Another week has rumbled past and I’m still in New Year’s limbo……………….. I can’t quite believe that Christmas is over, New Year has happened and we’re ploughing on into another year without a care in the world. At least, that is how it seems of course, but beneath our gay exteriors all sorts of cares and worries lurk. I shan’t bore or depress you with mine – I just wanted to tell you that I am doing something POSITIVE………………

I have decided to add ‘Jamie at Home’ consultant to my many responsibilities – for those of you who aren’t sure what ‘Jamie at Home’ is all about, it naturally has its own website – which you can find at https://www.jamieathome.com/sign-in.html To those of you who lived through the 70′s and 80′s and remember them, it’s like Tupperware, or Virgin Vie, or Jafra or any of the other party plan type outfits there are out there. But of course, it isn’t – it’s the only party plan I know of that has its very own ‘celebrity chef’ at its heart – a chef who uses Jamie at Home products all the time in his widely watched and enjoyed TV series, no less – and I am quite excited to be doing something different. Always one for a get together, Jamie at Home is ideal for someone like me who loves to cook, eat, shop and chat ‘foodie stuff’ with like-minded people.

So, if you haven’t got a ‘Jamie at Home’ consultant near you, why not give me a call…………..I’ll happily pop round and show you his wares

I don’t know about you dear reader, but I think the TV was excellent this festive season……………….. I can’t remember when I last saw so much good stuff. A couple of hours in-depth perusing of the Radio Times at the start of the holidays was well rewarded with a crop of new, one-off dramas that I thought were exceptional – such as ‘Lost Christmas Eve’, with my very favourite Eddie Izzard; ‘Fast Freddie, the Widow and Me’, with another favourite, Laurence Fox and not to be forgotten ‘Lapland’ with Sue Johnston and the family from hell trying to have a good holiday ‘finding Father Christmas’ when they would all much rather have been at home. The latter was a tad caricatured at times, but Sue shines in whatever she’s in and as someone who took her two young sons ‘in search of father Christmas in Lapland’ not long after their father died, it was interesting to see what they made of it. I also enjoyed the re-make of The Borrowers – with Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood and other well known faces……………pure escapism, but nonetheless entertaining for that.

Eddie Izzard popped up again in Treasure Island over New Year – thoroughly enjoyable and quite scary at times, my only criticism is of some well dodgy ‘special effects’ which occasionally (and randomly) sped up sequences for no apparent reason. But what do I know – maybe there was a point to it I missed!!!

The usual suspects appeared of course, The Snowman, (nothing wrong with that, I finally managed to watch it last night in a final couple of hours festive viewing frenzy); The Nativity, a modern remake of the most ancient story, with virtually every slightly swarthy English actor you can imagine, (Art Malik, Vincent Regan) taking key roles, plus a few whose very whiteness, (Peter Capaldi, Andrew Buchan) was hidden under long beards, turbans and other swathed material. But sympathetically acted and not afraid to focus on the Joseph/Mary conflict, (you’re pregnant, by whom? God?? I don’t believe you). The series aired last year for the first time, but I didn’t see it. Well worth a stint on catch-up. Lots of churchy and carolly stuff of course – and very good some of it was- John Rutter’s own take on Christmas and it’s music went down well with LH and me and I am always a sucker for Carols from Kings – even though I also listen to it on the radio on Christmas Eve. I can’t ever hear Once in Royal David’s City without a tear springing from my eye. I know, sorry, just can’t help it!

There was some good, (by which I mean funny) comedy on – Michael McIntyre and guests made me laugh, (though obviously filmed well before the Catherine Jenkins/Gethin Jones split, who were in amongst the ‘celebrity audience’ which seems to pad out these TV shows these days, ‘too much work’ kept them apart apparently………..so did Rhod Gilbert on Live at the Apollo. Sadly, the re-make of AbFab didn’t make me laugh very much – I think it’s had it’s day and they should let it go………….sorry Jennifer, coz I really like you on the radio with Dawn……………

On the miscellaneous front, there can never be enough Strictly for me, so I was happy to see the Christmas special, with some ‘new’ celebrities and the old ones back again for a last gasp of fame and fortune. Downton was decent – especially after the rattling events of the last series which were a bit too much to keep up with at times – and lots of ends were nicely tied up – thank goodness Lady Mary FINALLY made it into the arms of heir presumptive Matthew; it wouldn’t have been bearable to see any other outcome. And good riddance to her nasty fiance, Sir Richard whatever his name was, who knew her ‘dirty secret’ and made her pay over and over again.

