Lowdham Food Fiesta 24 June 2012

This year, for a number of reasons, I won't be at the final day events of Lowdham Book Festival. Firstly, they've not got the major books fair they usually have on the final Saturday. *sad face* There are still talks and events going on next Saturday, but not the book fair. Secondly, it clashes with the 'lost Weekend' of DVD watching, so even if the event WAS scheduled as usual I'd probably not be going.

To compensate, we decided to go along to the Food Fiesta day they were having on the penultimate Sunday (24 June 2012) just across the road from Lowdham at Caythorpe Cricket Club. It helped that the lovely Kris and Dan (from Kris in Notts blog) were going along, and this would give us a chance to meet their son Sam who wasn't even beyond the womb when we last met up with Kris!

We arrived around lunchtime and were soon nosing around the goodies available - Neil got some Mr Trotter’s Great British Pork Crackling to kick things off (HIGH, high high in salt, but it's not as if he eats it regularly - once every two or three years?!)

I also picked up a couple of very fruity sticky teacakes from Hambleton Bakery - worth every penny spent on them for how delicious they were later that day at home with a cuppa tea. From the Gonalston Farm Shop stall, we got some super-fresh strawberries (had some last night, more on that in a mo), and Neil was tempted into some Bramley Apple compote which was sooooo charmingly sold to us by a local farmer that we couldn't resist. They also provided goats cheese (for me) and Shropshire Blue (for Neil) and we could have bought so much more as well... And because we endlessly find jars of harisa paste are too big to be eaten before going off, we picked up a tub from Taste - Gourmet Spice Company of harisa spices. We can add to tomato paste and make what we need as we need it!

We had a lovely time hanging out with Kris et al, and their friends (and their twin boys) whom we'd met at Kris and Dan's flat warming party back before they all had their children. It was a great atmosphere despite the floor of the marquee being squelchy wet in places from the torrential downpours of rain we've had in the UK. There is something fun about watching everyone chuckling over yogurt-smeared faced young toddlers!

In terms of reading matter, I picked up a copy of Nottinghamshire Flavours (local foodie mag) and Neil bought a book on baking so we may even get to more baking products over the summer. Well, we couldn't leave without something to read!

We did however resist the lure of the 'Jamie at Homeware' stand, having decided that Grayson Perry had been incisive enough about this tupperware party habit de nos jours.

To finish the day, Neil joined Dan and Kris at the Stilton and Port tasting event. It went on a bit longer than planned so I know Kris got a bit zoned out on the label reading analysis of Port types, but Neil enjoyed the cheese and learnt a fair bit more about Port and the different types you can get. I think he was glad to go to it!

Whilst we were sat in conversation, my view was blocked so I needed to be reminded about the cheesecake stall from Yummy Cheesecakes. Had to remedy that! Taking a taste, I immediately got a box of 6 small cheesecakes - milk chocolate, dark chocolate, two lemon and two blueberry. Neil and I had one each last night - he zingy lemon with a side helping of fresh strawberries, and me the dark chocolate one with strawberries on the side.

YUMMY indeed.

A very nice day and lovely to meet some nice people (Pippa of Five Leaves Press) and catch up with Kris and Dan and young Sam. And it was nice weather too!  I'll try and add some pics later but my camera battery is dedded at the mo so need to charge it so I can upload pics!

New Zealand 2011 - mostly food

In the run up to our journey to NZ, Christchurch had a real blast of winter. Indeed, the Thursday we flew out of the UK (off to sunny 30 degrees in Los Angeles), Neil's mum was only just getting dug out of the snow drifts at her home.

Southern hemisphere you see --- their winter. So we could have been really caught out - stuck and unable to reach the family.

As it was, it perfect timing, the sun came out. This meant there was snow on the mountains still, but our level was just beautiful.


One thing that I do indulge in over in NZ is coffee: I don't drink much coffee here (I'm a tea-belly if anything) but they do make a real effort with the presentation of coffee in New Zealand. Witness this cappuccino from Seagars in Oxford, NZ.


Indeed, food standards generally are pretty hot in NZ: see these lovely desserts, also from Seagars. (Apart from the fruit I swear everything was made with maximum attention to calories...)


We also had some spiffy food at Route 72 and at Pukeko Junction, near Amberley and Leithfield, NZ.


(Sorry about the lighting but the Pukeko salad and frittata was too lovely to not photograph - even if the lighting came out weird).

Neil and his new pinny - sorry: chef's apron!

Lisa went to Bedford last weekend, and Neil got a new pinny chef's apron.

And very good it looks too!

Stratford weekend

Awh, what a lovely weekend we had.

Good food.

And all the best bits of the RSC old theatre are still there.


And the new theatre itself is looking good with all the best features from the Courtyard integrated in.


The fact that we had the chance to meet up with our lovely friends Michelle and Nicole (from THAT weekend in Stratford) was just perfect.

London and Cricket at Chesterfield

Had a lovely weekend celebrating 20 years together: got up early for train to London on Saturday (sold to me as 'fancy breakfast at Brunos?') and then after a brilliant breakfast we did a visit to Selectadisc in the South (aka Sister Ray), a trip to the National Gallery Fakes exhibition, a stroll down past Houses of Parliament to Tate Britain, and then a wander round Rude Britannia (better than the name suggests, not a good as it good be).

