winter is well and truly over and I'm sorry that this Blog has been somewhat neglected since the colder months.

But now the daffodils in the garden are well and truly raising their heads again, the lambs are bleating in the field beyond and I'm about to change my winter tyres again - so it MUST be spring right?!
It's that time when (helped by Mr Darling's latest changes perhaps) we are thinking again about moving to pastures new....maybe 2010 will be the year?

We must have been to hundreds of nice restaurants since Nov - and I've been very lazy in not writing about any of them.

The most memorable was maybe the 'Cheerful Soul' in Marlow where as you will remember the couple from Raymond Blanc's "Restaurant', Michelle and Russell have been running their own foodie dream. Michelle was there (apparently Russell doesn't work in the kitchen anymore - not sure why) waiting truly 'cheerfully' on the tables. It was very quiet though - Saturday lunchtime. Although Michelle told us they were "chocker" that evening...
the food was...good. Not outstanding. Can't even remember what I had now...(although 'you know who' will remember).
We also had a great meal at Edwards (or is it Edmunds?) in Birmingham. Which apparently is hoping for a Michelin star soon...and J ate lunch recently at the now famous (thanks to Ramsay) Lasan Indian restaurant in Birmingham which apparently was superb. I'll have to wait in line with all the other customers for an evening meal - apparently there's a 3 month waiting list...
So, I'll get some more thoughts down soon...and some photos....til then :)

2009-11-04T16:58:00.005Z

It's been MONTHS since I updated this. And now, here we are, in NOVEMBER! I can hardly believe that the evenings are so dark again all of a sudden. Soon I'll need to get organised for Christmas. Over a year has passed with Dizzy and walking her makes you so much more aware of the seasons passing. There's sloe gin in the cupboards and pickles of various types. Blackberry jam and jelly is lurking in the darkness next to the Kings Acre Pippin apples that have to sit for a few months before they're even remotely edible (by that, I mean cookable)!

Talking of Christmas, last weekend was spent in the shopping paradise that is Cheltenham Spa. My first ever weekend without my puppy. OOOohhh how I missed her :) But what a fantastic place! I wandered around the grand Georgian town house where Gustav Holst was born (accompanied by the Planets in the background of course) and then we had lunch in the Michelin pub "The Beehive". This was a bit disappointing in terms of venue - but the food and wine were excellent. Lots of 'shabby chic' nearby to browse...

Shopping was followed by dinner at the famous Art Deco ex-cinema "The Daffodil". I've never seen a place like it! The nearest thing I can think of is that weird and wonderful restaurant in Brussels which is like walking into a stage play. You know the one - with lots of statues and gold taps everywhere. The food was delicious and the service was excellent even if it wasn't silver service. No pretences - just good quality and honest. It was great to hear the banter going on from the kitchen which was fully visible at the 'screen'. The cocktail bar upstairs was brilliant fun too:)

Sadly 'rain stopped play' early the next day and so I'll have to go again to see the Art Museum and Town Hall. Dizzy scored the doggie bag that was madeup from the left over 'Full Englishes' though (proper sausage - yum)

Maybe Dizzy can come along next time too?!!

2009-06-24T10:52:00.010+01:00

This was to be my first experience at Raymond Blanc's famous "Le Manoir aux Quat' Saison". We opted not to go for the valet parking (is J getting a bit precious about his BMW now?) and walked down the avenue of lavender to the old manor house. Greeting us on reception was not the man himself (I expect he had better things to do on Fathers' Day) but the "Ali" guy from the TV show. Obviously Raymond had realised that he had some talent - but I thought it was his chef partner, James, who was the real star of that show. I wondered whether it was him in the kitchen today....
J had been here a few times but was quite excited by the prospect of being seated in the dining room instead of the 'school hall' conservatory (or is it an 'orangery'? I never know the difference). I was a bit miffed that I had been told they couldn't fit in an extra guest at the last minute - but most of the other tables were empty! It was nearing 1.30 and surely more people would be here for lunch on fathers' day? The loud American voices were a bit annoying from the other table, e.g. "....and I find when I give them my title over the phone I always get people's attention...." Yawn yawn...

We had managed to persuade C&C to go for "Les Classique" menu - much better value than the "a la Carte" - at £95 per person (listen to me)! It's a set 5 course menu inc coffee (or their own 'unique' mariage Freres Teas) with the option of cheese for £10 extra. (later we heard the inevitable arguments from another table about whether to go the 'french' way with this or not)...

1st course was a small crab dish. Beautiful delicate flavour. Sorry - I didn't take photos of each course coz I can't help feeling that its a bit 'naff' -
2nd course was the risotto with fresh vegetables. I loved the peas!
3rd course was the lemon sole - Oh la la! !!! I found a little fish worm! Mulling over whether to tell the waitress or not, I decided to mention it. J (ever the joker) responded to her "is everything OK?" with a "Yes, but she couldn't eat that" (pointing at the little brown alien. Apologies followed and a swift race to the kitchen with the offending item. It did put me off a bit. But not for long.
4th course - Goosenargh Duck (served pink unless you asked). Embarrassingly, C&C both requested "well done" which was a bit of a nerve really. I trust the chef to know when it's done. It was perfect. So tender! In a orangey sauce but with a difference. So fresh!
5th course - the strawberry 'celebration': layers of fresh strawberry flavours, topped off with - wait for it - a piece of gold leaf! Amazing!

By this time the whole restaurant had filled-up. I was a bit disappointed that some of the poor people sitting against the wall had to have their table 'pulled out' for them to be seated (a bit like when you're at the local Indian). This was a sign that they had tried to fit too many tables into the room. It was a little stuffy. The sun had come out and a walk around his famous organic vegetable garden was calling us.

We stopped in the padded-walled bar for coffee (I went for the Tibetan Tea - superb!) and the hand-made petit fours(with more gold leaf).

I half expected an explanation or acknowledgement from the kitchen about my fish-worm, but nothing turned up - either in person or as a discount from the bill. Oh well, another piece of emailed feedback required!

A walk around the garden was lovely and it wasn't that busy. Apparently, there another few acres attached to the grounds that are going to expand the garden over the coming seasons.

I have to admit to being quite jealous of people retiring to their rooms with a bottle of something sparkly (he promotes his own champagne at a very reasonable price). The odd floodlight here and there and the realistic bronze sculptures hidden in the undergrowth must have looked fabulous in the evening light.
But unfortunately, we had to drive back home...

J asked me - so what's your favourite? Here? Or the Waterside at Bray? That we visited last year.
MMmmmmm there's a question to ponder....

2009-06-10T15:11:00.010+01:00

Another Glorious Weekend in Dorset!

We stayed at the wonderfuly named "Piddle Inn" again. On the banks of the river Piddle. J's treat for my B'day and we couldn't have hoped for better weather. Dizzy was very glad of the cool, clear water running literally by the the side of the beer garden.

We walked for miles and miles. It is absolute heaven to get away from all the traffic and people. We didn't see another person all day!

We set off from the pub and walked in all directions (but always towards a pub of course). In nearby Cerne Abbas there are loads of good pubs, including the New Inn which is newly opened after a re-furb and has one of the nicest beer gardens...There is also the 'Brace of Pheasants' at nearby Plush, although annoyingly we never seems to be able to catch them when they're open. Never mind they have been taken out of the Michelin Guide anyway!

the views around the area are breathtaking!

Reminiscent of another wonderful weekend we had earlier in the year at Great Malvern....

Lets hope this Summer weather continues for us..

2009-04-16T15:34:00.008+01:00

Have you ever been mistaken for a doppelganger? I have. More than once.

Is it something to do with the way I look perhaps? Am I too ordinary? Am I not at all unique in the way that I aspire to be (doesn’t everyone?) Are my clothes too ‘everyday’?

I have a theory about these complete strangers who come up to me and ask if you are “anything to with so-an-so” or “whether you have lived in such-and-such”. No, I don’t think they are just using this as an excuse to try to chat me up (I wish;). They are just bored, or maybe living in fear that some horrible, embarrassing misdemeanour from their past is going to catch-up with them and seek out its revenge. Perhaps their insecurities force them to seek out any potential emotional damage in some kind of irrational self-inflicted obsession.

I had a weird experience of this on our latest holiday. I was aware of this guy staring at me every time we walked through the hotel and he was around. Sad git I thought – 50-something. You know, the kind of guy who sits in his too-small trunks and sunbathes all day until he (as J likes to call it) ‘lobsters himself’ and ends up the colour and texture of a very cheap over-cooked sausage.

“Did you get married in Thailand?” he asked me, out of the blue at the bar one night.
Bizarre.
“No” I said (please God get the message)
“Oh” he says, rather disappointed.
Small embarrassed pause….
Then, trying again..
“Have you ever taken drugs?”
(where is he going with this exactly? Who is this wierdo?)

How odd that, even when I explain (teacher-training patience firmly secured) that, No, my name isn’t Susan, that No, I haven’t ever lived in Bath and that NO! J isn’t a GP that I met 10 years ago – this idiot still insisted that I apparently might be someone that he lived with for a year and a half 17 years ago (when I was 20? MMmmmm maybe I would remember that? Just maybe?) Did I change my name then?

Then I'm reminded why J and I have this unwritten rule that we never - NEVER talk to people whilst on holiday (not unless we have to that is). We spend so much of our lives talking to people that we don't want to talk to - that NO! this is OUR week OFF! We will be rude if we have to be! But of course we're English - we have to be civilised. It's in our genes....

(View outside the hotel)

Turns out this guy is apparently a teacher (yes, how did you guess) of RE in an ‘academy’ (oh, I wonder why) in Maidstone of all places (If only I’d kept my mouth shut about living in Kent).

Why is it that some people have to seek out people that might possibly have something remotely ANYTHING remotely (however insignificant) ‘in common’ with them. Why? Haven’t we all got something in common with each other – if we talked for long enough (and maybe got drunk enough) that is?

Anyway, I’ve posted my comments about this particular hotel on my Tripadvisor site (incase anyone’s interested. Not recommended really – but it was good to get away for some proper sunshine). Reading - that's what we did - we read and read and read. the best one was Paul Today's The Girl on the Landing. I love the way this guy builds such utterly boring but at the same time fascinatingly interesting characters.

Meanwhile, the good news is I’ve won another short story competition. Well, OK, not ‘won’ exactly – just an ’honorable mention’ (whatever that means). It’s to be published though – so another small victory. Ho hum, one day….when there’s more hours in the day….

2009-02-11T10:03:00.008Z

OK - This is for you S - and you can answer anonymously don't worry;)

What's your favourite Place in the world?

Deep, dark and magical: Doubtful Sound, South Island, New Zealand: the most remote and silent place I’ve visited. Some areas of the fjord are still unmapped with lots of undiscovered plants and wildlife. Heaven – if it wasn’t for the blasted sand-flies.

Your favourite Book(s)?
The Time-traveller’s wife by Audrey Niffennegger (if you haven’t read it yet you better had do quickly – it’s about to be released as a film).

Anything by Ian McKewan – including Atonement (as always the film didn’t get anywhere near).....
& Khaled Hosseini’s Thousand Splendid Suns

Your favourite way to kill time...?
Facebook & searching Rightmove.co.uk for that ultimate home....

Most important piece of advice you’d want to pass on...
Never take anything in life for granted.

Biggest regret?
Not pestering my Dad enough to let me learn the piano.

Your least favourite Film (as we’ve done our favourite already) Titanic

If you had all the time and money in the world, where would you go and what would you do? Buy a big shack on a deserted beach on a Greek Island or buy a Sunseeker Boat and sail out to an exotic Caribbean island and spend a year or so writing a book.

Proudest moment in your life (so far)?
Watching my Mum pass her driving test aged 50-something. Divorce behind her and relishing her new independence!

Most scary moment in your life so far:
Not knowing whether J’s brother would live or die after his motorbike accident nearly 20 years ago (he survived, but is in a wheelchair).

Thing(s) that you find most annoying?
Anything celebrity-related, especially people obsessed by Big Brother or Hello magazines...sad, sad, sad

Material object you couldn’t live without:
My iPod – especially my Meditation Oasis podcasts!

Non-material object you couldn't live without?
my hearing - I couldn't survive without my music:)

Look forward to reading yours...

2009-02-03T20:17:00.004Z

Thought - right! Not another day will pass without me adding SOMETHING to this Blog. I've neglected it for months!

Here's quick Blog about Banffshire, Scotland, where we spent Xmas. Very Strange place! Where we stayed - Gardenstown - lovely, unspoilt seaside town. But the community is spilt into the God-fearing 'oldies' and the English people with second homes. One group on top of the hill (nearer to heaven obviously) and the others near the sea. It was an interesting Christmas Eve service - not least because we had about twenty different churches to choose from! Only one pub to visit afterwards though, and very cosy it was too!
Within a day's drive was the battlefield of Culloden. Dizzy had a great time running around between all the graves. We were alone on the moor and it was getting dark soon. I could imagine it being very spooky up here...

more later.
marking marking marking...

2008-10-29T18:22:00.005Z

I have to admit to this new 'Doggie' life being somewhat of a surprise. Especially in terms of restaurants and hotels. Amazingly, lots of the places that I would expect not to be at all accommodating of our four-legged friends, actually are. Our time at Piddletrenthide (see below)included a breakfast sausage for Dizzy for example!!!

You might think that places like Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree Inn for example, might be completely off the list. But no. We turned-up early thinking we would have to take DD for a run and leave her in the car, but actually she was welcome in the bar and the owner (assuming partner) guy was very friendly in offering nearby walks for the after-lunch stroll. It was a glorious day.

Inside the Yew tree - which disappointingly is quite far out of the village of Highclere itself - not far from the castle - is a lovely cosy place. Maybe a bit too cosy in fact. Although the service and food were absolutely excellent, I felt a bit claustrophobic with all the tables close together (one of which had no cover at all over lunchtime so could have easily been moved away) and it made the service a bit unnecessarily clumsy. Otherwise, beautifully done. Very subtle with the mis-matched chairs and old bits of antique mirrors everywhere. Not too much clutter but enough with the amusing prints on the walls to make it interesting if you happen to be with guests that are (at times) perhaps difficult to communicate with;)

The menu has the option of a set one for lunch, which is very reasonable £15.50 for 2 courses. It's not often you have the opportunity to try Michelin-starred food at these prices! The Fish and Chips was particularly good and my smoked mackeral starter was delish! I could be tempted to buy his new book - but that hair of his really puts me off him!!

2008-10-29T17:55:00.007Z

Yes, the view of the Giant at Cerne Abbas. We escaped to this little dog-friendly pub a few weeks ago called the Piddle Inn. On the banks of the river Piddle (Trout season just finished, sadly)in such an idyllic spot surrounded by unspoilt hills and rivers and woodlands. When I say 'unspoilt' that is with the exception of the Giant of course. He's supposedly an imposter - not at all as old as the stone circles and other chalk things on hilsides up and down the country, but perhaps as new as 400 years old (!!!) Recently re-chalked and looking in his prime now, apart from National Trust won't actually let you get too near him for fear of the land slipping away.

Glorious landscape around - this was just before the weather closed in and we had to seek refuge in a nearby pub.