Finally, I managed to watch ‘Endeavour’ on catch-up – a prequel to Morse, I was sceptical about what it would do to a much-loved character and heritage – I shouldn’t have worried – VERY enjoyable and young actor Shaun Evans was very convincing as a young Morse – see the photos above – a resemblance more than a likeness, but it was enough – he’s obviously been studying the gestures – maybe even overdid a couple of them – but the link was very much there. Genius casting of a young pathologist Max as well – I can’t find the actor’s name, but he could so easily have been Max in the 1960′s. If you haven’t seen it yet, I urge you to give it a try!!!

I am sure there was much more worth watching – but so many programmes and so little time!!! Thank goodness for recording devices and catch-up!!!

What were your favourites? Do let me know.

Well, where does the time go?  I’ve had my longest Christmas holiday for a long time…………..over 2 weeks……….and still I don’t feel ready for the return to work or as if I have properly ‘had’ Christmas.  I made an effort with the home decor as you can see above – my little cameral doesn’t really do justice to any of it and those lovely flowers were given to me over a week before Christmas and were in fabulous bloom on the day – more than can be said for my sad Poinsettia, that despite looking perky in the shop didn’t really shine all over Christmas and is now most definitely in its decline!!!!

For the first time in a long time, I only had 6 people sitting down for Christmas lunch – including me and LH – it just didn’t seem enough somehow and I wished there could have been more!  I really missed my lovely best friend A, who decided to celebrate Christmas at home in Spain this year, and even some rousing, (if out of tune) karaoke together, plus some spectacular back garden fireworks on New Year’s Eve didn’t quite make up for the lack of festive feeling.

Without wanting to be too doom and gloom, it didn’t help that there’s a big shadow hanging over the viability of LH’s business – people are abandoning car servicing in their droves it appears – I am sure that the general ‘talking down’ of the economy and the outlook on TV and radio and in the papers doesn’t help either…………..why not take an optimistic view of things?  If you are in striking distance of Swindon and need good quality, good value garage services – why not give us a try…………….http://www.kamautoservices.co.uk/

And a New Year sees me taking on a new challenge………….. I thought it was about time I started to DO SOMETHING – instead of just waiting around for the stars to align for our Italian dream of a cookery school to become reality……………so I am going to become a ‘Jamie Consultant’ – if you’re not familiar with Jamie Oliver’s ‘at home’ range of goodies, you can find out more at:  https://www.jamieathome.com/sign-in.html  and if you fancy booking a party of your own, you know where I am!

Happy New Year everyone!

An award? Yes, dear reader – Curious Girl has very kindly bestowed on me a ‘Lovely Blog Award’, (thank you very much indeed CG) and it’s part of the deal that I do the following:

1. Thank the giver and link back to his or her site, (see above)

2. Provide five random facts that folks may not know about me.

3. Pass this award on to five other lovely blog sites and let them know I’m awarding them – that’s a toughie – as it feels a bit cheeky when I don’t know all the bloggers involved – so if you are one of my five from below, all I can offer as an excuse is that I regularly check your pages to see what you’re up to, and I wanted you to know that you’re appreciated!

4. Copy the award logo and paste it onto your own site.

 So here are my five random facts.

1. I have tried (and so far failed) to get onto Masterchef but still watch it in all its permutations!

2. What I really want to do is open an Italian cookery school in Le Marche, Italy – so if you have some spare dosh looking for an investment, you know where to come

3. If I could only ever eat one meat again it would be beef, but if I had to choose a last meal, it would be lamb

4. My very best friend has occupied that position since we started at Christ the King Primary school in 1969

5. I would love to be able to Quickstep, just once, in front of an admiring room full of onlookers…………………

And here are the other five bloggers to whom I am sending this award – favourites all!

 Around Britain with a paunch – http://www.aroundbritainwithapaunch.blogspot.com/

A pot of tea and a biscuit – http://apotofteaandabiscuit.blogspot.com/

 Hannah’s Country Kitchen – http://hannahscountrykitchen.blogspot.com/

 With knife and fork – http://withknifeandfork.com/

 Italian Food Forever – http://www.italianfoodforever.com/

You may notice a bit of a theme with these blogs…………………food – it really is my obsession – I have already planned all my menus for each day I am at home between starting my Christmas hols on 15th Dec and the New Year – but I can’t help myself!!! It’s great fun to plan and shop accordingly – but I don’t mind the occasional spontaneous departure from the script………..like last Thursday, when my lovely friend was feeling down and I managed to rustle up a selection of tasty treats and nibbles from cupboards and freezer – and she provided a drop of the hard stuff to road test some Christmas cocktails! Happy days.