We then dodged our first shower of the day (the forecast had been for a lot of rain) and wandered along the Strand and up to Covent Garden where we took in the madness that was the launch of the new Apple Store.

Insanity.

We then headed back to the Southbank and went to see the Hip-Hop Shakespeare event with MC Marechal from Brazil (part of the Brazil festival). [Read a preview here]

This was a fabulous event, making clear the connections between hip-hop beats and Shakespearean rhythms and language. Truly inspiring and though I wished I had the Portuguese to have been able to fully appreciate the linguistic talent of Marechal's impassioned performance, his meaning was clearly conveyed.

Wonderful.

We then dodged another shower (and there were no more!) and meandered along the south bank, before trotting over to Waterloo and then making our way for tea at our second favourite London Italian, Ristorante Cappuccetto near Cambridge Circus.

We threw the staff a curveball by ordering three mains and a side salad (we have become addicted to their gnocchi with gorgonzola, but it isn't enough on its own so we share it AND have a main each as well. Yes I know: greedy.) But it was lovely. I think they were quite shocked at us clearing our plates so well.

After that it was a slow wander back to St Pancras, almost taking in a viewing of Sherlock Holmes' abode.

We didn't get in until about 1am after the train home but it was worth it. And we think we saw a hare on the car park...

Sunday was a slow get-up but we had to be on the ball as Nick was coming over to go with us to Chesterfield for a classic cricket match: Derbyshire v Yorkshire in a one-day game.

Cricket is gloriously pointless but wonderful. And when accompanied by food and company for conversation it is perfect.

Okay, so the deployment of a troupe of young women in gym clothes with pom-poms doing cheerleader dances was like feminism never happened, and the cries of "Yorkshire, Yorkshire'* from bevied up Yorkies wasn't great fun to sit with, but the sun was out and the weather lovely and we grazed on good food all day.

Marvellous.

Even if Derbyshire lost.

(Maybe serves them right for having cheerleaders. And for using the cheesiest promo line for the sponsor 'AutoWorld' -- "big enough to manage, small enough to care".)

And then home in time for Sherlock's big finale of the first run. Worth coming home for.


*That wasn't the worst of the chants. Bairstow, Bairstow, where's your dad was another. Jonathan Bairstow is a Yorkshire player whose player father, David Bairstow, killed himself. Classy, Yorkshire fans, classy.

London in the spring: Friday 16th to Tuesday 20th April 2010

Been away. You may have guessed this, but given my erratic blogging, possibly not!

Anyway, we had a spiffy few days in London, marred only by my being rather unwell on Monday 19th (I'm unsure whether to blame the curry or the chill I caught sat in the BFI - the latter being ironic given that our first visit there had proven insufferably hot - a screening of the Lancaster classic 'The Killers').

Friday
Pizza Paradiso - of course, topped off with a glass of limoncello each on the house. Well, we were the last in there and they know us well after all these years.

A good walk round the block, picking up the tube back to the hotel and watching late night TV.

Saturday
Awake at ridiculous o'clock so we hit out for an early breakfast at Bar Brunos. We were so early even after finishing eating that staff were still breaking into Forbidden Planet so we headed round the block back to the tube to head to Marylebone. Visited Alfie's and marvelled at the prices for retro chic before wandering into Marylebone itself and into Daunts. Of course.

Stopped off for a half of much needed cider before getting the tube to Angel / Islington (no chuckling at the back there) and Neil walking me through the delights of Camden Passage where 1930s dresses were dazzling my eyes. Of course, all the ones I really loved (especially in Annie's) were at the higher end of the price range (though I noticed not as high as Alfie's prices were. Hmmm). Interstingly, we noticed when we dropped by Anthropologie - a shop I had nearly bought things from in Santa Monica where dresses were selling at approx $60 - that prices there made the one-off's of Annie's look VERY good value. £188 for a chain produced dress versus £180 for an original 1930s dress. Which do YOU think I would have gone for if I had been actually buying something...?!

On Saturday we also headed to the South Bank where we picked up the tickets for a screening of Butch Cassidy for the Sunday at the BFI.

We had a stop-off for Doctor Who which was... well, fun but on the could-do-better scale. Never mind.

A meal at Ristorante Cappuccetto near Cambridge Circus was a fine end to the day, with us ordering 3 mains between the two of us (well, I don't really count gnocchi with gorgonzola as a main, more of a side dish really) and a salad. I think the staff thought us mad, but we polished off the whole lot with ease.

A nice walk and then back to the hotel for more late TV.

Sunday
If it's Sunday in London, it's Spitalfields, S&M (and a very cheery waiter) and lots of wishing I lived nearer to this treat. Still, I saw my favourite designer Nina (of Enienay) and found some nice goodies for myself and Neil. Sadly my brain was possibly already frying as I completely forgot to use the visit to buy presents for people. Which just confirms the 'if it doesn't beep on my fone reminders, I will forget' syndrome I suffer from. Grr and apologies.

We then head to the South Bank to meet Poly (hello!!!) and have some very nice cheeses and chips before the film. The film of course was great, full of those sparkling one-liners for which Goldman so well-deserved his plaudits.