Cerne Abbas is a lovely little village with surprisingly quite alot of very nice pubs. Not at all the touristy place I half expected to see. proper pubs serving proper beer and pub grub at reasonable prices. It was lovely and quiet too. I love to escape to where there's not too many people. we had planned to eat at the nearby Michelin pub The Brace at Plush, but ran out of time. Fortunately, our own pub menu was full of lovely fish dishes and organic and/or local meat and veg. I met the chef, Simon. Very talented guy. We'll keep this pub a secret otherwise if they get in the Guide their prices will inevitably go up. As it was, we had a fantastic meal and a bottle of wine for about £50.

Dizzy thought the pub facilities particularly comfortable after a day-long walk on the hills... Must come back for the fly-fishing in the Spring....

2008-09-09T10:25:00.005+01:00

Wow. It’s been nearly 2 months since I’ve posted anything on here. Its not that I’ve haven’t had the time – after all, I should have much more free time now – since I finally submitted my dissertation. Eight years of working and studying and being stressed with all the work I had to do for what seemed like every minute of every day. It feels very weird to have to remind myself that I needn’t feel guilty if I’m not reading something academic. But I really wasn't in the mood for Blogging much....

Over the summer I’ve read some brilliant books. Most memorably: Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A thousand Splendid Suns’ (scary to think that a guy could write so well from a female perspective – I’d love to meet him) and Sheila Hancock’s autobiographical ‘The Two of Us’ detailing her life with Inspector Morse actor John Shaw. A bit over the top and soppy in places I thought – but well-written and insightful. I also discovered Gillian White, and although her writing is no-where near the level of many quality writers (this is solid chic-lit type stuff), it was thoroughly enjoyable and cleverly funny. Holiday reading at its best.

Now it’s back to the never-ending lesson-planning and now (a new past-time) dog-walking. Despite the rain, rain, rain since we got back from Crete, it’s been rejuvenating to have the incentive of soppy-looking dog’s eyes as motivation for getting out and about.
Some of the public footpaths and reservoirs we explore we never knew existed until recently – and we’ve lived here for years now. We also discovered Holdenby Hall who held their second Food Festival a couple of weeks ago. Luckily the rain held off for long enough so that we could see the eagles flying from their Falconry and (of course) buy some olives and spices…

J spoilt us with a trip to the famous Waterside at Bray (regrettably, Dizzy was not allowed).
And the sun really did shine that day! It was fabulous to sit looking out to the Thames and enjoy the happiest service that I think I’ve ever experienced at a Michelin-starred place. The food wasn’t too bad either;)

2008-09-05T16:49:00.002+01:00

The 'F' word..."fantastic!"

Remember the Ramsay Kitchen Nightmare episode where the multi-Michelin-star accruing controversial Gordon visited a small restaurant in Norfolk called "Rococo's"? Chef Nick Anderson had a Michelin star from a previous role and had won lots of awards after set up his own place in unpretentious King's Lynn. Trouble was, his menu was pretentious and didn't really match the local customer's needs. (Read the report from back then in Lynn's News). Luckily for Nick, Ramsay used his experience and skill and waved his magic spell on the atmosphere, menu and staff, including changing its name to a more friendly-sounding Maggie's (The restaurant falls under the shadow of St Margaret's church, opposite). See below..

This (above) is the ancient medieval building next-door to Maggie's. All around is wonderful architecture!

We thought we'd give Maggie's restaurant a try whilst staying in the city over the Easter break. Norfolk is excellent cycling-path country and the estuary is punctuated by nice, friendly, down-to-earth pubs like the Crown and Mitre. (Many of which seem to be owned by Londoners 'done good'..)

Surprisingly, there was availability at the last minute (oh dear, I thought) and at 8pm on the Saturday, we sat down to eat. But I needn't have worried, the whole place was absolutely frantic. Most tables were full and the four or five waiting staff seemed to be dashing about, but not really accomplishing much. For instance, despite having the menus to study for 10-15 mins, no-one asked what we wanted to drink; we had to wave-down a dazed-looking young lady and made an order. ..A few minutes later we were told that unfortunately the prosecco wasn't cold and did we mind waiting for it to cool down?! Needless to say we didn't bother and went straight to the wine-list instead. But the very kind (reassuringly, French) sommelier offered J's cold beer on the house. A bit strange, though, I thought - to have Prosecco on the drinks menu when it's not in the fridge (?)

Another strange thing happened when we ordered the food. The menu was straight-forward and varied, with the odd "fancy" thing here and there (e.g. fois gras with a starter) (see their rather strange and amateurish web-site for an example). J decided on the game terrine to start with and I went for the 'shrimp and mushy-pea fritters' (!) (Just out of interest more than anything else really)! The waiter informed us that there had been a "complaint" this evening about the game terrine: apparently it was very "gamey" (!!!) Not sure how to react to this statement - we just looked at the apologetic-looking waiter with raised-eyebrows...."And..?"!!!
I wasn't sure what the point was of mentioning this. Perhaps he would've been better advised to offer it as a complement, rather than as a complaint. Anyway, as it turns out, it was very, very good and much more exciting than my (rather bland) "fritters" - which, (sorry, Nick) were crying-out for a sweet chilli sauce to spice them up a bit. The mains were better - and by this time, thankfully the atmosphere in the restaurant had relaxed quite a bit (but there was still no sign of the staff pouring any wines at any of the tables (despite a large table of 8 behind us). The happy chattering from customers in the quite spacey, but still cosy rooms was interspersed with the occasional clattering and shouting from the kitchen (the door was wedged open). I caught glimpses of Nick and his colleagues sweating their guts out. For some reason many people had arrived at about the same time - leaving alot of orders going in together...

Service was good - their was just enough of a wait between courses. And each plate was well-presented, but not over-the-top. J had the steak (of course) which was cooked to perfection (or so he said) and I had the salmon (the only other options were Ox tongue (yuck), Grey Mullet (who on earth serves that nowadays, rather than its so much better tasting red brother) or Brill - which I can never get enthusiastic about. The salmon was nice, but served on a mountain of raw celeriac and cabbage (inedible) which I had naively expected to be blanched or served with something else..luckily the steak came with a marvellous bubble and squeak mixture which saved the day.

Puddings were lovely with lots of flavours and Eastertime chocolate. Shame about the Stinking Bishop cheese on the board. We had been warned about the diminishing quality of this cheese on our food tour at Winteringham Fields, and the other cheeses served were not particularly local or inspiring - a bit of a wasted opportunity. (We feel a bit like cheese experts after our visit to Lincoln's Cheese Society)!!

However, overall it was very, very nice. And not particularly expensive. There is something quite 'homely' about the atmosphere and service at Maggie's. Like the coat-hooks by the glazed front-door, the pine furniture and the magazines on the side-tables. I was quite surprised, for instance, to find in the (single) ladies' loo, a washing machine, semi-hidden by a white linen table-cloth!

Judging by our experience, the feedback from the locals and the bustling atmosphere that we witnessed - looks like Maggie's is a real success. Can't help thinking that King's Lynn is another of those places that has relatively undiscovered potential.

2008-07-21T11:09:00.007+01:00

From Yorkshire Scupltures to ones slightly further afield in Barcelona. This was one on the beach near to to the Michelin-starred restaurant at the top of a cable car tower (!) You would never guess to look at the surrounding area. It's strange to have a sprawling massive city right next to a sandy beach - and the sea breeze made the heat much more bearable..

There was all sorts of weird and wonderful sculptures and buildings. But the Gaudi Cathedral and Park were definitely the highlights. As K said - it was like being in a fairy tale! A bit of research revealed that before he was tragically run over by a local tram in his seventies (apparently he dressed so humbly, no-one realised that it was him until some days later - he looked like a tramp!) he regularly took some magic mushrooms to ease the symptoms of his arthritis. Hence the fantasy-like buildings and colours. Walt Disney eat your heart out!

This is a city you could walk around for hours. Hop on the bus for 20euros and jump off for a few minutes when you get bored of listening to the Spanish guy harping on about the wonderful shopping opportunities in the area - much better to look at the architecture instead!

2008-07-21T10:46:00.005+01:00

I must've passed the Yorkshire Sculpture Park a million times on the motorway, on my way to or from somewhere or other... So while we had a few hours to spare in (awful) Wakefield the other day (necessary to collect the new BMW), we decided to stop in and have a walk round with the dog we had visiting (I hoped it would tire her out on the way back - but no such luck - she's inexhaustible)!

The park is alot less formal than I anticipated. Not many proper paths - just footpaths through fields. I was glad to have my proper walking boots.

Every so often you come across weird and wonderful sculptures like these. It's a bit spooky to be honest. Especially approaching dusk when there's no too many people around.

The Henry Moore is the highlight of course. The surrounding landscape and quietly munching sheep certainly add to the contemplative mood of the scupltures. Well worth a visit - especially as the famous Three Acres isn't very far away for a delicious lunch...

2008-06-16T11:17:00.014+01:00

Funny how it's always those places that you live nearest to, that you somehow never seem to get round to visiting. We've known about Ravensthorpe Reservoir since we moved here over seven years ago - but for some reason J's been all over the country with his fly-fishing rod, but never managed to go 5 miles down the road! Anyway - we found the time to stop by yesterday - and even though we weren't there at the crack of dawn (as many were apparently) we didn't come back empty handed (although it wasn't the 11 lb wopper that someone pulled out last week - and it didn't get a fly either (long story)).

Bryher and I walked all the way around the hundred acres of clear blue water and another halfway round to meet the fisherman. It was so peaceful - and the sun was lovely and warm, especially on the south bank where the dam is. It was great to escape the blasted dissertation for a day or two at last. This place is full of interesting original Victorian machinery and architecture. And the village is only a short walk away...(where maybe we'll live one day)

She is a mischievous little tinker - into everything and full of energy and particularly enjoyed running through all the muddy paths under the trees of the wood on the far side...

Lots of people were out in boats - but J never has any luck on boats so he stayed on the bank while I surreptitiously tried sketching them (not easy with an energetic little dog beside you)...

Nearby the well-worn Chequers pub was unfortunately closed (again)so it was back to our local for a quick pint. Needless to say Bryher needed a bath as soon as she got home - which she didn't particularly like - but it was worth it for all the mad running about the house that inevitably follows any doggie-bath... Why do they all do that I wonder???

2008-05-28T14:09:00.023+01:00

If my group of Beteckers are reading this again - a big THANK YOU for your lovely card and comments. I miss you too!!! Hope all the interviews and stuff are going well. Sorry I accidentally deleted your comments - so you'll have to send me some new ones to add to this post:)

Here are some pictures from last weekend and our visit to my home county - yes - I'm an ESSEX GIRL at heart;)

We were there to see 'ol' blue eyes' on tour
(and please don't go telling me he's dead - coz I've seen him - full size, in colour and walking on the stage):)

The Cliffs Pavillion - at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex - a brilliant venue - especially on a wonderful sunny day like we had on Saturday.

Looking out onto the big, blue Thames estuary with a cold glass of white wine? Yep - very 'us' ;)

Unfortunately, the first performance was cancelled due to a technical hitch - but I managed to run to the box office (when all the oldies were reaching for their walking sticks) and got the last few tickets for the evening performance. Luckily we were there early as the stupid man had written 8.15pm on the tickets when actually it was an 8pm start. It was an excellent show - and I'm not even a particular lover of Sinatra-stuff (J is of course - born in the wrong decade)- but his story was really well told and the technology they use was amazing - he really came alive - so much so, that the dancers on stage we actually a bit of a distraction to watching him sing! fantastic choreograpy....

So, anyway, we had an unexpected afternoon walk along the seafront - along the pier (the longest in the world you know - 1.33 miles) - we took the train back as the wind was blowing a hoooley!
After a wonderful lunch (plus two bottles of wine) at the
Fisherman's Wharf restaurant we ended up at Leigh-on-Sea (which is slightly more upmarket that the amusement-park, candyflossy "saaffend"...

We found a good and friendly fishmonger cooperative (Mmmmm.. wild sea bass: mental note to stop there before we headed home) and stopped for a drink at the seafront bars. Shame that we would have to miss the reservation at the Boatyard restaurant (voted the best fish restaurant in the area) - but actually it didn't look that brilliant a place after all. And the reviews aren't very good. The woman at the reception was not at all friendly:( somaybe it was just aswell we weren't eating there. Its a bit of a Michelin food desert round here:(

Little did we know (and much to J's excitement) the international annual airshow was on and during Saturday there was lots of rehearsing in the skies above the cliffs and the seafront was beginning to fill up with all kinds of RAF and Army lads on roadshow-type lorries with banners. Shame the weather closed in on Sunday - but that's England for you (it was a bank holiday after all):)

Does he think he's in Crete or something? This is the Thames - not the Med' you know!!

Nice hat Dad;)

2008-05-08T11:01:00.008+01:00

>

Last week my friend K and I treated ourselves to a mid-week day out in scenic Rutland. As it was a special occasion we decided we deserved a Michelin-starred venue for lunch and Hambleton Hall’s ‘Lunch 4 Less’ deal was irresistible!
It's grand Victorian architecture looks over the huge reservoir and even though it was midweek they were fully booked and the dining room had (as always) an excellent atmosphere. The hotel is more like a rustic home than a posh hotel. Hidden away down a wooded gravelled driveway. Apparently the Latin above the front door says ‘ do as you want’ and they certainly are keen on their guests taking part in fishing, cycling or walking around the Water’s paths.

But we were here for Aaron’s famous food. In a recent review "Hambleton Hall stands at the forefront of that dying breed of quintessential, personally run, unmucked-about luxury country-house hotels". And has been known for some time as 'best restaurant outside London'..
So after the obligatory glass of champers;) K had the Beetroot assiete to start (Mmmmm interesting – not as good as a rhubarb favourite of mine from a certain other Michelin place) and I had the ravioli mushroom thingy (very mushroomy) and for our mains we had veal bolognaise (not too rich and served in a separate little pot to go over the pasta – very stylish) and the organic wild salmon (lovely and the mushed peas it was served on even better). We especially enjoyed earwigging others conversations “would you believe – the new vicar is a woman!” And laughing at the walking party who left all their muddy boots and Barbours in the porch, as the head of the group discreetly handed the sommelier two (duck or pheasant)? eggs saying (in his middle class accent): “would you ask the chef to poach one and fry the other – we’ll have them before the starters”.

Eccentric bunch these middle-of-week- Michelin-star-lunchers. The rain outside was pouring down. We enjoyed the relaxed, comfortable lounge, warm from the open log fire, full of plump feather cushions and the scent of its enormous vase of lilies.

Fortunately the rain held off when we left, and the spring-time sun appeared. Hambleton Hall is just down the road from the late BBC gardener Geoff Hamilton’s ‘Barnsdale’ – which is a maze of little gardens all with an individual theme. It held a special significance for K, so I was glad to walk around and enjoy learning a few new names for all the plants. Each garden has a seat to sit and enjoy the plants and we had the place virtually to ourselves apart from the few staff busy weeding away. The peace was only shattered occassionally by the aircraft from the local MOD site. After a cream tea in the café, we walked around the shop and each bought a new colourful addition (or two) for our gardens. Ladies who do lunch? We must do this more often!