I am so busy over the next couple of weeks, (not like the rest of you I’m sure) that I doubt I’ll be blogging again till 2012 – where did 2011 disappear to? Answers on a postcard please! Happy Christmas everybody. Ho, ho, ho.

I am a sucker for anything vaguely military – there’s a long line of it in my family – brother, cousins, uncles, grandfather and beyond, back into the mists of time, (there’s also a history of mental instability and Catholic Priesthood, but we’ll pass over that for the time being).

I also love singing – not doing it, I truly have a voice that scares the living daylights out of many – though I am not easily deterred. Accompanying ‘golden oldies’ on Radio 2′s ‘pick of the pops’ is a pleasure reserved for solo performance in the kitchen and I know what they think of me at church – young children have been known to turn round and stare when I start warbling away to some favourite hymn or other.  So, something that combines music and military is absolutely right up my street!

Anyway, less me, more them – The Choir – Military Wives – is what I’m talking about – the lovely Gareth Malone’s latest venture has been on our screens recently – I have been away so it’s piling up on my saved programmes – and of course, has been overtaken by the moving performance made by The Choir on last Saturday’s Celebration of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall - with a specially written song guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of the hardest cynic.

There’s plenty about it on the web – just Google Gareth Malone if you want to see more – but for now, I want to bask in the warmth of feeling he creates by bringing groups of people together and turning them into winning teams – some management types could learn a lot about motivation from Gareth. To those who think they can’t sing, he praises constantly; he’s warm and genuine, not too pushy, but pushy enough; he understands who needs to be coaxed out and who is genuinely determined to stay at the back and he knows that you need a bunch of workers to make things happen – a choir is no place for too many Divas!

If you haven’t seen it yet, try and watch at least one episode on iPlayer – I guarantee it’ll cheer you up.

This time last week I was in the Grand Canyon – or over it, or in the river at the bottom of it – the main things is, I wasn’t actually IN Las Vegas!  That’s not to say I wasn’t blown away by the beauty of the canyon, (although I was), but mainly because it offered a rare few hours of escape from the sensory overload that is Las Vegas. I can recommend Pink Jeep Tours if you ever want or need to escape from Vegas yourself http://www.pinkjeep.com/index.shtml

Our lovely, well-informed guide Brad made an already good trip better. I had originally blanched at the ‘suggested’ 15% gratuity, but by the end of the day, I felt he’d really earned it.

I had never been before – I won’t be going again. It was awful, dear reader – just awful – the ‘resorts’, (and sorry, but who came up with the term ‘resort’ to apply to a tacky hotel full of noisy slot machines and even noisier people) were like one long waking nightmare – if you couldn’t remember which hotel you were in, there were no clues to be had inside……………… A permanent twilight, no clocks, no identifying landmarks, just machines and tables and cigarette smoke, (never thought I would object to that) and people hell bent on losing their money – grasping on to the faint hope that they just might win big. Too many over helpful staff – where are you from? Swindon – never heard of it? Where are you going? As far away as we possibly can! Do you want a map? Only if it will help me to find a way home!

I do realise I’m turning into a right old ‘bah humbug, isn’t the world awful’ type of person. But this was everything I had been led to believe and more.

There were a few highlights – me and LH renewing our vows with Elvis, (don’t let anyone tell you he’s dead – he’s ALL OVER Vegas)! Tacky? Yes, indeed – but in a nice, unassuming, not pushy way. He was lovely, we were amused, our guests were thrilled. Shame LH left the camera at home……….Another highlight – and actually, the whole reason for the trip – the wedding of LH’s nephew S to bride B – in the Luxor Hotel Wedding Chapel – he looked uncharacteristically smart, she looked divine. 21 of us gave up a week of our lives to celebrate their nuptials and on balance, it was fun. ‘Big Elvis’ performing at Bill’s Gambling Hall – not one of the classiest places on the Strip by a long way – was just amazing – close your eyes and you could have believed it was Elvis for real – an uncanny sound-alike voice, (all his own, no miming here), he (Peter Vallee, as he’s rightly known) was a fabulous way to round off the week. If you are interested, he claims to be Elvis’s love-child, (based on a death-bed confession made by his mother). Who cares – he’s very entertaining and he’s free!