We regroup ourselves and head back to Brick Lane and have a very nice curry and then a long walk back via the City, Bank of England, Fleet Street and Covent Garden.

Monday
Did I say that London has been bright and beautiful for the whole trip? And no contrails either. Good job we weren't flying anywhere. We start the day late and head to Whitechapel for a visit to Freedom Press. Nice to support independent political bookshops. We then head back to town to grab a sandwich at Brunos before taking in a trip to the NPG for their Glastonbury and the Format Photography mini-shows (I rather like their one-room shows). We have a big night ahead, so while Neil visits Hausmanns I rest up reading my Doctor Who mag at the hotel, recuperating for the evening's visit to the theatre.

We have tickets for Enron which is fabulous, even if the characters are all unrepentant shits. There was a surprising number of bankers in the audience (go figure) but the performances and staging were wonderful - even if Neil was left somewhat traumatised by the unexpected sight of Sam West's moobs.

Tuesday
Breakfast at Brunos, moderately early and the staff are in fine form of chatty friendliness. We then go for a walk and wander to lots of new places. We see the first contrails of our stay, visit the sound sculpture of Bill Fontana at Somerset House (brilliantly evocative) and stand in the sun looking across the river. We stroll through the old bit of King's College (masked from the Strand side by its awful 20th century concrete frontage) - and I also note now that they have recently taken over some of Somerset House itself. We then head through to Inner Temple and Temple Church. I feel like I'm walking through Rumpole, Law and Order UK, Judge John Deed territory. We then wander into St Dunstan in the West with the giant clock strikers and then on to Sam Johnson's house (a great place to see!) and a further wander through the back streets towards Ely Place and St Etheldreda's Catholic church. We stop off for a drink at Ye Olde Mitre pub before we find ourselves in Hatton Gardens in jewelry territory and I amazingly find myself drawn to the a gorgeous Art Deco Sapphire and diamond ring. It is of course the most expensive of all the hundreds on display at a rocking £14,800. Cripes. (I can't find the item online of course, but trust me: it was beautiful)

We then set off wandering off through Lincoln's Inn Fields and marvel at the lush greenery and architecture of barrister land. We drop in for a quick visit to the oddity that is Freemason's Hall and finally head back to Pizza Paradiso for a final meal before collecting our bags and heading for the train.

I'll try and add pictures and links soon.

Food and drink and other Summer Sundae treats

Summer Sundae is a nice moderate sized festival: a bit too big to be truly boutique now (I would say) but then I am comparing it to the titchy-tiny T'IndieTracks.

Anyway, one of things I love about the festival is that it has a nice range of stalls and food available. This continued this year and we certainly enjoyed availing ourselves of the Summer Sundae Burritos, the Northfield Burgers (minus extra fly protein) and the real ales.


Neil and George enjoying pints.

Having said that though, with the loss of 6Music as a main sponsor, it did seem that Summer Sundae had been forced to take on a bit more in the way of corporate sponsorship affecting their food/drink ranges.

Gone were the delightful made to order proper pizza oven pizzas, and in came Pizza Express: now I like PE, but even so the loss of the independent provider was annoying.

More annoying was the impact that Bulmers had. Now again, I like Bulmers cider ... (NO ICE THAT IS AN ABOMINATION! -- sorry, I've finished shouting now...)

... but I was bloody annoyed, furious in fact, to find that thanks to Bulmers sponsorship and huge stall the sweet little beer tent was no longer allowed to sell any other type of cider!

What??! You can't even let the beer tent sell Scrumpy Jack - which you make?! And also you're so scared your product won't sell that it can't cope with some competition from Westons???!

Meh. I was quite cross.

Not as you can tell.


And the sun was shining much of the weekend.



So it wasn't all bad.

Nevertheless, despite this corporatisation, there were some independent treats at Summer Sundae 2009: these included the wonderful performances put in at 'The Hurly Burly'.

It really is quite something to think through the ads for new staff with Hurly Burly:

"can you cook and serve food?"
"yes"
"can you also sing, dance, play a musical instrument and be prepared to mime along to songs to an audience?"
"...erm.... what kind of food do you serve again?!"

Seriously though, this lot were great. Not only was the food fab but they were also jolly entertaining. It certainly takes something to persuade hungry festival goers to delay their requests for food whilst you do a few tunes!


They also did a wonderful performance along with Talking Heads 'Once in a Lifetime' which not only had the women performing but also the guys from the kitchen at the back! Utterly mad but totally delightful. A festival treat to prove it wasn't all corporate.

Visit to London: Monday 3 August 2009 including Time and the Conways, National Theatre

Monday arrives, and only two(ish) days left in the capital.

I'd foolishly not recharged my phone so was unable to send the texts I usually use of record of what we get up to so this is a more improvised review of the day's events!

After breakfast at... well, you know the drill... it was off toward the National. Taking a diversionary route we spotted a poster at the Canadian High Commission on Trafalgar Square and nipped in through the security to see an exhibition of Arctic photography: The Accessible Arctic. This was very beautiful and gave a nice chance to browse the ground floor of the 'embassy' with its fancy chandeliers and stairwells.