2008-05-08T10:04:00.008+01:00

Bradford - home of cheap and cheerful bingo halls, shell suites and famous for its curries....MMMmmm not the best venue for an annual corporate charity do. The Hilton here has to be THE worst I have ever stayed at. We parked at the ugly, smelly, concrete NCP next door and I had a foreboding of what the hotel was going to be like. And Yep- very old and tired and dark rooms where the windows were literally falling out if the frames, clean but very small, well-worn rooms full with out of date stuff and uncomfortably hard beds. Can you believe not even one room donated to a treadmill or two - let alone a proper gym or a swimming pool "Oh, yes madam - there is a leisure centre available to guests. It's about a ten minute drive away" Stuff that. Anxiously driving around Bradford looking for a sports centre with your doors locked first thing in the morning. Definitely not my idea of fun.

Rooms: awful.
Service: bearable.
Food: inedible.
Music: fair
Company: great;)
Another annual duty? Done!

2008-04-17T08:55:00.012+01:00

Another trip to one of my favourite cities....
The contro versial Birmingham architecture...with rain fast approaching...

before lunch we visited the famous fish markets and were amazed at the different strange things on offer...not only the fish...

and the fresh crabs (my favourite). We had some little tubs of crayfish and welks to "keep us going til lunch" whilst we ambled round...

but what about this.............

at the back of this cabinet is....yes that's right...anyone for goats head stew????!!!.....(yuk)!!!!

and then there's the nasty stuff...(Not that High F-W would agree of course)

Some of the quality of the fish was a bit disappointing,
but there was a massive choice - meat and fish and frozen stuff...

But this was why we were here....there was even grouper!!

Anyway, when we'd had enough of walking around this smelly place, we headed outside to the open air market to buy (the biggest) stuffed olives you'd ever seen. And the woman selling them was so obsessive about them (understandably) she wouldn't allow them to be mixed together when they were sold - so we ended up £16 worth of half a dozen bags of various varieties (which inevitably ended up all in the same bowl in the fridge when we got home (well, all the ones that were left, that is;) there was a long train journey remember)!

On the basis that the wonderful, marvellous Teppanyaki is closed for lunch (why oh why?) and that shockingly, Le Blancs place has now closed (why oh why? - one of my favourites!), we headed to the next best... The Bank. Inevitably, it was very busy, but at least the menu is good. There wasn't too many screaming kids (thank God).

Unfortunately, despite it's friendly but corporate atmosphere, the food was a bit disappointing. We've been there a few times and this was by far the worst. L is allergic to coriander (poor love) so I made a point of telling the waiter. But... you guessed it, the chef just couldn't help himself, could he? There on top of the starter was a giant sprig of (to L was..) "the evil-looking green stuff". Did he not understand? The other starters were fine. Mains weren't...J had steak (of course) which was fine, L&C had the veal (too much sauce I think - not particularly appetizing-looking). I had the roasted halibut - which had been so over cooked it had gone completely dry and lost all taste. It was sitting on some asparagus which (a bit too early in the season for UK stuff) when questioned had apparently come from the same place my (lovely) new bear originates from...

We decided to share the "puddings for 2" (x2 of course) and they went down very well.
Later, I had a chat with the manager, Brett - lovely guy from South Africa. I think they just had a bad day. And the menu is desperate for a change - he agreed.

Next weekend we're off to the wonderful city of .....Bradford (!!) Oh, I can't wait!!

2008-04-05T17:31:00.011+01:00

What does Egypt conjure up in your mind? Pyramids, sand and creepy, smelly, dark-skinned men in white galabayas shouting "Baksheesh"?
MMmm, yeah, maybe. And yes the hassle for all the tips can be a pain. But the warmth of that amazing sun and the clean sea and the amazing food? It's definitely worth it - not least because it's so cheap. And the people have an amazing sense of humour!

This was the view from our room - lovely pool...

This is the view from the hotel's beach bar - perfect! So quiet and private - behind you just miles and miles of desert sand....We had to drive through the desert from Sharm El Sheik (about an hour) with an armed guard of course (you never know where those terrorists are) past the Bedouin camps. Sad to see the influence of Western culture has permeated even these isolated communities...brick houses instead of tents and plastic water tanks outside each house...

The mad chefs at one of the regular BBQs by the pool. Enough whale-fish (whatever that is)! beware the bones....

Below is what they did to my bear! Poor Burton!

The trick is to bring some pound coins with you. Their Egyptian Pounds are worthless (about 11=£1), give away a couple of quid (to strategic people) and they will be your friends for your stay - anything you want is there - I mean it too! These people literally can't do enough for you. It's in their nature to be as hospitable as they can. Not like anything you experience anywhere else in the world...

2008-01-30T18:17:00.000Z

Another year another (different) Food Festival, another Michelin-starred chef to meet... Philip Howard from Mayfair's The Square back at the homely and wonderful Northcote Manor near Blackburn. (So much for the de-tox);(
Counting the days now until half-term break...

2008-01-07T17:12:00.000Z

Christmas decs put away again - New Year - new challenges.
First one was to cope without power this morning when the high winds made our village high on a hill a cold and dark place to be...
the most difficult thing was coping without the Internet - no web, no phone number to call the power company to find out what is happening.. no radio, no phone...Eeeek!
Fortunately normality was resumed about 10.30am....so its back to the daily grind...

2007-12-13T21:59:00.000Z

I didn’t know quite what to expect for our weekend escape to Hamburg. I suppose the reputation of it’s famous Reeperbahn kinda provided images of seedy Amsterdam that I’d rather not visit... but hey, the flights were cheap and at a convenient time for once. One thing’s for sure; it wasn’t going to be as cold as Berlin – apparently the sea breeze keeps the frozenness that you find in other parts of Eastern Europe away for most of the Winter. Wet. Wet and cold. Not freezing. Nonetheless, the Gluhwein stalls provided a very welcome break whilst walking round the city’s huge shopping malls and markets on the endless quest for that last Christmas present… We walked as far West as St Pauli district and decided to stop at the famous Church of St Nicholas which was bombed during WWII and remains in ruins as a war memorial apart from the tower. Coincidentally, it has close links with Coventry Cathedral apparently and a couple of years ago the funding they raised allowed them to install a lift so that people can view the city from the top of the old spire (76 m high). Luckily for us the sun came out just as we reached the top (it only takes 50 secs - this is Germany remember): it was a magnificent, panoramic view! A bit eerie to think of all the thousands of civilians that were killed on the night in July 1943 when the church was bombed (about 35,000 apparently). Down below in what was the alter are 3 modern Breckwoldt sculptures and the glass triangle which leads down to the crypt and some exhibitions.
I loved the Speicherstadt area best of all though. So many bricks!!! You’ve never seen so much Victorian looking architecture with red bricks and ornate corners and roofs. This literally is ‘the city of warehouses’ – the largest in the world – and no, we’re not talking nasty, modern DIRFT here, this is proper, 1900’s customs houses linked by miles and miles of canals and black, semi-circular wrought-iron bridges. Think Birmingham’s Brindley Place meets central Boston - only much nicer and a million times bigger. Although many of the storage and customs warehouses are still in use (an ancient by-law apparently allows the purchaser to avoid paying any tax on the items stored here, until he goes to sell it), perhaps not surprisingly a lot of these old rooms are being converted into luxury apartments overlooking the harbour….mmmmm… if only...

I actually think this is a city best seen in the Summer. Although the views across the vast expanse of Elbe's meanderings within the city walls was very idyllic – there’s something about staring out to sea that makes me want to get on a boat and actually experience it (!) As, by the way, lots of (brave) warmly-wrapped-up people were doing! Although it turned out these were natives, carrying basket-loads of fresh fruit and veg’, just going about their daily lives on the water-buses.

Although Hamburg is a lot nearer to the UK than Berlin, strangely there are a lot less references to English here. No English signage or bi-lingual menus anywhere. Fortunately Germans have a much better education system than us and so we didn’t struggle anywhere to be understood (no thanks to my pathetic attempts with my phrase-book or iPod translator…). They really are a nice bunch the Germans. One guy even came up to offer us help when we were struggling with the ticket machine outside the central train station (keywords now memorised = ‘exact change only’)!!! The 1906 architecture of the station makes you go ‘wow’ and the sheer size of the roof space means unsurprisingly it’s the largest in all of Germany. Good news for shoppers too as unlike the rest of the city these shops are allowed to open on Sunday.

Food was excellent wherever we went (even the breakfast at our city-centre hotel). Lots of fish too (as you would expect in this area). Not too much of the sauerkraut and lots of fresh veggies. All excellent value. The spotlessness of everywhere is really surprising – even though we’d been to Germany a few times before. Even the bins and ashtrays (no smoking ban here of course) are immaculate! I found a handmade German Teddybear called ‘Benny’ to take home with me from one of the craft markets and lots of other unusual things... not to mention the honey and stollen...

We walked for miles and only saw about half the city over the weekend. Definitely a place to return to next year…

2007-12-06T21:04:00.000Z

Couldn't remember when I was last at Bath - but as we drove into the centre (after 3 hours of slow traffic) it came back to me how parts of it are just so neglected and run-down and yet other parts are the exact opposite. It's a strange part of the country. There's no doubt that the architecture is amazing - especially when it's all lit up by the Christmas lights reflected in the river running through the centre of the city.

We stayed at the famous (5 star) Bath Spa Hotel which is as fantastic as you would expect (!) the service and rooms were wonderful, the facilities - including the 5 different spa rooms all at different temperatures from freezing to boiling - were excellent. The food was the only slightly disappointing aspect of the hotel - but then there were catering for a few of us.

We were right near the centre of the city and so had lunch booked at the (apparently) famous Browns. But its only really a gastro pub and as they were short staffed the wait for the food went pear-shaped. Not that we minded - outside it was pouring with rain and we were in no rush. Santa was ringing his bell pointing people to the Christmas market stalls but these were also a bit disappointing. But then we're off (again) to see the real thing next weekend. The Germans are the only nationality who really know how to do Christmas...

2007-11-24T09:43:00.000Z

Was it really three years ago we were here last? We had to check back in the old Visitors’ Book – but, yes, there we were…signed in 'Sept 2004'. Can you believe that three years have flown by…? Back then it was the popular annual Food Festival - but we were out of season now.

Lots of things have changed at 36 On The Quay, Emsworth – the décor for example is dramatically different. When they first opened their rooms in 2003 Paddy from the Telegraph visited (within a week) and published a glowing report . However, I think the décor soon became dated (frilly curtains and china vases everywhere) and after some considerable criticism from (amongst others) Jan Moir (Telegraph again), a full refurb was instigated. Tables are now given much more space and curtains have been replaced by the clean lines of cream blinds. Much more minimalist. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the owner, Karen's very frosty reception. Why do we always feel we are an inconvenience when we arrive rather than a warmly welcomed guest? I think she may be in the wrong business - (even if her chef husband definitely isn't).

It was mid-afternoon and it wasn’t busy, we were shown upstairs to our room. We had the smallest one this time; “Clove” at the back of the building – the best rooms are “Cinnamon” (which fortunately T&G had) or “Vanilla” which both have wonderful sea views).

It was blowing an absolute hooley outside so we postponed the brisk walk along the sea wall and went to the pub nextdoor instead. It’s a proper locals pub and we met the fisherman, Kevin, who supplies Ramon. He was anxious to tell us about how wonderful his catch of Brill was today. “You must be loaded ££” he said as we left, “being able to eat there!” (he was probably a bit worse for wear by this time) “Why’s that?” T asked. “It’ll cost yer about £100 each to eat there, yer know” Kev explained (as if we were naïve about Michelin-starred hospitality). “Seems very reasonable to me” T said with a wink and we left them to their astonishment and drunken gossip.

Strangely, there was no tasting menu on offer tonight (Saturday). Stranger still no Brill was on the menu, either (was Kevin just telling a tall story)? But lots of nice things anyway. We had one each of the five starters to share between us (we couldn’t decide), and the winner was the scallops. Mains included veal (delish) and I had the halibut (of course), of which there was loads piled-up on a gorgeous mash. Disappointingly, there was no 'Rhubarb Celebration' (Ramon's signature dish) for dessert. But lots of nice alternatives…but service was slow throughout and we had to remind the waitress more than once to bring us some more wine and water when it disappeared.

At the end of the evening, I was looking forward to disappearing behind the secret bookcase in the dining room (a bit like an escape into Narnia). Only one other table were left (it was about midnight) and they were all intrigued when I tried to open it. But it was locked from the other side. “I didn’t have time to unlock it tonight” explained the waitress. No apologies or offer to go round to unlock it for us (maybe she’s learning her (poor) customer service attitude from Karen). Reluctantly (and I have to admit, rather drunkenly) all four of us ran round the outside of the restaurant (it was very cold and raining and windy) to reach the other door and the stairs to our bedrooms. Only afterwards did I wonder why I hadn’t insisted that one of the staff simply go round and unlock the door for us. This is a strange place.

Next morning, as usual, there was fresh continental breakfast available on the ‘landing’. Lots of different types of fresh breads and croissants and fruits and lovely yoghurt. Those in the bigger bedrooms, can have breakfast served to them. I just can’t understand why Karen doesn’t set aside a part of the restaurant downstairs, so that everyone can eat in a bit more comfort.??

Anyway, another successful weekend donated to Kwik-Fit (will my reward be in heaven?) Now we’re on the final countdown to the Christmas break.

2007-10-29T18:38:00.000Z

I'm sure you probably know about this really popular web site network that's catching-on everywhere you go where you can Re-cycle stuff . Not only do you feel 'holier-than-thou' for being so good to the environment by preventing things from going to landfill unnecessarily AND helping out a fellow human bean - but you also save youself the hassle (and smell) of (another) trip to the local dump...

We use it occassionally (it's quite amusing seeing the different types of people you meet - everyone from middle-class snobs trying to 'do their bit' to gypsies who obviously don't give a toss about the 'etiquette' of the site's ethos - and just see the opportunity of making a fast buck on eBay (or the local car boot sale)).

Anyway - got rid of (finally) this old fridge that's been in our summerhouse (I use that term loosely you understand) collecting dust for years. It wasn't much good, but occassionally had beers in it for BBQs etc in the Summer. So this lady and her hubby turn up to collect it. There's me feeling guilty about the state of it (I don't think it'd ever been cleaned) and her hubby says 'oh, don't worry, it's only for a tortoise to hibernate in!'

Now, there's a strange use for a spare fridge (!)

J's worried it might suffocate in there - but I think you have to check them every so often don't you?

Not being a tortoise-keeper I wouldn't know -any thoughts anyone?

2007-10-29T18:23:00.000Z

Last weekend we escaped again to Wales to the place where we were this time last year.

We visited the wonderful Harbourmaster at Aberearon again (I won't bore you with that again - but the food was just a good) and found New Quay where there's a beautiful quaint harbour - with a marvellous sandy beach!

Here we discovered a new game to keep the two lads occupied: "Here's a pound. Off you go to the Pound Shop (loads in these little rural Welsh towns as you will know) and find something unique/funny/practical as a present for each of us." What a laugh.

Prize for the most eccentric went to C who bought one of those in-flight blow-up air pillows (yes, exactly the same as the ones you see in the airports for about £10+). He said it was so comfortable he put it on and wore it for the rest of the day (mad these Welsh);) And the most creative went to C's friend who found a fluoresent-coloured car-washing glove that resembled a bath mat. Couldn't resist buying one for J (who's obsessive about keeping the cars clean for some unknown reason).