We then mooched through the Square, pausing to view a bikini-clad, feather dressed woman promoting bingo on the plinth. We then nipped into the National Portrait Gallery to see some rather wonderful 1960s photographs of Mr Bob Dylan looking exceptionally cool.

We then proceeded to have a wander through the area around Jermyn Street, looking in the fancy tailoring stores. Very snazzy!

As the day progressed, we further meandered towards the South Bank planning to get late tickets for Time and the Conways at the Lyttleton, National Theatre: we were even hoping to attend with lovely Poly Gianniba; however, this was thwarted with delayed receipt of a text from her. Another time we hope.

We headed for a repeat visit to Leon for tea - this time having the Sweet Potato curry for me - before ultimately grabbing two top price stalls tickets for Time and the Conways just £16 each. Bargain!

We then slotted in a quick visit to the viewing platform at the Oxo Tower giving us great views over the river (and gatecrashing a party, but then it is free access and a public right of way - thank you Red Pepper mag for alerting us to this!). We also skidded down to the Globe again so I could pick up a copy of the playscript for Helen (sadly no repeat encounter with Kathy).

The play, again, like Helen, has had mixed reviews. Perhaps it was because I had so enjoyed Rupert Goold's direction of the magnificent 'Last Days of Judas Iscariot', I was less disconcerted than some at the technical bravado that Goold injects into the production. Yes, the play is what it is: a three act 1930s piece of Priestley with all the arch manners one might expect of such a play But rather than seeing what Goold adds as unnecessary distractions -- two old dears in front of us were most put out -- we experienced them as vibrant visual encapsulations of the themes of the play. Time and simultaneity are given physical form and for me the key to why Goold plays the ends of his acts in this way is captured in the way he - quite literally - frames the opening scene of Act One. (I don't want to spoil too much as the production still has a little time to run but if I describe it as a widescreen cinematic experience you will understand what I mean when you see it).

The performances were lovely and the set managed to convey the changing financial status of the family very well. Of the actors, I especially liked Paul Ready as poor hapless Alan, the eldest son who is possibly the wisest of all the family, but everyone captures their class prejudices, maliciousness, carelessness and so forth with great clarity.

And as a second celebrity spot of the weekend, Barry Cryer was sat a couple of rows in front of us and held the door open as we exited behind him.

We had a drink in the bar and then retired, ready for our final day in London.

Visit to London: Saturday 1 August 2009

Saturday was forecast to be the worst of our days for our London trip weatherwise. Still, this was of limited concern as we were scheduled to be ensconced in a pub for a goodly part of the day. The weather on waking up was certainly still balmy, so again it was summery clothes -- even those thin long sleeve tops didn't get an airing during this vacation!

Breakfast at Bar Bruno again - with added Bubble and Squeak (how did I not have that before!?) - and then as I had had some shoulder and calf pain/cramps, we headed towards Oxford Street. Of course, we got diverted by the discovery that Sister Ray records were still going, so we dashed in there and purchased:

• The Duckworth Lewis Method
• Madness: The Liberty of Norton Folgate (a location we passed the following day!)
• Einsturzende Neubauten: Ende Neu
• God Help the Girl
  

We then mooched on to Oxford Street and into faithful old John Lewis, since tacky 'sportwear' shops wouldn't know about actual sports and exercise equipment if it bit them on the bum. Furnished with a remarkable Omniball and more, I felt better already.

After that - and the sight of a gravity defying (natural) cleavage making both us pop our eyes as the woman passed us - we wandered into the Photographer's Gallery in its new temporary home at Ramillies Street. We delighted in the exhibition 'On Reading' by Andre Kertesz, especially because the Guardian review had reminded me that it included an image of Peggy Guggenheim. We had a sit down and a drink, with Neil picking up the latest edition of Smoke. We then headed back to the hotel, dropped off our purchases and then headed back towards Trafalgar Square.

Ahead of meeting a friend for beers, we finally managed to visit the Political Cartoon Gallery on Store Street. Despite passing this many many times, this little venue has always been shut or on vacation when we have passed it so we took our chance and paid our pound to see the excellent work of Dave Brown. Rogues Gallery shows Brown's 'misused masterpieces' first published in The Independent, adapting old master paintings for political cartooning end. Not only are images visually stunning but they are also very funny.

We then nipped in for the BP Portrait awards at the NPG. We've got into a habit of seeing this show and there are always at least a couple of images that are really striking. This year we were especially captivated by a painting of a girl in a stripey jumper (how could we not like that!) -- 'Imagine' by José Luis Corella. We were also taken with 'Hats and Scarves' by Tim Okamura whose layered paintwork isn't done justice by a small reproduction and whose lively painterly style was striking in such a large work. I also like the prize winning work by Peter Monkman, a rather ethereal image of his daughter ('Changeling 2').

Full of culture, we headed to the always delightful Chandos but finding our friend delayed we temporarily exited for a stroll around the area including an exhibition/sales space selling fashion and art/design magazines. We also had a nosey at the Cecil Court print stalls. However, as the rain restarted we headed back to the pub and sat ourselves down for the afternoon.