2007-10-16T20:22:00.000+01:00

Copster Green is a quiet, rural Lancashire village. Not the place I’d expect to find a collection of Ferraris and Porsches parked up outside an unlikely roadside Chinese restaurant.

Yu and You’s is a funky modern restaurant with highly rated freshly prepared food and excellent staff. We stopped off late at night after a dinner at the Michelin-starred Eastcote Manor (conveniently, just up the road) so couldn’t sample the food (maybe next time). By then, the evening and the restaurant had evolved (or deteriorated, depending on your perspective) into a cocktail bar with a loud and busy dance floor. The DJ was very good – if not a little out of his depth here (e.g. the only Phil Collins he could find was 'you can't hurry love' (!!!) Drinking and driving seems to be an accepted and necessary method of socialising ‘round these parts – and I was glad we had a taxi booked - one of the younger celebs we saw departing in his sports car with three young ladies on his arms(s) definitely was over the limit. Other famous people at the bar included some motorcyclist (never heard of him)…

Dinner earlier at Nortcote Manor, by the way, had been very very good. Not as good as some other Michelin-starred places I’ve been (listen to me) but still very good. It's proud of the chef, Nigel's history of retaining his star for about 10 years. Michelin aren’t usually so generous. What makes the place special is the small, homely atmosphere. It’s a gothic Victorian buiding, so lends itself well to the oak panelling and red carpets, but it isn't dark.

It was almost like sitting in someone’s front room for pre-dinner drinks, a bit like Rutland Water’s Hambleton Hall. Poor Craig had quite a challenge to explain the (in my view a bit too complex) menus to everyone and take all the orders. He made an excellent choice of wine for us (it's always an interesting test to ask the sommelier to choose something appropriate for the dishes we've ordered). There were a lot of staff, but unfortunately no-one (apart from Craig) seemed to really know what they were doing. They spilled the wine, delivered too much bread and didn’t refill the wine as often as I would have liked. Why didn’t they just leave the cutlery where it was rather than faffing around with it after every course? I made the mistake of ordering the goat (yes, I know, maybe the champagne had gone to my head). Not sure what I expected – but it didn’t deliver. The better choices around the table were the venison - no lets get this right "Loin of Roebuck" (excellent - no 'seminal' says J) and the beef. Interestingly there were no “inbetweeners” (sorbets etc) that you quite often get offered at a Michelin-starred place like this, but the time delay between courses was about right (if only they’d got round to the wine). The truly worthwhile ‘inbetweener’ was (of course) the word from the kitchen letting us know the rugby score (at which a cheer from our fellow diners was heard)! This was even more worthwhile as the kitchen-staff were French (he he=). The dining room was far too hot; it was warm outside so the log fire and radiators were overkill tonight. So we quickly escaped back to the lounge where the doors to the fanous gardens were opened and the whiskys and ports were waiting. Overall, very good, not as slick or stylish as I expected, but a really informal, enjoyable evening with great company - thanks to M & C:)

Next morning, we got up quite early to visit the nearby designer outlet place and with proper Lancashire bacon butties inside us ( - after all, it was at least 12 hours since we had eaten!) take up the opportunity of some excellent retail therapy (essential on a Sunday with a hangover). On the way home we inevitably we had to stop at the best local Farm shop in the area http://www.huntleys.co.uk/ (currently undergoing a refurb/expansion). We bought some excellent wild boar and other bits and bobs and treated ourselves to some award-winning and famous local ice-cream (cointreau and orange was the winning flavour) before hitting the motorways again.... picture to follow....

2007-09-30T14:14:00.000+01:00

We discovered another fantastic 'foodie' supplies place yesterday - the very stylish Daylesford Organics near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. (NB To my Southern friends - they also have outlets in London). Apart from a marvellous collection of fresh produce (including local mushrooms and hand-made (award winning) cheeses) (no, we couldn't resist spending alot of money in this bit) - there is also a cafe, 'garden' shop (no bags of compost to be found here I'm afraid - only top of the range linen and suede aprons (£95 each) and beautiful, designer garden 'accessories'), and also a clothes shop selling very nice quality cashmere jumpers and of course (no self-respecting social gardener should be without them) that essential pair of fashionable Hunter Wellies.

Turns out the whole place is slightly surreal - from the artificial outside bar area surrounded by topiary to the Polish staff serving wine tastings. The whole 1500 acre site is owned by the Bamford family (JCB) and this is the 'little hobby' which 'keeps the wife happy' (!) No expense has been spared and no wonder the locals have heavily criticised this 'footballer's wives' type of development. Flying celebrities in and out via helicopter and various Ferraris racing up and down the country lanes doesn't really fit well with the organic and slow food philospohy. But then I suppose we're all hypocrites to a certain extent...

It's a lovely location though, set in converted stone farm-buildings next to a completely unspoilt pretty Cotswold village, which is surrounded by good pubs including the one we went to for lunch - The oldy-worldy Michelin recommended Fox Inn at Lower Oddington (another one crossed off the list)They were very busy - so it was lucky we booked. J & C both had (predictably) the home-made steak and ale pie (which disappointingly to the CRAP (Campaign for Real Ale Pies) member who we know, was served with the unforgivable PUFF pastry rather than the traditional shortcrust version - pedantic I know - but these things are important to some people !!!) C went for the unusual rabbit casserole (very good) and I had the scallops (risky, I know, in view of our location and season -but also very good). The atmosphere was very relaxed and the service OK. My only criticism of the place would be they seem to need more staff, and I wished the chef had warmed the plates before he served the main courses - it really does make a difference - especially for my poor poached pear (which was barely poached) but the excellent chocolate sauce made up for these minor errors. Overall, it was a lovely long lunch and the staff really did try their best to keep up appearances, despite the challenge of keeping everyone in the 3 dining rooms happy.

Afterwards, we had a nice walk in the Autumnal sunshine around Bledington church and I spied a nearby opportunity (lottery win dependant) in the shape of an abandoned old Victorian, double-fronted cottage (with a bit of land attached). We had a peep through the dusty old (rotten) sash windows at the large brown printed wallpaper, falling off the walls in the corners where the damp had come through and the white hand rails where the elderly resident had (once) clung on to life. In the kitchen was the original old cooking range, with the red quarry-stone floor tiles surrounded by a hideous 70's kitchen unit. Ghostly. It is due to go to auction soon. Oooooh if only!

Next time we're down that way, we're going to try the other highly recommended pub nearby - the Kings Head Inn at Bledington. Which apparently is famously associated with the annual village Morris Dancing outside the pub on the village green (how quaint)...!

2007-09-21T03:46:00.000+01:00

Have you ever seen a bunch of people on a hen weekend or corporate 'teambuilding' event or something similar - all walking around in the same colour, appropriately printed-up T-shirts and thought - "what a bunch of *$%^%$^%s!!"? Well, I confess, I have. But after last weekend, I'm afraid that I shouldn't really be critical anymore, as I was one of them....

There was about 350 of us in total (we were the red 'Thames' team) running around London trying to accumulate 'clues' from various touristy attractions and dressed-up characters along the way.

This was the Leaseplan Annual 'Eurogames' event - and takes place at a different European city every year apparently.

It was a glorious day (I would have prefered to have been in my garden - but hey ho, the sacrifices us corporate wives have to make;). But I have to admit to being quite proud of the city in the sunshine, when many of our 'guests' from all over Europe had never been here before. Trafalgar square looked particularly impressive, and I longed to lie down and relax on the grass when we got to St James' Park... but it was non-stop...

Each team was allocated a proper red old-fashioned London bus to transport us from one side of London to the other..

Before lunchtime we were already two valuable team members down as the Irish contingent went back to the hotel to sleep off the far-too-many-free-guinesses they had the night before at the 'English Pub' evening the hospitality team had arranged for us the night before (inevitably, some people never got to bed at all). With only 4 other team members who had enough English and enthusiasm to complete the 'challenge' we had our work cut-out for the afternoon. We decided to split into two teams - one was to get the obscure photos we needed (26 items in only 10 polaroids - and we had already wasted one)
And the others to get the remaining clues (last destination, Kensington). This was strictly against the rules - but heh, it was a near impossible task and by this time we just wanted to get what we needed and get back to the hotel bar for a glass of something cold...

There was a few street-painters along the way...

I saw the famous, controversial sculpure of Alison Lapper's torso (she was on Radio 4 tonight talking about it)...
.........The only disappointing thing was lunch. We ended up near to Swiss Cottage, but the pub that was arranged for us only had a room downstairs in a claustrophobic cellar and the food was....how shall I put this politely..worse than terrible. Fortunately, there was a little authentic sandwich-bar place just opposite, run by a friendly Italian guy, who it turns out can speak about four languages (that we witnessed) and made an excellent fresh ciabatta..

Needless to say, some of the less experienced Europeans went round the corner to the nearest Mickey D's...(sad).

Patrick and Peter outside Charing Cross station...we're waiting for the rest to catch-up (those shop windows are so tempting)...

We collected most of the clues and challenges. The only one we struggled with for a while was the signature of a traffic warden (apparently they're not allowed to give them out)!! But we persuaded one in the end with a little white lie that it was for charity;)

J in Hyde Park - with the answer to our last clue (at last!!!) - Kensington palace "Which King is inside the gates?"
Afterwards it back to the hotel to get dressed-up in the Little Black Dress (not J you understand - although some of the French unsurprisingly obviously didn't really understand the wording on the invitation) for the evening do. Before long we were back on our (by now, beloved) old London Buses to travel over to Fulham to dine at the Georgian Hurlingham Club which is (amazingly) set in 42 arcres of private gardens....where they had arranged an excellent reception and dinner for us which included the marble sculpture people you see sometimes on street corners (although obviously alot more professional)! It was all very impressive, including the grounds, croquet lawn and the modern water features outside the dining room. You couldn't have hoped for more quintessentially British summer evening surroundings...

Can you spot where I am...?

With many thanks to Candy and all her team for being an excellent team-leader!

PS Hey, thank God for Blogging eh? What else would you do when you can't sleep???ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2007-09-13T19:40:00.000+01:00

There’s something quite special about sitting by a river watching the world go by (even if we did have to listen to Cliff Richard singing his heart out from a nearby tour guide)… I was really surprised last weekend when we stayed with friends in Chester (never been there before). It’s a really lovely Medieval walled city – reminiscent of Canterbury for the benefit of my Kentish friends – and what an excellent place to shop till you drop!! Sooo many wonderful (designer) shops – there’s no doubt you could do some serious damage to the plastic here.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately - as far as J was concerned) we were running too late to do anything other than window shop (even at the bears). Although we did stop at the Cheese Shop to buy some famous Colston Basset stilton (the best in the world). We called-in to see the Cathedral (dark and austere on the outside, but light and refreshing on the outside) while Evensong was just beginning. Very restful...

But dinner was calling us at the wonderful (one) Michelin-starred Arkle Restaurant at the Grosvenor Hotel in the centre of the cobbled Eastgate.

It was great to see that the chef (Simon Radley) has got a real sense of imagination and humour e.g. hats off to E who went for the ‘Pond Life’ for a starter (frogs legs and snails, of course) and amongst other interesting things on the mains was ‘carpetbagger’ (which J had) – ‘Welsh black fillet, studded with native oysters, Corned Ox with all things Carrot’ and ’24 hour mutton’. I think mine won (Turbot) but then I’m always biased towards that fish dish…Service was spot-on and the restaurant was ambient and busy without being chaotic. And the cheese selection meant we were very impressed (although it wasn’t quite as impressive as our experience at Winteringham Fields). The good thing about Michelin-starred places is that they have to have a place to sit down and enjoy a drink before (and after) dinner. The Arkle’s place is one of those relaxing warm, welcoming, comfortable, library-type rooms – the kind of place you could easily just sit down and talk with a glass of something for hours…

The next morning, we thought we’d never have room for that big BBQ breakfast - but somehow we managed it….

another Michelin-starred place crossed-off the list… with thanks to P & E for such wonderful company and an excellent 'foodie' weekend.

2007-08-28T20:39:00.000+01:00

'It's all about making do' says DH - That's camping! the difficulty is in the packing (something He, of course, doesn't get involved with..) i.e. how do you pack the minimum amount of stuff for the maximum amount of comfort (or rather perhaps the minimum amount of inconvenience)??!! ? The trick is to think in sections of the day/night: e.g. the air-bed is a must for getting a decent night's sleep (as are my ear plugs - I'm a very light sleeper)! Tea bags and a kettle (that means (at the very minimum) a small gas canister, a lighter and a pint of milk for breakfast (!). The list goes on... and your car boot very soon fills up; with stuff that you never imagined you would need - but find yourself thinking 'but I can't possibly do without THAT' (e.g. iPod and speakers, (and maybe a bear ...))!!!
We stayed for the first time at the excellent South Penquite camp site which is probably the most unusual of all the campsites we've stayed at all over the world. Briefly - they are a working Organic (officially registered) livestock farm, near to the site of Brown Willy - no really that really is the name of the highest hill in Cornwall, and home to a number of ancient sites of standing stones and stone circles nearby to the legendary Athurian Tintagel. The farmer, Dominic Fairman (very dashing) and his large family are obviously not in it for the money -the camp site is not even half used and then declared 'fully booked' on the sign outside (!) Situated on a glorious southwest facing hill overlooking the unspoilt scenery of Bodmin Moor - you couldn't hope for a better location. No caravans or campers allowed - which also adds to the sense of 'making do': no serious campers here - only proper tents and hikers allowed. On the lower field is the 'Yurts' - the ready-made teepees with integral stoves and camp-beds (the added luxury comes at a price!) The facillities here were OK - nothing special. The showers are solar-powered (so best to get there at the end of the day rather than in the (luke warm, very busy) mornings). No tiles, only (apparently) recycled yoghurt pots as an interior plastic covering to the wooden buldings - maybe more of a gimmick than a worthwhile investment (?). Funnily enough, the new shower block doesn't include a loo block and the although it's lovely to have a large shower cubicle all to yourself (even if it is a coldish dribble of water on offer), it's rather frustrating to have to walk more than 50 feet away to the loo block to find the 3 (cold only) sinks to brush your teeth at (!). The only warm water available is at the washing-up sinks outside the shower-block (strange). Overall - rather an ill-thought-out arrangement - but hey, maybe stage 2 of their investment will include fitting sinks and loos in each cubicle too (!??)
What made up for this (let's be honest, nothing more than...) inconvenience was the excellent location, and general ambience of the place, which was summed-up by the drifting smell of evening smoke from everyone's old-fashioned camp fires (£4 for logs from the farmhouse): something you are rarely allowed on regular camp sites in the UK. Also the daily visits from the groups of ducks and geese and turkeys which went on 'hoovering-up' sessions round the whole campsite, in search of remnants from each group's BBQ. Not sure whether J would have been happy with this lot on top of MY car....
But the quiet sunsets were something very special....

Importantly, there are two pubs nearby (i.e. within biking distance) (nothing fancy you understand, this is a bit of a food-desert as far as restaurant guides are concerned, unless you're self-sufficient): The Blisland Inn and the Old Inn at St Breward - both good in their own way: the Blisland better for friendly service and proper beer - it's not often you see a bar like this any more - low old beams full of old beer mats and glasses, where the locals still have their own designated pewter beer jugs (and the sign behind the bar advertises snuff available at £2) - whereas the Old Inn is a bit more commercialised and situated very high above sea level with marvellous views of the surrounding area and specialises in proper pub grub with a good value carvery on offer on Sundays. Maybe we were slightly biased towards the Old Inn, as we reached it after a long, hot and sun-burnt 25 mile bike-ride (via Bodmin) along the last bit of the Camel Trial that we needed to cover from a previous trip. It was a real effort to climb - in 'top-top' gear (I admit to having to get off and walk a few yards) up the final big hill to the top of St Breward - but well-worth it. The views were amazing! And everyone we met said hello on the way - it was a bit strange at first - but that's the way of these Cornish people. We were glad that the local shop was open too.
Maybe we shouldn't have stopped at Bodmin for quite so long - but J had to see the Lewis sadly lose the F1 at the Weavers Inn . (We were glad to see it's now got new mangement since our last visit and has had a re-furb). Bored, I escaped for a while to have a walk around and visited the Thomas a Becket chapel at nearby St Petroc's church where the gargoyles mark the ancient water spring that once serviced the whole of Bodmin until quite recently. I had a chance there to say a prayer for my poor guilt-ridden Catholic soul and also to have a nice conversation with a local old lady who was busy collecting blackberries from the graveyard hedgerows. She was very enthusiastic in telling me how she had felt so guilty about taking the blackberries to make into useful and delicious jams and pies, so much so, that last week she had taken two made-up jam-jars round to the Old Rectory nextdoor to give to the vicar. Predictably, he had thanked her for her trouble and assured her that she should help herself to as many berries as necessary (and apparently hastily took the jams, mumbling something about the forthcoming Harvest Festival). By the time I had returned to the Weavers the skies had turned cloudy, Lewis had finished 5th, and it was time to set off on the long journey home to South Penquite via Tressaret and the old quarry.

We found some lovely places to buy good quality local food along the way. The best was St Kew Farm shop at St Maybyn, which stocks the famous Blue Mango bakery products - the best organic bread in the UK (OK, maybe I've said that before, but the hot food here is fantastic). The fresh veg selection is also amazing and I didn't find it difficult to quickly spend £30 before our return home on everything from runner beans to fresh coffee (and the chilli chocolate was very tempting too).
The only disappointing aspect of the trip was the fishing. Coarse fisherman probably would be quite happy here, but J's fly fishing was spoilt by the lack of maintenance of the beats and the hot weather. Fish were few and far between and even the ones we saw were tiddlers. I've emailed Angling 2000 with some feeback as we had to pay them to fish these beats in advance. Luckily, I'd brought my sketch-pad and pencils to while-away the many hours in the sunshine while J struggled with trying (unsuccessful) different flies...but later he did manage some success when his kite got into the air a few times over the campsite (much to wonderment of the other campers)...
What I like about this place is everything is very understated...the footpaths and villages are barely signposted and even the excellent nearby East Rose cottage (fishing lakes) have no real clue as their true purpose. The moor ponies at the side of the road (and even the occasional cow) add to the atmosphere to make this place a really desolate but mysterious place. Very peaceful and relaxing. Next time we will try the nearby Temple Fishery which apparently (we found out too late) is the best place to catch yourself a decent brown trout...Although 'next time' now will probably be in the Springtime I guess.......

2007-08-22T17:31:00.000+01:00

It’s the final countdown now until the beginning of another term.

Can’t believe the Summer has nearly disappeared already! Now it’s down to the unending paperwork of sorting lesson plans for next year….We did have a magnificent time in Crete though – it’s gotta be the best Greek island surely?!! More like the Greek I knew from 20 years ago (Hydra) when I first visited (seems more like a lifetime ago). We stayed in a little place called the Alykes in Elounda and ate fresh fish every day from the little boats which moored in the harbour. There’s not many places I’ve visited that I would go as far as calling ‘magical’ – but Elounda’s definitely one of them. Our apartment was about 50 steps away from the ‘Blue Flagged’ sea (which really was as clean and blue as you would ever imagine a sea could be). The people were wonderful, the food cheap, the weather between 33-38 every day with a nice cool breeze in the evening….too good to be true? Well maybe the return flight could’ve been better – but hey, after suffering the absolute hell of flying into and out of Naples last year – anything else pales into insignificance by comparison.

We had a very, very lazy time. But there was one very important decision for each of us to make every day. Mine was: ‘Mmmmm, what colour bikini should I wear today?’ and J’s was ‘Which restaurant shall we eat at tonight?’ (!!) In fact the only time we dragged ourselves away from the beach was to visit the touristy island of Spinalonga – it's just off the coast of nearby Plaka. It used to be a leper colony for Greece right up until the 1950’s. A lot of the older buildings were sadly demolished in the 70’s – but some remain and it’s a bit spooky walking round the small narrow streets that used to be the marketplace for the poor(ly) residents. Reminded me of Pompeii a bit (not to mention the heat). Plaka itself (back on the mainland) is an excellent ‘designery-type’ place (very ‘us’) with only a handful of small shops and excellent fish restaurants. Probably a nice quiet place to stay compared to Elounda (although we were the other side of the town, so well away from all the bar and road noise, thankfully). We saw lots of beautiful sailing ships moored-up around the beach (I’m very jealous, Jason) and maybe next year we’ll be a bit more adventurous and get about the islands a bit more…

Must just report on one incident that made us both laugh our heads off at one of the restaurants: it was another lazy lunch time (yes, probably about 4pmish). On the next table was a group of older-generation ‘Hell’s Angels’ – about 5 couples. Overweight, tattoos, string vests…you get the picture. The first thing I heard one of the guys say was ‘Oooooh, I’m really missing me dogs’ at which the others tried to sympathise and say they would be home again before they knew it. Anyway, they ordered, and unusually for this place (maybe the waitress wanted them gone) the food turned up quite quickly (when I say quickly, I mean Greek style – that is, within the hour)! Plates clattered, and more wine sent for (while J and I picked at another delicious Greek salad). Next thing we hear from the next table is ‘Wow, that was delicious!’ to which the others asked 'what was it?' The answer was ‘a veal’. Silence. ‘What is ‘a veal’ anyway?’ someone asks...Silence (apart from the stifled laughter at our table obviously). Suggestions abound: maybe it’s a vegetable…. or an animal. Dunno. Helpfully, someone at last offers: ‘I think it’s a type of cow, innit’. We were having too much fun to explain. We did laugh. Well, OK, maybe you had to be there….

Best restaurant in Elounda? Must be the Ferryman on the quayside – although the rest are cheaper and almost as good. No horrible cheap plastic tablecloths and patio chairs to be found here! Consistently, proper, clean table linen. Best bar? Alliogos’s place in the square – we watched the rugby there and the family were always welcoming - along with the smallest dog in the world - Leo ('the Lion')! Best shop? Wish I could remember its name – owned by Nickolas at the top of the town who imports all his stuff from Bali and mainland Greece. Proper stuff – not tourist tat.

I read lots of excellent books the best of which included: Ian McEwans ‘Atonement’ (lucky as I’ve just discovered it's soon to be released as a film). Nicci Gerrard’s ‘Things we knew were true’(desperately realistic) and Torday’s ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ (hilarious)…
piccies to follow...
Off to pack the bikes and fishing gear for the weekend’s camping now! Let’s hope the weather stays nice for us….:)

2007-08-02T07:53:00.000+01:00

One good thing about this bloody weather - visiting the RAH for our annual Prom concert (s) is approaching comfortable for the first time in years! Although they've made some effort recently to renew the ancient old building, the airconditioning is still far from adequate and it's normally so frustrating to have to put up with sitting there sweating, and people around you annoyingly constantly fanning themselves with their programmes (a rip-off £5 now) and opening bottles of pop at the most quiet of musical moments during the performance. But refreshingly, there was none of that on our last two visits recently. The first one was the 'French evening' - that was Debussy (L'apres midi..), Ravel and Faure a couple of weeks ago, and instead of racing home at midnight like we normally do, we decided to make a weekend of it and treat ourselves to another (leisurely) late lunch at my favourite: Bibendum, and stay over at a cheapy hotel in Kensington.

It was a busy concert as you can imagine, and we had left it too late to get any decent seats, but managed to get two in the choir seats for the same price as the prommers. I can never understand why they don't sell of the cancelled tix cheaply just before the performance if they haven;t managed to re-sell them. Seems such a waste to see those good seats not taken up! Anyway, it was a wonderful performance and as usual a great atmosphere. We said no thanks to the rather sad looking over-priced breakfast under the hotlamps at the hotel and instead stopped at a great little Italian cafe for a full english. The sun was shining and we sat outside watching all the different Londoners taking their dogs for walks in the nearby park.

Last week we went to see some of the 'Brass Day' (J's choice) and your know that this was the first one they had celebrated in 20 years apparently. The programme was vast including:
Monteverdi
Orfeo – Toccata (2 mins)
G. Gabrieli
Sonata pian’e forte (5 mins)
Grillo
Canzon Terza, from Sacri concentus ac symphoniae; Venice 1618 (5 mins)
Traditional Uzbek Music (15 mins)

Vaughan Williams
Overture – Henry V (9 mins)
Hans Werner Henze
Ragtime and Habaneras (14 mins)
Heaton
Toccata (Oh, the Blessed Lord) (7 mins)
Philip Wilby
...Dove Descending (18 mins)
Elgar
Severn Suite (22 mins)
Musorgsky, arr. Elgar Howarth
Pictures at an Exhibition (35 mins) (One of my favourites, which for sone unknown reason always reminds me of Henry Moore sculptures)???!!!!!!!

I almost wished I played a brass instrument as I saw the streams of brass-playing people carrying their beloved huge instruments across The Gore from ICL, all ages and abilities, joining-in with an afternoon of rehearsals with the Black Dyke Brass & Grimethorpe Colliery Bands. What a great opportunity!

Just down for the day this time, we had lunch at our favourite little Italian Restaurant just down Prince Consort Road (fantastic seafood Linguini) and were at the afternoon performance for 2pm. Interestingly we sat next to one of the trumpet players who would be performing in the evening concert although he was very distressed during the first half as his (new) girlfriend had to be seated the other side of the Circle as there were no seats left together for them (Oh the joys of new love and being separated for a devastating 35 mins)!!! Fortunately, a member of staff managed to re-unit them after the interval (!!) The most unusual part of the concert was a small group of traditionally dressed Uzbekistan horn players, standing in the centre of the Arena. They had meter long single note horns, and played long monotones whilst simultaneously turning around so that all the audience felt they had been 'spoken to' personally. The sound was amazing and a bit spooky too! There was a drummer involved also, but very simple and haunting...

I've re-asserted one of my life's ambitions (along with flying in a balloon): to rent one of these wonderful grand Victorian apartments next to the RAH, overlooking Hyde Park for the Summer, buying a Season Ticket and going to every single Prom' concert of the season. Of course it would also involve sitting by the Serpentine in the sun (or maybe in a rowing boat) and drinking lots of champange whilst having picnics bought from Harrods..... MMMmmm maybe one day...

2007-07-04T20:13:00.000+01:00

To my good friend - here's some tips for your forthcoming visit to Berlin!

Be sure to escape the bland commercialism of the old West side (you really could be in any city in the world) and see the REAL Berlin on the other side of the wall (part of it still stands). Some buildings here still show the remains of the bombs and bullet damage and it’s incredible to see (for example) huge holes in buildings not repaired conventionally with brick and concrete - but simply glazed! It adds a whole new dimension to the architecture and history!

If you see nothing else - you really must not miss the visit to the Reichstag (the original German government building) - see it in the evening if you can, as the queues to get in tend to disappear by the end of the day and the city looks wonderful from the top if it's a clear night (bring a coat - it's outside and gets quite windy)! The famous glass dome was designed by Norman Foster. Walk through the Brandenburg gate on your way to get a real idea of what it must have been like during the war.

The Turkish restaurant I mentioned is called ‘Hasir’. It's the best in the whole of Europe apparently - lots of famous people have visited. The address is on Orienburger Street (Old East side) no 4. tel 030/28 0416. Lookout for what the Rough Guide calls “the Grand Bazaar style Hawker outside the entrance”. – all will become clear! If you are on the underground take the S-bahn to Hackersher markt. There are lots of very good restaurants around this area but immediately to the West of this street is the Red light district - so you may not want to walk through this area on foot with James (!)

Although there is a restaurant at the top of the Reichstag with great views the food is below average and I think it’s overpriced. A better place for “lunch with a view” is at the top of the TV Tower (think Seattle Sky Needle meets Eiffel Tower). You will see its (fairly) ugly 1970’s architecture from virtually anywhere in Berlin and you may have to queue (again) to get into the single lift to get to the top – but it’s well worth the effort. The top very slowly continually turns 360 degrees every few minutes or so - so you don’t even have to walk round. Great place to have a simple cheap lunch (but you will need to book ahead).

The other places are a drive past the famous ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ – personally I found the actual museum a disappointment. But a museum very much worth visiting is The Jewish Museum (Lindenstrasse, 14). Full of interesting history – not just about the Holocaust.

That’s about it for now - I might think of something else later…– if anyone reading this has anything to add please feel free… !! Have a great time in what is undoubtedly my favourite city in the world – no really it is!!

2007-07-03T18:39:00.000+01:00

Another year, another Royal show. Luckily we visited on Sunday - as tomorrow they will close early due to the 'safety concerns' for the public (so much mud you wouldn't believe)!

These are my favourites - very friendly Wensleydale sheep - Nice hair-do?

a load of bull (s)...

Are they rabbits or are they sheep??!!

How about this for a fantastic chocolate fountain? There were tonnes of strawberry kebabs to cover - only £3.50 each (!!!) Delish!

2007-06-22T21:22:00.000+01:00

This time it's Summer -and - as I'm now officially a "proper" (i.e. full time) student (albeit not for much longer)and we are both students celebrating the end of another academic achievement - it was to be my first experience in a Youth Hostel . Now I realise what I've missed out on!!!

It's kind of a nice comfortable balance between camping and staying in a B&B - there's a great atmosphere when everyone's mucking-in to clear the tables after breakfast or drop off the sheets at the laundry in the morning. It was.. different!

We stayed at Esthwaite Hall, a listed Regency mansion on the edge of Esthwaite water (obviously) about 0.5 miles outside Hawkshead (near Ambleside).

This (above) is the view of Hawkshead Youth Hostel - surrounded by trees on the edge of Esthwaite Water....

Like all YHA places - it was in need of some investment - but was clean and well-equipped and the staff were absolutely brilliant! It was just near enough to be convenient - but far enough away to be very very quiet. To the rear of the grounds was the very well- maintained Grizedale Forest (National Trust) with loads of cycle tracks and stuff (including the Go Ape! swinging from the trees thing.. No, me neither)

I met lots of interesting people - there was the French group, a few (brave) couples with very young babies some families and the Society of Change Ringers (!) from the University of Durham! On their annual tour of the Lakes (do they know they're born)?

We went for a very long walk to Howe Tarn, just outside Hawkshead (North West). This is also very well maintained and we walked for miles (about 12 altogether) to get there, but it was well worth it for the view from the top of the fell. And then, just as we stopped to take it all in, the cloud broke and the sun shone through! Wonderful!