With toastie and chips to keep the hunger monsters at bay we passed the remaining waiting time musing on trying to name the Ivy League Universities of the USA and the 'Seven Sisters'. Confusingly I now realise there are eight Ivy League universities so who was missing a sister?! Anyway, drinks and film discussion chatter ensued once our friend arrived and we then made a quick dash through torrential rain up to The Salisbury on St Martin's Lane (the wettest we got all weekend!), working our way through the posher theatre-goers to finally get a seat. We then made our way to Cambridge Circus - to, funnily, The Cambridge - where debates and identification of long forgotten films continued (I finally remembered - without recourse to IMDB - that the colloquially known 'Lust in the Dust' starred Jennifer Jones and was actually called Duel in the Sun).

Requiring some serious beer soakage material we headed for food at the lovely Ristorante Cappucchetto just off Cambridge Circus. We had delicious pasta - with gnocchi alongside - and we were wonderfully filled with food and wine. Excellent.

Against better judgement a final round was decided upon and we headed to the Whitehall Weatherspoons pub with a moon in its name. Yes, we were a bit drunk by this time. Still, with a copy of the latest Observer in hand -- oh sob, can they really be thinking of getting rid of this wonderful paper?! -- we enjoyed a sobering walk back through Trafalgar Square, past yet more random people on the plinth and back to the hotel.

End of day three!

Visit to London 30 July - 4 August 2009: opening days

Nearly 6 days in London to report on, so lots to get through!

Neil and I travelled down to London on Thursday 30th July straight from work. So the first challenge was getting out of work on time-ish. This was interesting to achieve for me as I had meetings from 9am straight through til 4pm when I had to aim to get room bookings into the system for the new academic year. I finished my task with 4 mins to spare before rushing for the bus.

As is our usual activity on arrival in London (once we've topped up our Oyster Cards), we headed straight for our favourite eating place Ristorante Olivelli Paradiso on Store Street. There is always at least one member of staff working on any shift that recognises us and we always get a nice welcome. The food is never less than excellent and wonderfully good value. After eating our fill - delicious fresh sardines followed by salad and risotto with leeks and asparagus for me - and having a nice bottle of white wine, we went for a stroll down to Trafalgar Square to watch the random plinth inhabitants at One & Other, Anthony Gormley's collaborative and community artwork for the Fourth Plinth. It was a fairly pleasant night in terms of weather so it was lovely to walk around.

Friday morning and we've already identified quite a bit of potential activity for the weekend withour copy of Time Out. As is traditional, breakfast on every day except Sunday is at Bar Bruno on Wardour Street. Friendly with good value food, their breakfasts are wonderful and I always feel I have truly arrived back in London once I have eaten at Store Street and here. It has a really honest atmosphere: there is no pretension or show. Everything about it is approachable and delicious. Eggs, bacon and tomatoes with toast for me, with a mug of tea of course. I feel better already.

We set off after breakfast toward Cambridge Circus as I'm keen to get hold of the 2nd edition of Volume 3 of About Time, the Mad Norwegian Press books on Doctor Who. These hilarious volumes have provided many happy hours of reading to me, but the Pertwee years volume 3 had been unavailable for quite a while. Now the 2nd edition has finally come out I'm looking forward to reading this afresh as its been rewritten with plenty of asides about the new series in the footnotes.

Still, en route to Forbidden Planet, we did a nice little re-route via the Denmark Street area. This involves us finally going into St Giles in the Fields. This has some very impressive memorials inside it and has been beautifully restored: we also picked up the wonderful memorial service address done for the previous Rector Gordon Taylor which is well worth reading as it gives a sense of how hard he worked for the church and its restoration. The visit to the Denmark Street area also included Neil lusting after a banjo in the music shop windows. Yes, not content with not playing his bongos he now wants to be not playing a banjo (am teasing, but he - and I truly - need to find our musical mojo before buying more instruments!) Ah well!

After doing my science fiction girl geek thing, we headed into Covent Garden and the next inevitable stop-off at Tabio. This always makes me feel good and before the weekend was out I was wearing some of my new purchases! We then continued meandering through the streets til my eyes were seduced by some very fetching purple flock Doc Marten shoes. Oh yes. We then headed round and through to the London Transport Museum to pick up a few postcards of the lovely old transport posters. Deciding that breakfast had been very salty and lethal to health, we went for some raspberries for our lunch which we ate outside the lovely St Paul's Church: the actor's church. Helen Lisette has been badgering us for ages to go inside this unassuming building, but the delay paid off as it was truly wonderful to see all the memorials to the actors and other creatives of theatre and film and television. By now it was gloriously sunny and we were quite hot! We then went off to St Martins in the Fields for the lunchtime concert featuring a Russian pianist Mikhail Trusechkin playing short pieces by Scriabin, plus Prokofiev, and Liszt's Mephisto waltz. This was excellent and after wandering downstairs to see some beautiful illuminated bible illustrations in the basement of St Martins, it was still sunny when we came out. We sat in the sunshine watching a bear-suited man on the plinth whilst writing postcards. We then wandered to the South Bank, having fun watching the 'Appearing Rooms' fountain once again drawing out the kids and adults into getting soaking wet. We also enjoyed some ice-cream and watching the free performance art of 'Waiting on You' by Fullstop Acrobatic Theatre (involving dancers climbing and performing from a 50 foot hanging sheet). * UPDATE ADDED AT END

After dropping our bags back at the hotel, we came back to the South Bank and headed to the Queen Elizabeth Hall for one of the Trouble Tune Tonic events involving Charlie Dark and Keir Vine creating and performing improvised electronic, piano and spoken word works. This was very good and finally means we've seen something performed inside the Festival hall complex!