We ate at the Kings Arms and the Sun Inn at Hawkshead - both very good (and cheap) pub grub (The Kings Arms was better, I think and excellent service too). There were a few other good places to choose from - we wished we had more time!

Nearby we spotted a good (but bloody expensive) camp site called the Croft - just on the edge of the village - so hopefully we'll be back soon. Not least because there's Trout fly fishing at Esthwaite to keep J occupied for hours...

below is the view from the front of the Yh - looking out over the Water.

This was taken in the evening after a very hot day's walking!

Above is the very well-maintained trail around Howe Tarn, near to Hawkshead. We were glad we persevered - we nearly didn't see it! It was well worth the effort!

More views of the Tarn...

Below the full view of the Youth Hostel. Wonderful building and great friendly staff. Brilliant breakfasts too!

....and it's friendly nearby cows - who must be fed-up of all the passing drunkards staggering back from the Hawkshead pubs...

Wonderful weather, glorious scenery, relaxing company - a really fantastic weekend ;)

2007-06-11T19:58:00.000+01:00

Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, or is it Derbyshire...or is it Yorkshire?....

Not sure how they thought they might climb this one! (Full marks for effort though)

The edge of the reservoir - where you can see the fish!

View from the path opposite the visitor centre.

Lovely day!

Ria - resting for a moment (and NOT chasing ducks)!

Fancy a walk?

2007-05-15T17:06:00.000+01:00

Oh dear - over a month has passed since my last post. And I've visited lots of places from Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh (wonderful weather, great people, superb food - shame about the location).......

to the rural village of Wedmore (Somerset) (home to an annual beer festival) - where we stayed at the absolutely dreadful George Inn. Little did we know that it was a pub from hell, with ancient, dirty rooms, smelly loud resident dogs (with accompanying flies) and hopeless (if not well-meaning) staff. The only saving grace was the cold cider which was.....green ('nuff said).

As if that wasn't enough, the Sexey's Arms (the reason for our visit) turned out not to be in the actual village of Wedmore (as the guide said) but in the next village, Blackford about 2 miles away! Luckily the rain let up for long enough for us to walk there. Unluckily, we discovered to our horror that the pub is now under new ownership: the resident French chef and landlord had left. In his place were people who didn't know what they were doing at all (e.g. when we asked for another bottle of red it was served in our ice-bucket with a "there you go" passing comment)!! and served ham egg and chips as if it was some kind of speciality!! terrible service, horrible atmosphere (we were surrounded by Native American headgear - tat) and awful food. Michelin have already been sent an appropriate email!!

However - we did manage to find an excellent food shop in Cheddar called Lillypool Cheese and Cider. They stock that marvellous Colston Bassett stilton that we discovered on our Winteringham experience, and even have a camp-site near-by if you overdo the scrumpy tasting! Excellent!

The good news is I'm published (again)!!! In the Post-16 Educator.

Now, on with the final assignment...soon it will all be over for another academic year...

2007-03-27T22:32:00.001+01:00

A Food Journey!

The BMW was dropped off on Friday evening – he was a very nice gentleman whose appearance might have led you to mistake him for Sherlock Holmes (minus the pipe). It was a lovely car, he said, and the fuel tank was brimming full. “Shame it’s not a 120” said J – never satisfied with anything with four wheels (unless it’s Porsche, that is). Actually, it was a 1.8 Diesel Sport - not brand new (about a year old). J said this was probably its last outing from before BMW sold it off to one of its dealers. At least it was going to have a nice send-off!

So, lets get the bit about the car done first: I was a bit put-off at first with all the “gizmos”. I couldn’t even start it and felt a right idiot. Apparently you have to put the “key” (by which I mean the bit of plastic) into the hole (why is it on the LEFT side of the steering wheel?), then, holding down the clutch pedal, push in the button (again on the left). There were no prompts on the dash to help you decipher this. Not very user-friendly. Do BMW really expect people to get the handbook out just to learn how to start the car? On the plus side, it handles very nicely – especially on the many winding country lanes of Lincolnshire. And it was very quiet on the motorway (although I desperately missed my Golf’s cruise-control (I know, I’m spoilt)). It has very “long legs” – i.e. I found the engine struggled not to labour doing 40mph in 6th gear so it was easy to forget about 6th and stay in the lower gears when driving around town. It’s strange that BMW gave the 118 6 gears when it didn’t really need them. I would have liked to have driven the 120 just to experience the difference and maybe a tiptronic gearbox would have been a better option (all at extra cost of course). I found the radio controls infuriating – too many buttons that were impossible to make sense of. And actually the sound quality was a bit crap! It was the same for other dashboard buttons e.g. the air con. Intrigued by the button called “Rest” (was this the button I could press to fall asleep at the wheel?) I looked it up in the handbook: this would allow warm air to circulate even when the ignition was off, for example when waiting at a railway crossing (!) Wow, can’t wait to use that function (not)! Although, admittedly in a freezing cold Germany, I can imagine it comes in very useful. The boot space is too small to be practical, J assures me the run-flat tyres did not allow the best handling performance and the overall fuel consumption was about 45mpg (about 10mpg less than my 1.9 Golf). In conclusion then – even if I could afford one of these – I think I’d pass – on this model at least…

Anyway, to continue with the interesting bit - the actual food experience (see below for an explanation), our first destination was the Abbey Parks Farm Shop at East Heckington. After a foggy drive up to Lincolnshire, we had a welcome cuppa and met the friendly and enthusiatic owners, Ros and Nick. They bought the farm a few years ago and now have an excellent reputation for their asparagus which does particularly well on the fertile, salty, sandy earth here. Nick runs a vegetable whole-sale business which delivers to famous chefs all over the country, including Ramsey’s Ivy, Jamie Oliver’s and the more local Langar Hall (which we were to visit for lunch the next day - see below). We had a really interesting tour of the farmland and filled our boot with veggies (including asparagus of course – but not local as it is too early) and a lovely bunch of local daffs (thanks Nick). Then it was off to next venue – the Cheese Society in Lincoln for lunch.

For those unfamiliar with Lincoln, it is a bit of a strange place to visit. Parts of it are architecturally amazing with lots of medieval houses and narrow cobbled streets dominated by the cathedral which sits high above the city. I suppose I’m being unfair in contrasting it to somewhere like Canterbury – its location means that economically Lincoln has a completely different atmosphere. The outskirts are very industrial. There are hundreds of charity shops and pound shops in the centre and the numbers of boarded-up shops and houses immediately brings you down to earth. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a lovely city and the high street was buzzing when we were there on a Saturday morning. We weren’t really surprised to find the Cheese Society hidden away in a side street. This is exactly the location that you find authentic, good value, contemporary eating places. We hadn’t booked a table and had to wait about half an hour – but we didn’t mind. Lots of other places in the town were empty – this was the place to be! Behind the tiny reception area was the shop and in contrast to the disadvantaged environment of the surrounding area we witnessed at least 4 people spending between £20-45 just on cheese during those few minutes. It was fascinating to watch the different tastings and the subsequent expressions! One thing that did strike us as odd – why not have a few bits of cheese for people to try while they were waiting? What a lost opportunity (or maybe they do offer something to waiting diners and we just missed it). Anyway, we sat in the little café area for a cheesy lunch. Everything is simple, cheap and functional: laminate floors; glasses from IKEA and metal framed bistro tables and chairs. It’s simply the cheese that draws people in – there is no view of the cathedral or fancy ambience here. I had a seafood and cheese on toast thingy: ‘Croque Marinara’ and J had a handmade burger (with cheese of course). All very nice. It was a shame we were driving really – there were lots of locals with bottles of wine (very reasonable prices) to go with theirs which made me kinda jealous - especially the couple who had dismissed the lunch menu in favour of (the enormous) cheeseboard for two. (Maybe this was a premonition of things to come ….)
Anyway, we had about £20 to spend at the cheese counter and after queuing-up again, we managed (as you can imagine) to spend it all- plus £1.50, (interestingly she didn’t let us off this) on a selection of local cheeses: Smoked Lincolnshire Poacher, Colston Bassett Stilton and Red Leicester etc. We spoke to the owner, who admitted that she did need bigger premises to cope with the numbers of customers – and was looking around. “It was difficult to anticipate the level of success they had enjoyed” she said.

Onwards and Northwards, next stop the Pink Pig Organic Farm towards the coast road. This place is really in the middle of nowhere (thank God for Sat Nat)! We got there about 4ish and there was only one other car in the car park. They closed at 5pm and the staff were all busy cleaning-up after what must’ve been a busy lunchtime service. Everyone was very friendly. All the usuals were on the blackboard (roasts and chillis) including lots of declarations about “all our eggs are free-range and organic” and “all our milk is local”. Through the glass doors is the deli shop with lots of meat and (more cheese) and honey and cakes and eggs and biscuits etc. etc. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the pigs as “they had gone to bed” (!) but we promised to return in the summer to see the farm trail in all its glory. The shop there is really inspiring and full of lovely things. We bought some sausages (of course) and some of their famous well-hung local beef.

Now the evening was drawing-in (it was the night the clocks went forward) and we headed-off for our final destination for the day – Winteringham Fields (see my previous entry, below).

The next morning, after (the small) breakfast, it was a clear day and we decided to drive the couple of miles to Barton to see the Humber before driving to our final food tour destination of Langar Hall in Langar, Nottinghamshire. We met some interesting people setting-out for a walk along the Viking Way (everyone is so friendly in this county), and discovered one lady whose sister coincidentally lives very near to us. After the usual “small world” comments (why does that always happen to us?) we took a drive around the area before heading out onto the main road in search of lunch.

Langar Hall is an unexpected place. We read about how the owner, Imogen, had taken reluctantly to being an hotelier in an attempt to maintain her aging mansion house. The house itself is striking in its Georgian style the exterior of which is brightly painted, reminiscent of Italy. It is right next to the village church and Langar itself is a very picturesque place with a pub and a few individual ancient houses, interspersed with modern ones. “Better put my jacket on” said J as we pulled into gravelled car park and saw the other (quality) cars, all with personalised number-plates and their glamorous, smartly-dressed owners. This place is obviously a well-kept secret for those in-the-know. We felt like we were entering a secret, private member-only club. But as soon as you walk into Langar Hall the atmosphere is relaxed, well-worn and homely. There are ten bedrooms at various places around the grounds and two dining rooms. There were lots of staff rushing around, all different nationalities. We were invited into the lounge area which led to the stylish new conservatory. It overlooks the beautiful, scenic land which surrounds the grand house. Like the interior, it all had a well-worn and un-maintained look about it and the resident sheep (Langar lamb on the menu) shared their field with strangely lifelike metal sculptures of ostriches and ducks. The Sommelier was reassuringly French – in fact you could tell that without him even speaking a word (if you know what I mean). Then suddenly Imogen herself appeared, rushing through the lounge rooms, grey hair flying around, carrying a warmed baby’s bottle and shouting in her upper-class accent “Where’s the baby? I’ve lost the baby”! The crazy scenes from Alice in Wonderland came to mind. The sommelier, with an air of weary frustration rolled his eyes and told her they were seated at the top table -but she smiled and immediately lost interest in her duty, using the excuse to introduce herself to the pre-dinner guests. You actually got the feeling this was a private house party and she was our host - a much-loved auntie. Dinner was wonderful, the menu is crammed with simple dishes made with local produce and the service was efficient (a little too efficient maybe?) and even the other guests were fascinating. For instance, to our left was a large young family that included the ‘lost’ baby. To our right was a table of young people: one Indian lady in full sari, one coloured guy and two other ladies; in the centre was a table of retired gentleman (blazers and ties) and beyond them three glamous, tall people dressed in jeans, furs, leathers and large sunglasses, who Imogen had great pleasure in explaining (with some pride) were famous transvestite models. You couldn’t imagine a more surreal dining room experience. But there was no uncomfortable atmosphere or whispers that you might expect at other venues like this. Imogen's eyes, within the faces of her ancestors, smiled down on the bizarre scene from the enormous, ancient oil portraits that surrounding us. This is a unique place where eccentricity (something Imogen has obviously become well-rehearsed in) is warmly welcomed, if not encouraged and this meant everyone felt very relaxed. This must be the secret to her success.

After lunch we had a stroll round the satisfyingly unkempt garden which included some (real) ducks on a semi-landscaped circular medieval 'pond' that represented a moat with a small wooden bridge. The sun was shining and this really is an unspoilt area with beautiful surrounding countryside. At the end of our East Midlands Food Tour, reluctantly we headed back home in our little BMW, with our little fridge full of goodies and lots of leaflets of places we would undoubtedly be visiting again. Langar Hall is definitely top of the list.

With many thanks to BMW's Good Food Ride guide and especially to Laura and the team at The Fish Can Sing for making all the arrangements and recommendations.

2007-03-26T15:29:00.000+01:00

Amazingly I won a competition recently that enabled my hubby and I to stay a night at Winteringham Fields ("a restaurant with rooms") . One thing's for sure, not only would I never even have known about it - but we couldn't have justified the extravagance of this Michelin-starred venue ordinarily (except maybe a corporate hospitality visit of course) ! We were very lucky to have had this opportunity. It's a really special place.

The first thing that strikes you about Winteringham Fields is its unpretentiousness. It's on a completely different level to places like Mallory Court, near Stratford-upon-Avon - but with similar levels of food and service. Although, I guess you could say that about all of Lincolnshire (I'd not visited the county much before this) and the village of Winteringham itself is rather, well, ordinary! There's a quaint side, a picturesque village centre with a post office and a general store, two pubs (both a bit "spit and sawdust" - but very friendly), and round the corner the ubiquitous small council estate. In fact, you can't help thinking that this is one of those areas on the brink of an upturn in fortune. A rare undiscovered unsploilt seaside resort (a bit like Brixham in Devon). (It's also one of the few places left in Britain where you can buy a decent-sized detached house for less than £150k). Only a mile away is the glorious landscape of the Humber estuary - an area of "special scientific interest" which is home to many nature reserves and is dominated by the Humber bridge, which apparently held its own in the history books when it was built in 1981. The setting sun over the flat, rural countryside is quite something. The industrial areas seem invisible somehow from here. If you have time and energy there are plenty of walks including the famous 140 mile Viking Way which ends in Oakham, Rutland.

The hotel itself is a hidden-away, low 16th century building, made up of lots of different ancient and modern buildings that have made the current restaurant and lounge areas into a maze of low-ceilinged, different levelled, cosy rooms. Outside is a gravelled courtyard area where there are some extra bedrooms.
We stayed in a room that was not actually IN the hotel. It was just up the street (100 yards) in a very tastefully converted house. Luckily it wasn't raining - although apparently they send a car to pick you up if it does rain. The bathroom was huge and the bed large and comfortable. There were a few things missing from a room in this price-bracket though - for instance, in the separate kitchen area - why weren't there different sorts of teas to choose from? Where was the radio/CD and why did we have to ask for a second set of bath towels? However, overall the room was lovely and full of stylish "antiques" and personal touches (including the most amazing needlework box I have ever seen)! And of course they came to turn down our bed during the evening and left a helpful reminder about the clocks going forward an hour that night.