We then decided, foolishly, that what we fancied was a curry for tea so we headed to Brick Lane. We had a nice walk through Spitalfields and located a restaurant we had previously enjoyed. And indeed the meal was lovely. What was less so was our failure to factor in that it was Friday night (we usually dine there on a Sunday if we go!) so the place was heaving. So much so that as a new table's worth of girls came to sit at the adjacent table my lemonade was sent straight over me drenching my skirt, scarf (which was resting on my lap) and seat. Still, as I say the meal was great and since it was such a balmy night we were able to walk me dry pretty easily. We walked from Brick Lane, through the City (holding my scarf between us in the warm breeze), heading over the river towards the FT building and then on past the Tate, and past the queuing fans of Helen Mirren exiting from her performance in Phedre at the National Theatre. We also caught the end of the behind-the-screens production on the National Theatre Square of Macbeth: Who Is That Bloodied Man? (it was a paying event so we only caught the fire and smoke and noise and general excitement). Still, Neil got a rather fetching T-shirt of Teatr Biuro Podròży (from Poland) which we wore over the weekend. We wish we had caught more of this stilts and motorbike event! We then wandered back across the bridge into the square before finally returning back to the hotel.

I think that was evening one and all of day two! [details updated 6 August]

* ADDITIONAL UPDATE
Only just remembered but whilst loitering on the South Bank on Friday pm, we also hung out in the shop at the BFI Southbank. They were showing 'The Swimmer' on the screen in the shop and as it was with around 20 mins to go we stayed in the store and watched the end. It's a very odd film, bleak and utterly unexpected for a first-time watcher I think. The realisation that things are far from what they seem, and are the opposite of well, hit me like a bolt when I first saw this film many years ago on late night TV (remember when Moviedrome with Alex Cox gave sparky erudite intros to classy cult films?).

Boots Cajun Chicken Wrap

Clearly I was the only person in the country eating these from Boots. Boo hiss.

:(

Thank you for contacting us about our Cajun Chicken Wrap.

I'm sorry to hear it's been difficult to find this product in your local store. I have spoken to our product team and they have confirmed that the Cajun Chicken Wrap has now been discontinued.

We are always reviewing our products to make sure we're selling those that our customers want to buy. We will only ever discontinue items to introduce a new and improved range or if the products have not sold as well as expected.

I appreciate this is disappointing for you and I have forwarded a copy of your letter/email to the product team. They have reassured me they will consider your feedback during their next product review.

We no longer have any stock remaining in our stores or main warehouse. If you speak to one of our people next time you're shopping, they may be able to recommend a suitable alternative.

Thank you again for contacting us. If you have any further questions please contact me personally on the number below.

Kind Regards,

Well, at least I have a 'named contact' to moan at about this, but even so, they really were the best providers of a cajun chicken wrap. Darn!

For those of us who never will: Stu_N reports on The Fat Duck experience

Whatever your opinion of the food and experiences Stu describes of his important birthday visit to The Fat Duck I would merely recommend that you simply revel in the sumptuous way in which he describes the whole experience in magnificent detail.

Best food writing I have read in a long while. Almost makes me wonder if we shouldn't do this sometime. Then again, The Fat Duck isn't exactly local to us... and I'm not sure how long it would take us to save up...

Leaning towards the DVDs as we reach the end of the week

Oh bloody hell: the BBC for all its trailers doesn't seem to know what to do with its own product does it when it can't keep Merlin in the remotely same slot for its first two weeks. Bah.

I'm stockpiling DVDs like fury at the mo - I'm actually probably about a months worth of watching behind on what we currently have and now Cloud has declared a need to see The Sweet Smell of Success again. The backlog grows.

Still, after this week at work - computers being generally bloody useless at every turn - its nice to get home and acquaint myself with my lovely mac again.

And listening to iTunes just makes me so happy.

Right, off to decide whether tomorrow is a decorating day. And have some late food - leek and potato gratin.

A full day in London 2nd August 2008

Main action for the day - getting to see Under the Blue Sky at the Duke of York's theatre. But first...

Begin the day with Breakfast at Bar Bruno

Really, there is no better way to start a day than with brekkie at the marvellous Bar Bruno. The only down side is they do not open Sundays (thank heavens for the newly located S&M cafe for that then!) but with eggs and bacon to die for and a great atmosphere - lots of construction workers and a generally genial air of London-ness - it is a fabulous place to start the day.

Next up was a visit to the National Portrait Gallery, with unexpected pleasures beyond the always interesting images that the portrait competition exhibition throws up. Yes, we got into the NPG rooftop restaurant - and got a window seat!





We then headed over to Marylebone High Street, and dodged into Daunt Books. This was a very pleasant bookshop indeed, and given how much we spent we were even more pleased to get a gorgeous canvas bag thrown in. Yippee! We then enjoyed a meander through the red brick streets of this end of London. Looking above street level is always fascinating but there were some real gems here.