We were a bit surprised not to be offered Or'deurves when we sat in the dark-red, incense-smelling, velvety lounge area for pre-dinner drinks. They were at extra cost (but fortunately not for us)! which wasn't very welcoming. But they were very nice and included caviar. For dinner, we were on a table close to an old range which doubled-up as a place for the waiters to keep things warm on. It was very ambient. Simple. No music. This is where you appreciate the quiet, subtle unpretentious service that only a quality place like this can produce. The tables are not too close and the marble floor adds to a sense of style.

Dinner was to be the "surprise" menu - which was a total of about 6 very relaxed courses (I lost count) (over 4 hours) including roast Gressingham duck and a risotto and veal creation that was very nice. The salmon dish was a bit bland though. There were 2 desserts - both a flavour sensation! One served on dry ice! The service throughout was very friendly - not really what you normally get with a Michelin-starred restaurant. Each smiling staff member made an effort to ask what we thought of each dish etc. the 'cheese man' in particular was an experience - he knew literally everything about the cheese and how it was produced and where it came from etc. The sommelier was English (!!!) yes the first one I have met. He, too, was very very knowledgeable and very friendly. We met the chef - Robert Thompson. Amazing that he's only 24. He was the student of the previous chef who was here (who had 2 stars) who retired. I'm sure he will have a fantastic future ahead of him. What amazed me was we spoke to him (after a tour of the kitchen) at about midnight after he'd finished service - and he looked as fresh-faced and bushy-tailed as he could have done at 7pm! Not a single sign of a stressful evening's work at all! And after about 50 covers of 6 courses each.

As you can imagine, we didn't have anything much for breakfast (although the selection was very good). But the pastries and fruit were all fresh and a good selection of teas were on offer! The cheese man was there to wave us off - they are closed on Sundays and Mondays so I expect the staff were eager to get their weekend. Overall, highly recommended. We could have easily spent over £500 for one night’s DBB - e.g. £25 for a single glass of champers is a bit steep. Bring the credit card - but enjoy the experience! There's not many places in the UK where you can get this level of service with such excellent food, in such humble, idyllic surroundings.

2007-03-07T15:37:00.000Z

Oh dear, and now its March and not one single thing to say about February. It's such a dull and depressing month anyway.

We did visit some good eating-places though:

we went back to Bibendum (again) . And sorry, I don't agree with some other people

I think its the most relaxed, light and airy lunching-place in the whole of London. My personal favourite. ..

We also visited The Square in Mayfair. Very nice. Very French. Nice fishy menu. Nice ambience and lovely people. Apparently, you can't normally get in there for a Saturday evening unless you book months and months in advance. Fortunately, one of our party knew the chef, so we benefitted from special treatment...

Whilst in London we saw the Cirque Du Soleil again. For those not in the know, this is the best human-only circus in the world. Now with lots of international sections and each performance with a different theme. The choreography just takes your breath away. It's just so original and entertaining...

Highly recommended.

My teaching placement is drawing to a close and assignments and stuff all completed. Counting-down now until the end of term.

Time to plan a Summer holiday methinks....

2007-01-24T18:54:00.000Z

For the benefit of my students who are studying diet/health-related issues for their assignment - here is the 'copy and pasted' summary of the points raised in the recent seminar I attended, with links to the full presentations at the end if required....

Obesity: understanding the role of the social & physical environment
ESRC Seminar Series, UCL, 17/01/07
Introduction

Are we promoting ‘Obesogenic’ behaviours or environment?

Physical/economic/socio-cultural/political

Research on obesity issues has focused on access to food (e.g. in school & workplaces) and advertising. These papers focus on other aspects such as peer group behaviours or social/cultural networks.

Self-identity(ies) & body image

Extended boundaries of ‘normality’: GPs dismiss – use non-confrontational language e.g. “puppy fat” etc. Words ‘diet’ and ‘child’ together perceived as not morally right. (Public awareness & fear of anorexia?) Contrast with fact that obesity is subjected to moral judgement and perceived as a type of ‘social deviance’.

Government Policy focus: on educating parents (empowerment) - But research suggests that “children are in charge”.

Parents’ dilemma: stigma “their fault” so support child – provide more treats! Sweets still seen as ‘reward’ (and withdrawal of sweets as ‘punishment’) and parents: “don’t want to deny child” foods low in nutritional value often available to all family members - “something good that’s not bad”

Parents often ‘not bothered’ about child’s obesity – viewed as part of ‘family identity’ (“in the genes’)

Questionnaire - Difficulties with young adults and exercise – i.e. sport/in the park/cycling. (But what does “active” mean)?

16-24 age group = lowest intake of fruit of veg.

See: Curtis, P. Fisher, P. (In Press) Bringing it all home: families with children with obesity University of Sheffield

Focus on prevention

Germany, UK, Australia and the US - highest Obesity rates and still rising.

Long-term effectiveness of obesity treatment very low -Prevention has slightly better outcomes, (e.g. school kids undertaking PE classes).

Cultural differences in exercise – e.g. UK few student bike to college, in The Netherlands most do!

Motivation/ability/opportunity: Objective vs subjective - seeing an opportunity for exercise.

See Brug, J. (2007) What is the evidence for an Obesogenic food environment? Am J Prev Med

Further info and downloads of presentations available at
www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/obesity

2007-01-18T18:10:00.000Z

I've got five minutes to stick some of these photos on here from Christmastime. So here goes...

Working backwards from our last day - this was (at last) a view of Bamburgh Castle not obscured by rain and wind and hail. Such a sleepy little village, but I can never understand why they don't open the Castle at this time of year. There are so many walkers about - some desperate to get inside ANYWHERE INSIDE out of the rain and wind. At at £6.50 a throw they could make a fortune in the short space of time over the New Year holidays. Oh well, third time lucky I guess - although all the guidebooks say don't bother anyway as the views outside are far better than anything within....much better to stay inside by the fire in the bar of the friendly Victoria Hotel...

Do you know this convict? I think he must've got washed-up on the shores of Holy Island, Northumberland. Unusually for us we managed to time it just right. It's always a laugh to read about the stupid tourists who insist on driving across to the island when the causeway is obviously UNDERWATER! Duh! I think just because they are in 4x4s they think they are immortal. As you can see, pub weather - I think its was the Crown and Anchor and the Ship Inn. Not to be confused with the much much nicer Old Ship Hotel in nearby Seahouses. Best crab sandwiches you ever tasted (I know, I always say that). No, but honestly, where else can you find a seafood chowder served with roast potatoes and new potatoes and veggies for about £3.50? Eh? Shame their rooms are closed-up for the winter - does all of Northumberland go into hibernation? I think they should take a tip from our Cumbrian friends and make the most of the colder months. Alston was positively heaving with people in search somewhere warm to relax in over the Xmas break. Luckily for them there are LOADS of pubs in Alston. Of course I'm obliged to say the Crown was the best - because many thanks to Vicki for lending us her two dogs to take on long walks across the fells. Actually, sorry Vicki - I though the Sultan was the most friendly pub (and warmest). But the classiest place to be (mmmmm...'Alston' and 'class' in the same sentence?) would have to be the Alston House Hotel. Very tastefully done - just a shame there were no customers to go with it (!!!)

Back on Holy Island - of course in case you miss the tide and get chucked out of the Ship there, you can always spend the night in one of these upturned boats! Nice view and that fresh sea breeze is just what you need to chase the cob webs away... one thing that is strange about Holy Island - why do they charge you to get into the Abbey - which is just a ruin - when you can get to within 5ft of it without paying, and have a much better view of it from the shore anyway??? Very strange

Anyway, here's my favourite picture (below). This was one of the walks which went up to Issac's Tea trail in Alston (Buzzing community spirit in Alston.) Not far away is an artists gallery place which also sells tea and biscuits. Almost Cornwallish - only without the sea obviously! It's so high up in Alston it has its own climate - which was lucky as I think the rest of the country was just rain, rain and more rain. The drive across the moors is spectacular scenery. It didn't actually snow until the 27th Dec. As you can see it was very, very cold! But very bright and fresh. Perfect walking weather (if you kept off the ice) ! Even my hair froze!

2007-01-18T06:52:00.000Z

Having made a new year's resolution to keep this updated a bit more regularly - seems I've not made a good start by getting to the 18th January already with nothing posted!
Got some photos and other stuff to go on here later though. back soon

2006-12-06T09:54:00.000Z

Thanks to G - I'm now in the know about the conspiracy theory surrounding 9/11. I never knew about it!

He recommeds you watch these (links below). The challenge is, can you watch them and then say it WASN'T an inside job?

Loose change - made by younger film-makers, hence the contemporary soundtrack. Maybe start with this one? =>http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7866929448192753501&q=911

The Great Conspiracy - REAL journalism, from area journalist, from Canada, in considerable detail =>http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6529813972926262623&q

September 11th revisited - >http://www.911revisited.com/video.html

But even if it WAS a conspiracy - who, how and more importantly WHY!???!!

2006-11-29T08:55:00.001Z

Save the British Waterways
It's quick and easy - sign this petition to stop the government cuts in funding -
Just do it!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveOurWaterways

2006-11-24T09:24:00.000Z

Last weekend we escaped for a few days to a seaside village in West Wales called Llangrannog. A colleague of Justin's owns a cosy holiday cottage there, which actually sleeps 8 (!) So as you can imagine we had a choice of bedrooms. Thankfully, we didn't have the one overlooking the graveyard next door (not that I'm superstitious or anything you understand - but being used to the conflagration at night-time of Coventry and Birmingham from home, this type of rural landscape brings a whole new meaning to the word "dark")!

This is the picture from the cottage window during a nice sunny day! (I'll leave your imagination to do the rest)!

We were there over Remembrance Sunday and 'did our duty' by attending the local service at a nearby village (there wasn't one at the church next-door). This took rather longer to sit through that we had anticipated (luckily it wasn't that cold) as every prayer and reading had to be spoken in English and then repeated in Welsh! But the church was packed and it was a worthwhile experience! We treated ourselved afterwards to lunch at the famous "Harbourmaster" at Aberaeron.

This was also a kind of duty as everyone who knows us well, knows that whenever we are out and about, we have to consult our trusty Michelin eating out in pubs guide, to find the nearest 'nice place'. Another place ticked-off the list....
The Harbourmaster reminded me a bit of John Burton Race's place in Dartmouth - the New Angel - but not so pretentious (not difficult in a place like Aberaeron, I guess).

Or maybe Dunkerley's in Deal, Kent.

Set on its own, over-looking the wide harbour estuary (above) it was very atmospheric at this quiet time of year. There's an interesting bridge across the river too. The dark blue exterior really makes it stand-out - but not in a bad way: there are lots of seaside blues and greys around. Not far away was a little fisherman's hut selling crabs and fresh fish. Next door was a strange crafty-type shop full of (over-priced) welsh woolly things and pottery (with a friendly resident cat). The restaurant itself was as you would expect - bare wooden tables and floor boards surrounded by modern boaty/seaside pictures on plain walls. The service was excellent and they were very busy. Couldn't fault the food (wonderful fishcakes)! It was very relaxed atmosphere and even the owner and his wife sat down to eat lunch in the bar area when the rush had died-down. Very, very nice. They have rooms here too (although a bit pricey) and Aberaeron town itself is quite nice and not too touristy with lots of pubs and gift shops (and a cheese-making place near-by).

Going back to Llangrannog, there are two pubs: the Pentre Arms (pronounced "Pentry") with a fantastic view of the harbour (when it's not obscured by sand-bags that is)!! and the Ship Inn. We thought the Ship had the best atmosphere and best food (good, cheap old-fashioned pub-grub)! The nearest best pub was another Ship Inn at Tresaith. A welcome sight at the end of an exhausting (5)? mile walk up and down the (dangerous) cliff path from Llangrannog.

This is the view of the pub from the sea. Inside there was a cosy fire and comfy leather sofas with newspapers. The only thing that spoilt it was the fact that they obviously make alot of money serving the local static caravan park (high-up on the cliff) with pizzas and chips ('get-your-numbered-wooden-spoon-when-you-place-your-order-at-the-bar'-kinda-place). But its quite a big place so you can escape to the other side of the pub.

On the way back we met an old woman (who quite honestly would have been quite scarey to meet in the dark - if you know what I mean - whiskers , pointy nose and all) who was emptying her fire's ashes into the stream outside her house (as she had probably done all her life). She told us she used to live in the Pentre Arms pub and how the sea comes right into the pub on stormy nights and no-one can get out (what a shame)!! She was complaining about all the sand that had blown up the street in the wind - and we had thought it was left over from the sea-water. Imagine living in that old victorian house and have nothing to do but empty your stove's ashpan into the stream and sweep away the sand......

2006-11-07T16:03:00.000Z

Here's another nice pub - but more local to us: The George at Great Oxendon
Where the fish cakes are to die for....

2006-10-30T14:12:00.000Z

The other day we went to a pub called the Dundas Arms (I know - strange name)And having looked at the web site thought that it looked a very promising lunch. It was an invitation from Justin's father and he doesn't often get it wrong.
However - as soon as we got through the door we suspected it may be a disappointment. It's one of those places where you can't reserve a table (I can never understand why landlords do that) - so you just have to turn-up early and hope for the best. As it was, when we got there not long after midday - we had the place to ourselves! We sat in the corner by an noisy and drafty expelair thingy and I looked at the menu (blackboard only) and thought - this isn't inspiring or cheap!(it has to be one or the other really)..but the staff were very smiley!
Anyway, we ordered at the bar and gradually the place seemed to fill up - mainly locals as this is quite an isolated spot.
I had the sole, Justin had the steak (of course) and C&C both had lancashire hot pot - which was probably the best choice. Home-cooked (or out of the freezer) food. Not bad - but nothing special. Everything was covered unnecessarily in melted butter (felt like we were in France)!
After the apple crumbles etc (which came in their own little ceramic pots), we went for a stroll along the banks of the Kennet - which is where the canal and the river meet. It was the last day of the nice weather but (as always) we didn't venture far - just to the bridge and back.
We stopped in Hungerford on the way back. Lovely town (if you can try to disassociate it with it's tragic past) kind of reminiscent of Tenderden in Kent - with its wide high street, Victorian architecture and little antique and book shops.There is also an unusual African furniture shop - made out of old railway sleepers (not the shop - the furniture). Very nice - but very, very expensive. Undoubtedly unethical (she says with standing on her soap-box). But Hungerford's claim to fame is that it's using the best in technology to obtain its parking fees. Haven't got the cash to go into the ticket machine in the car park? Well, just text the word "parking" to a number printed on the ticket machine and the number of hours you want, and Hey Presto! as if by magic - a ticket is printed out for you and your phone charged the appropriate fee. Amazing! (I know, you're probably gonna tell me that this happens all over the country now - but this was the first time I'd seen it anywhere)...

2006-10-30T14:06:00.000Z

Some useful web sites about reflective teaching/learning below:

http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/pbl/pblreflect.htm
http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/reflect/index.cfm
http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/reflection/you.html

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/experience.htm

2006-10-23T12:35:00.000+01:00

This was an interesting article from the BPS recently:

Reading novels linked with increased empathy
----------------------------------------

"'Oh! it is only a novel!' or, in short, only some work in which the
most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its
varieties, the liveliest effusion of wit and humour are to be conveyed
to the world in the best chosen language." From Northanger Abbey (1818)
by Jane Austen.