After a bit more book-buying, we dropped bags back at the hotel, I continued giggling furiously at Wiffle Lever to Full, and we then headed to the theatre.

Post performance I would have happily waited to see Catherine Tate, but Cloud got a fit of the shys and given I hadn't eaten beyond snacks since the big breakfast we instead headed into Covent Garden and to Cafe Pasta. We had a very nice late meal and then mooched back to the hotel.

End of day two.

Things I did over the last few days: August 2008 - Going to London 1st August

This will be the first of four posts - plus some subsids - outlining our recent visit to London. And therefore, unimaginatively, this first post will be

Arriving London Friday 1st August

We love visiting London. And after a valiant attempt at resisting the book buying urge we decided this time there would be no such efforts. Screw it! We like books! So we first made a trip to Judd Street books and then dropped these at the hotel whilst snacking on the contents of our snap bag - dried fruit and cereal bars and buttered fruit loaf.

Anyway, after topping up our Oyster Cards we headed out to the Royal Albert Hall. We had already decided that we would skip a Stockhausen weekend (worthy but a better idea than a practice) and though tempted by Paul Lewis playing Beethoven we thought we would probably need an early-ish night.

So we instead headed past the RAH, past the Albert Memorial, and off into the park


wandering our way to the wonderful Frank Gehry summer pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery.


It's fabulous and we had a nice little chat with the young lad manning the donations box. We then meandered through the park, pausing to take in the now fully in place New Zealand memorial at the Hyde Park end. Very moving.




We then headed into town, taking in a stop at the Photographer's Gallery, being especially enchanted by Hans Aarsman's exhibition of photos of things thrown away and things desired but not bought.

We picked up our reserved tickets for the Duke of York's theatre production of Under the Blue Sky (which will get a separate review) and then mooched about, picking up the fabulous Wiffle Lever to Full from Charing Cross Road. Neil had texted me whilst we browsed around independently saying 'I've found just the book for you'. Poor boy then had to put up with me giggling furiously as I read it over the weekend. There will be a separate review for that as well.

We dropped back at the hotel and changed before eating out at our favoured restaurant Risorante Olivelli Paradiso (Store Street). Most of the staff recognise us by now and the food is always lovely. It's a nice atmosphere despite/because of the inevitable proximity to academics it gives. Food was excellent, including some VERY delicious sardines.

Had a walk, meandered about town, and then quit for the night.

A Derby day with Deliciousness and the Doctor

What a lovely day Cloud and I had yesterday: the building work is approaching a stage 1 completion with most of our current activities approaching a finale. So we headed for Derby and started off a pretty brilliant day.

1) the magazine stall
Derby has an indoor market and a magazine stall that I swear can rival WHS: picked up the latest set of fridge magnets for Doctor Who in SFX and began the trundle round the city, enjoying the goth/emo/nu-rave kids on the block that always hang out by the square.

2) Haze
Venue of choice for said goth/emo/nu-rave under-17 year olds and women over 30 seeking hippy clothes and fulfillment of their own goth fantasies.

I picked up a very nice smock dress that I think will do lovely for a friend's wedding in the summer. Though knowing me I will wear it before the end of the week.

3) Oxfam
Always makes me happy to ply trade in an Oxfam. Bought three amusing cards and a CD of poetry. Felt reasonably well with the world considering.

4) Derby Westfield Shopping Centre
Yes, I know these beasts are evil and everywhere and that it has been KILLING the local small shop trade to have a spiffy new mall in the city centre to incorporate the old Eagle Market. But as we've always wandered the little streets anyway in each of our visits to Derby, and paid our money to lovely selective stores (Haze, Mustard shoes and more), I wanted to just SEE what the new place looked it. Okay, it IS a mall, but it is quite shiny. And...

5) razcherries
OH GOD. I thought I would never find these outside the London markets. Finding razcherries on a stall in the Westfield of Derby pretty much set me for the day.

6) European Restaurant and Bistro
On our last visit we were very taken with finding the staff coming out to eat their own lunch in the restaurant as they closed for the afternoon. It may have sinking floors and characterfully un-even ceilings but the food is divine. A very nice 2 courses (goats cheese tartlet and then salmon for me; mushrooms and then meatballs for him) plus wine for just over £30, followed again by the delight of seeing the staff come and sit down for their own grub. I do like the idea of the staff enjoying their own food.

7) Bennett's Department Store
A very old fashioned home and clothes store where we got a safe-cracking style analogue kitchen timer like this.

8) Westfield Shopping Centre (again)
Pro-Cook supplied us with a very nifty old-style bread bin for the new kitchen. Very nice.

9) Forbidden Planet
Ah so shoot me. Picked up the 2008 Doctor Who story book (since my copy got lost in Amazon/PO hell when we had the NZ trip earlier this year -- NB DO NOT TRUST the PO's offer to repost mail to an alternative address). Cloud insisted I enquire about the availability of Primeval figures: only the online and London store sell them. But I happily got the painted cover of a Buffy comic I had missed getting from Page 45. Yeah!