The more fiction a person reads, the more empathy they have and the
better they perform on tests of social understanding and awareness. By
contrast, reading more non-fiction, fact-based books shows the opposite
association. That’s according to Raymond Mar and colleagues who say
their finding could have implications for educating children and adults
about understanding others.

Finding out how much people read is always difficult because it’s
socially desirable for people to report that they read a lot. Mar and
colleagues avoided this by asking 94 participants to identify the names
of fiction and non-fiction authors embedded in a long list of names that
also included non-authors. Prior research has shown this test correlates
well with how much people actually read. Among the authors listed were
Matt Ridley, Naomi Wolf (non-fiction), Toni Morrison and PD James
(fiction).

The more authors of fiction that a participant recognised, the higher
they tended to score on measures of social awareness and tests of
empathy – for example being able to recognise a person’s emotions from a
picture showing their eyes only, or being able to take another person’s
perspective. Recognising more non-fiction authors showed the opposite
association.

The researchers surmised that reading fiction could improve people’s
social awareness via at least two routes – by exposing them to concrete
social knowledge concerning the way people behave, and by allowing them
to practise inferring people’s intentions and monitoring people’s
relationships. Non-fiction readers, by contrast, “fail to simulate such
experiences, and may accrue a social deficit in social skills as a
result of removing themselves from the actual social world”.

However, a weakness of the study is that the direction of causation has
not been established – it might simply be that more empathic people
prefer reading novels.
___________________________________

Mar, R.A., Oatley, K., Hirsh, J., dela Paz, J. & Peterson, J.B. (2006).
Bookworms versus nerds: exposure to fiction versus non-fiction,
divergent associations with social ability, and the simulation of
fictional social worlds. Journal of Research in Personality, 40,
694-712. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.002

Author weblink: http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~raymond/

2006-10-23T12:30:00.000+01:00

Event: Institute of Ideas

I've been to one of these before - excellent events to attend:

copied from a newletter:

I thought you might like to hear about this year's Battle of Ideas major weekend festival of debates taking place in London, 28-29th October 2006. Never before has a 'battle of
ideas' been so necessary as 'culture wars' ignite close to home and
arguments rage over international policy. Over 50 debates will be
taking place over the weekend, featuring over 150 speakers debating
'hot' topics such as: 'Clash of Civilisations or Cultural Crisis?;
'Reassessing Liberty'; 'Empire of regulations or a Lawless World'; Is
the rise of religion a problem?; Surveillance society: protection from
ourselves?; and The Battle for History: national narrative versus
personal memories. We have also added a debate on the 'veils
controversy' and academic freedom. These are all contentious issues.
However, as the festival's 'slogan' is: 'Free speech allowed!' we look
forward to a wide-ranging exchange of views.

Other keynote debates include: 'Happiness vs. Affluence', 'Human
Enhancement: creating superhumans or dicing with death', 'Artistic
Autonomy', and themed strands of debates on Innovation, Law, Media and
Nature & environment. The new publication What is Science Education
For?', widely previewed in the media, will also be launched at the
festival. There are provocation lectures on national and cultural
identity (Who are in the 21st century?), anti-social behaviour ('nuff
respect? Questioning the 'respect' agenda) and contemporary anxieties
about economic prosperity (Money is not the root of all evil). There
are also a wide array of sessions relating to Health, Education,
Literature, Science, Technology, Design, Philosophy, Sport and much
more...

The event is held at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU and is organised by the Institute of Ideas in conjunction with
The Times, Research Councils UK and Pfizer, and many other partners and
sponsors.

To get a feel for the issues in advance of the festival, a wide
selection of Recommended Readingis now available on the website.

2006-10-13T10:11:00.000+01:00

Quote for the day: "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want" (Stamford 2005)

2006-10-11T15:57:00.000+01:00

Multiple-Choice Assessments - our Assessing Adult Learning Assignment!

Hi group 2!

On doing a quick search of the articles about multiple choice questioning (MCQ) assessment I’ve found some (mainly US – based) research about HE issues, but also a lot of papers about either the self-management of patients’ chronic conditions or MCQ methods to measure the competence of their health professionals. It seems that there are many published papers about the biases involved in MCQ papers themselves (learning-styles/gender/ethnicity etc) or biases found in the correct answers (apparently these are frequently the longest ones – see below abstract)! Here are two web sites with a bit of info that you may find of use:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v6n1/haynie.jte-v6n1.html

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVME/V20-3/wilson.html

I will dig a bit deeper to find out about their use in the teaching of assessment to give us a clue where to start. Meanwhile have a look at these….

Response Biases in Multiple-Choice Test Item Files
Thomas L. Mentzer
University of New Haven
Thirty-five files of multiple-choice test items were examined for evidence of biases in the correct answers. Of seven types of biases, the most frequently occurring (24 cases) was the "All of the above" bias in which that answer was correct significantly more than 25% of the time. Another common bias (17 cases) was a tendency for the longest answer to be correct too frequently. Ten cases were also found in which answers of the form "Both A and B" were correct too frequently. Finally, the ABCD bias, in which the probability of each of the four response choices being correct differs from .25, was present in seven files. Three other biases occurred only a few times. It was concluded that authors should take precautions to prevent biases in future item files.
First web-based GCSE launched (TES 09/10/06)PA NewsPublished: 09 October 2006
The first GCSE to be entirely "e-assessed" was launched by an exam board today. Pupils will sit computer-based tests involving a mixture of multiple choice and short answers without any need for pens or pencils. Coursework for the new Environmental and Land-Based Science GCSE will also be submitted electronically. Marking for the multiple choice section of exams will be done by computer but other answers and coursework will be assessed by moderators. The GCSE has been developed by the OCR exams board, which said it would "put an end to endless reams of paper for both students and teachers". Storing work online eliminated the risk of mislaying papers and presenting work electronically allowed students to "take a much slicker and more professional approach to their work". The board said it would "transform the future of school examinations". Pupils are starting the GCSEs this term and will take their first exams in June next year before taking their final tests in 2008

"The dumbed-down GCSE exam with no need for writing"
TES: 12 June 2006
A new 'dumbing-down' row has erupted over Government plans to introduce GCSEs assessed entirely through multiple-choice questions. From November pupils across the country will be able to score up to 75 per cent in a science GCSE by choosing A, B, C or D options. The exam, run by the AQA and Edexcel boards, is the first major GCSE to be mainly multiple choice. Edexcel’s website says the exams give pupils "more chances to succeed". The row, first reported in this week’s TES, will fuel controversy over GCSEs and A-levels. Writing in The TES, Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington college, in Berkshire, says that confidence in the system is "draining quicker than credibility in George W Bush’s stance on Iraq". Meanwhile, Derek Bell, chief executive of the Association for Science Education said: "This seems to be an oversimplistic way of assessing what is a very complex learning process." The Conservatives were naturally quick to jab a stick at the Government’s plans. Nick Gibb, the Shadow Schools Minister, argued that an examination system is required that "genuinely tests the knowledge and skills children acquire at school" and not presumably not a dumbed-down system that simply "enables children to be trained for the exam itself", reports the Times.

"Pick A, B or C for a GCSE"
Warwick Mansell TES 09 June 2006
Hundreds of thousands of pupils will soon be able to pass GCSEs assessed entirely through multiple-choice questions and coursework. From November, pupils will be able to score up to 75 per cent in a science GCSE by choosing from A, B, C or D options. They will sit six multiple-choice papers of either 20 or 30 minutes, each of which is offered with up to five re-sits and is marked by computer. The exam, run by the AQA and Edexcel boards, is the first major GCSE to be mainly multiple-choice. The rest of the qualification comprises new-style coursework which allows pupils up to six attempts to get a good mark. Edexcel’s website says the exams give pupils “more chances to succeed” and that they can be tested “any time, allowing them to be tested on material when it’s fresh, and can take multiple tests”. Teachers will award up to 10 per cent of the marks for the Edexcel exam, and the board will not usually check their decision. The exams, which are also the first mainstream GCSEs to allow pupils to take some modules by computer, are provoking intense controversy. Derek Bell, chief executive of the Association for Science Education, said: “This seems to be an oversimplistic way of assessing what is a very complex learning process.” Jonathan Osborne, professor of science education at King’s college, London, said : “How is this going to assess pupils’ ability to express themselves in scientific language, a major aspect of science?” Critics say the new exams have been designed to be simple to mark, and to make it easy for pupils to get top grades. But the boards say that multiple-choice, or “objective tests”, can be a good way to check pupils’ understanding.
The development will fuel controversy over GCSEs and A-levels. Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington college, in Berkshire says confidence in the system is “draining quicker than credibility in George W Bush’s stance on Iraq”. Mr Seldon is organising a conference on June 27 in which heads of private schools will debate alternatives to mainstream exams. The new core science GCSEs are part of a set of courses designed to make the subject more exciting. Areas of study include genetic engineering, global warming and nanotechnology. Most pupils will take the exam alongside a second GCSE in additional science which is being assessed more traditionally. For coursework, pupils will complete up to six unassessed investigations. Their teachers will then set tests designed by the board on each project that will be conducted in exam conditions. The best mark will count towards their grade. An AQA spokeswoman said: “The variety of assessment processes we use reflects the diversity of skills being tested across a wide range of subjects. All our specifications have been subject to Qualifications and Curriculum Authority accreditation procedures.” A spokeswoman for the Edexcel board said its new courses were also accredited by the QCA and designed by science teachers. A QCA spokesman said the new specifications had yet to receive final accreditation, because the regulator believed that example questions suggested by the boards were not sufficiently “rigorous” but the concept of multiple-choice exams was something the QCA was happy with......

more later!!
happy reading!

2006-10-02T16:23:00.000+01:00

Extreme Learning – Professor Mike Sharples’ Inaugural Lecture
28th September 2006

Reminder: good source of e-learning info from the Pew Learning Report 2004 (available online at www.pewinternet.org)

Often learning is perceived as difficult – and ways to overcome these difficulties to enable ‘easier’ learning are sought. Discussed the effectiveness of different types of learning – for example computer-assisted learning has been shown to be less effective than others (Parr et al meta-study). Widely perceived that best learning should be relaxed and in a non-confrontational environment. But sometimes learning under stressful or hazardous conditions is also successful – e.g. skiing (see Burton et al 1984). But how is learning measured as “effective” in these studies? Often quantitative data e.g. an intervention is only used if it produces Ð0.4 difference in learning outcomes (Pask, 1961). But teaching is the only control to learning – learning is easy it’s the TEACHING that is hard! This can be illustrated by studies showing most adults are involved in some kind of learning (95% according to Livingstone’s study). In this study learning episodes were self-defined and logged in personal diaries. The episodes occurred mainly at work (e.g. learning how to order a flower delivery) but could be separated into 3 distinct types of “everyday” learning :a)work; b)leisure (e.g. studying family history) –and c) “survival” e.g. tax returns on-line.

Argues that the ease of learning also illustrated by babies of only 9 months understanding speech patterns in that they attended more to previously heard words. They were learning by active repetition (see Morris & Fitz, 2000).

Described the MEDIATE study – a computer-based knowledge system where language is being developed to describe MRI scans – this is especially important in the case of abnormalities. Briefly, in this study 1200 MRI data where disease was known (through autopsy etc) were described as typical or atypical within a visual multidimensional pattern of an “80 dimensional” space. Importance of consistent, reliable language for each case – especially for trainee doctors. Word and image and repetition. This is echoed in successful models of learning, e.g. the managed, motivational and guided learning of “scaffolding” (see David Wood’s work, 2001).

So to maximise effectiveness of learning it must be supported and challenging – informal and incidental. But crucially it must contain an element of (perceived) risk whilst remaining challenging to the learner. In the past we have wrongly eliminated risk from the learning environment. But how to present “real” risk? E.g. consider the difference between a learner using a virtual calculator and a flight simulator. The item’s physical use is therefore important. Can simulated environments provide real risk? Transformational, empowering learning through positive trauma has been shown to lead to radical self-development (Woods, 1996). Extreme learning – you never know when it’s gonna happen!

2006-10-02T16:20:00.000+01:00

I suppose it’s inevitable – but after my first week at Nottingham, it’s all been a bit of a culture-shock after being at Warwick for so long. I don’t think it could have been a more different learning experience. The other students in our group are all from very different and very interesting backgrounds – some with no teaching experience at all some with many years. Most of us are interested in the Skill4Life/ESOL/literacy areas, and some students are hoping to teach Art & Design, English and Maths. We met our four very different tutors – Mark Dale who is (unfortunately for us) moving on from academia to the challenges of being Principle at a local college. Anne O’Grady who is also running the course and from the sound of it has an interesting perspective from the commercial sector. Chris Atkin who has a special interest in rural education issues. And (I can hardly belive it) Kathryn Eccelstone who is a guru of adult education and a prolific author. It’s always strange to meet in the flesh authors you have read in the past – but at least there’s a better chance of me remembering them! Talking of meeting people who I’ve read, on Thursday, I stayed-on to attend Professor Mike Sharples’ inaugural lecture on “Extreme Learning” (if interested my personal notes available above). Remembering my many fellow students’ names was also made easier thanks to Mark Dale’s lesson – which unexpectedly was taken outside to enjoy the last of the day’s Autumnal sunshine. Everyone’s played that “ice-breaker” game where your small group forms a circle, throwing a ball to each other whilst calling out the appropriate name. It cleverly uses verbal, listening and kinaesthetic learning styles with repetition to help names stick. Mark’s version brought this game to a whole new level with 37 in the large circle on the grass and four balls being thrown simultaneously. It was a challenge! Not least to prevent the balls from landing in the nearby lakes - but I think after a few minutes most of us remembered each other’s names! It helped also that there are no similar names or duplicates apart from a ‘James’ (of whom one is “Jim”). We’ve got our full timetable for the term now and all the assessment details. Its gonna be an enjoyable year ahead some of which will be retreading theories that I never thought I would be returning to - like Knowles’ Andragogy; Illeris’s “3 dimensions of learning” and David Wood’s “Scaffolding” learning.

2006-09-27T09:32:00.000+01:00

Two strange things happened to me yesterday - firstly I was listening to that stupid pop-quizz thing on the radio - you know the one where the people who ring-in never know any of the most blindingly obvious answers - and there was a question about a Kylie song from years ago. I didn't have a clue who did the original...as usual talking to myself in the car whilst driving along...and said the first female artist that came into my mind...for some obscure reason Donna Summer (don't ask me why)! And would you believe that was the answer? Did my unconscious mind actually know the answer? Or was it just a fluke? Wierd. Anyway, about an hour later I was in the gym - now the music selection they play in there is not usually good - I get kinda bored of listening to Robbie over and over so bring my own music ....anyway I got bored of my normal selection of songs and switched my mp3 over to 'random'. Now my taste in music is very random too - so out of about 270 songs (yep - I'm too lazy to load any more on at the moment) anything could pop up from Phil Collins to Kate Bush. And would you believe that about 5 mins into my workout both the gym stereo and my mp3 started with that Fleetwood Mac number "second hand news" - within a few seconds of each other. Now Ok you mathematicians out there - what are the chances of that happening? It must be millions and millions to one???!!! It was very creepy - my friend reckons I should go out and buy a lottery ticket immerdiately!