10) Doctor Who on the TV!
Ah, bliss. My sofa, razcherries and the Doctor. And blimey, is it just me or was that just fabulous? I mean I know I have a low threshold for happiness when it comes to the Doctor (I can get delight from just having it on the screen!) but I really enjoyed this. I thought Donna was great, taking the Doctor to task and being far more adult in a crisis than it was appropriate for either Rose or Martha to be; I thought the Doctor was great: bitter, reluctantly merciful, angry, mindful of his awesome awareness of time. The plot worked - the seers were creepy, their occupation by the pyro-wotsits suitably 'yuk' - and the supporting cast was top-notch. And I did enjoy watching Confidential afterwards: David at large in Pompeii and at Vesuvius, suitably awed by the experience.

So yeah, a good day.

Today we painted the pantry: ah well, at least we did it to music.

Viva "Vivo": Stapleford restaurant

Part of the 'joys' of having your kitchen developed is that when you aren't putting together yet another quick pasta/tomato sauce, or scrounging a dinner place off neighbours and friends, is that you feel able to take up some take-aways and eating out opportunities.

Before Xmas a new restaurant opened in Stabo Stapleford, Nottingham. With a number of other places (mainly the swish Creme) it suggests that Stabo may be on its way up. Really?

Well, I think in addition to the independent music, photography studio, and Tile Shop, it also still needs some quality indie food providers(greengrocers, deli, butchers etc) to really get on the ladder of quality. But the arrival of 'Vivo', a new Italian restaurant, has got to be going in the right direction.

Hearing Italians chattering as they run the place always helps in an Italian restaurant (how many have you been to where they don't seem to have much hands-on knowledge of Italy?!) - even if there were some training-up locals as well. Given it was a Monday night it was pretty darn busy. And judging by the sign in their window thanking everyone for making it such a huge success but apologising that they were now exhausted so had had to shut for some of their usual Sunday opening dates... well, that suggests it's made a real impact.

I had a glorious leek and potato soup with croutons and enough garlic to keep the vampires in the next county. Lovely very fresh homemade bread too. I then had a delicious dish of layered aubergines with tomatoes and mozzarella and a side salad. Neil had had a ratatouille with cheese and garlic bread followed by penne pasta with the most moist meatballs I have ever tasted (he let me have a little piece) along with a side salad. Stuffed to the gills, we had to stop there, but the meal was lovely and the atmosphere really friendly. Most people coming in were hugged and welcomed like old friends and they were lovely in saying bye to us when we paid and left.

Lunch and early evening (before 7pm) it's two courses for £7.95 which ain't bad. We will definitely go again!

Its a 'good start' when ...

... you make a flask of soup and manage to leave it at home, only realising error when you arrive at work.

And I don't get my lunchbreak till 2pm today.

Meh.

theQuarter: a great new restaurant/bar in Leicester

Can I recommend in HIGH AND LOUD tone a fantastic new restaurant and bar which has opened in Leicester, England (for those of you elsewhere who may visit - local people, get your asses there asap [though obviously AFTER Who...]).

It's called theQuarter and its located very near the forthcoming new performing arts centre for Leicester (and the lovely adaptation of an art deco cinema, Athena, that I was lucky enough to visit for the BAAS banquet back in April).

The atmosphere is a delight: the seats and tables well-thought through; the design is chic without feeling either too posh to relax or too cliquey to fit in.

And the food! Woah. It's a small but perfectly formed lunch menu which was pleasing and well presented. Cooked VERY freshly, with good and (where possible) locally sourced ingredients. We definitely want to go back there. I feel a troop out of Summer Sundae coming on (in fact I may go back there on the Friday for dinner before the festival proper starts. Mouth watering at the prospect).

I had a lovely chorizo, pea and prawn risotto; Neil a steak sandwich with mushrooms and caramelised onions with chunky chips. We shared a chocolate tart with creme fraiche and berries.... delicious!

Great service too - friendly without being obsequious, welcoming, charming and cheery: and we had a lovely chat with one of the owners, Janice.

All in all, highly recommended as I say.

Choc Chip Update

Lakeland thought we were mad (to say the woman on the door was rude would just about cover it: she fair dropped her jaw at the suggestion/question of "do you stock chocolate chips for biscuits?" and if she had cried "WHAAAT?!!!!" a la Kate Ashfield I would have been less surprised). And that's supposed to be a welcome...

Mind, Cloud still thinks they sell 'em so we may have another look. We just have to get past Mrs Rude on the door.

We also tried Lidl, you know, just in case, since they do stock all manner of strange extra stuff. Sadly no bags of plain choc chips. Plenty of strangely named handwash products though. And very large chorizo sausages (we bought the latter).

You can order 1kg bags online in the UK from a choc specialist (but it costs about 12GPB including postage)

Otherwise, most supermarkets only seem to sell bags of about 150gms at about one pound 20 pence per bag. insufficient and costly

Grrr... I will NOT be defeated. I also will not stoop to beg more from Joe. Damn it, this is England, surely a baking capital in Europe!? We must be able to source more plain (or "semi-sweet" to use US parlance) choc chips without resorting to importation?!

In other news, we did buy two small bags and they have gone into the new batch of biscuits/cookies.

They now keep their shape.

Yum.