What else do we have to remember LV by? Old timer Elton John – his show ‘Million Dollar Piano’ at Caesars Palace (no apostrophes in Vegas) was pretty good, (if expensive) and he actually sounded pretty good too - better than I had expected; and Criss Angel’s show ‘Believe’ - illusionist and magician – let’s face it, when you’ve seen one lady sawn in half, you’ve seen them all; Criss was, to my mind, not a patch on my own favourite Derren Brown, we kept getting exhorted to ‘whoop’ and cheer and ‘make alotta noise’ – frankly, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown by the time I came out – I had hoped to while away a couple of hours in relative peace and quiet………….with a chilled drink in my hand.  It was not to be.

Other than that, I didn’t like it

Bah humbug indeed.

Dear Reader,

Apologies – but at the moment, work is winning in the work/life balance equation and I never seem to have a moment to write anything new!

A few pics then of a fabulous weekend in Devon – mid-September and some lovely sunshine interspersed with rain and clouds.  There was a ‘ship in’ and we spent some lovely time together as a group of girl friends……………..

And a lovely walk in a vineyard, followed by a tasting………………… Not to put too fine a point on it, but some English vineyards have a way to go before they get good enough to take on the Lidl and Sainsbury’s specials………………….disappointing whites, less than full bodied reds and not a drop of sparkly in sight.  Back to the supermarket……………….

Or at least, to my lovely local wine merchant -check him out if you are anywhere in striking distance of Swindon.  Brian at http://www.magnumwineshop.co.uk/

No, I haven’t died or given up blogging – but the last few weeks seem to have passed by in a blur………..one minute I was enjoying 20+ degree temperatures on a warm Greenwich evening watching the Pogues, the next I was snuggling up with Hugh at a River Cottgage ‘summer night’ – but with the Yurt fire burning, not to mention the wood stove in the ‘al fresco dining area’!

When I say ‘snuggling up with Hugh’, I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong impression.  He wasn’t actually there, you understand.  Just the concept………… There are River Cottage events attended by Hugh and for which one pays a premium, (over and above some quite hefty charges methinks), but I had signed up for a ‘Summer Night at River Cottage’, all in aid of LH’s birthday.

Unfortunately, LH wasn’t overly impressed.  But I shan’t let that grind me down.  I LIKED IT – I REALLY DID.  I liked getting picked up from the car park in a trailer pulled by a tractor, (not many tractor rides in suburbia when I was young).  I liked getting a nice glass of English sparkly wine from a nice young man in a yurt and being told I could roam around Hugh’s garden to ‘see what he’s getting up to’.  I liked nice, smiley young people bringing me trays of interesting canapes to try as I wandered around – wood pigeon sausage – moist and tasty; smoked mackerel pate on home made toast – yummy scrummy; rare roast beef with a mild mustard dressing – divine.  I liked the barn, I liked the fact that the cooks didn’t seem the slightest bit put off with hordes of people trooping into the kitchen and photographing them as they plated up 90 starters………….yes, reader, 90 starters – a few more than the average home dinner party, that’s for sure.

And that was the bit I wasn’t so keen on………….there were 62 people packed into the barn in two long rows (see above) and another 28 in the ‘al fresco’ dining area – now I’m in marketing and I know all about creating demand – but might it not have been better to offer another date, rather than keep piling ‘em in?  I felt like a tin of beans at Lidl – piled high and sold cheap.  The bar man struggled to serve everyone before the food came to the table, the ‘al fresco’ diners were getting their starters as ours were cleared away and ours hadn’t been that hot to start with – heavens knows what temperature their seafood soup arrived at.

The price of celebrity seems to be not knowing when to stop – who knows when the celebrity star might start to fade………..and when the bookings might dry up altogether.  But at £65 a head, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of a recession in this little part of the country…………..Surely, the profit margins wouldn’t have been hit that much had they just said ‘no’ to a few more bookings – I would have appreciated the elbow room that’s for sure!

I feel petty complaining, but there you go – I know I would have enjoyed it more if the strange man sitting next to me hadn’t jabbed me in the side and arm every 2 minutes and I am VERY pleased I wasn’t relegated to the great outdoors on a chilly evening, even though it was still August.

Some of you will want to know what else we had to eat I’m sure – no real complaints there…………….tasty seafood soup and home-made bread, (could have been hotter); beautifully cooked pork – roast and belly and scrummy crackling, no complaints there at all; pannacotta with big, juicy blueberries and a lavender biscuit, tick.  Coffee and home made biscuits and fudge, double tick.  Cheese board with a very pleasant and reasonably priced (£3) glass of Port, tick again.

And back to the car-park in the tractor trailer.

Is it me dear reader?

I adore getting fresh flowers – I know some women who are bored with fresh flowers – seeing them as an unoriginal and uninspriring gift.  Not me.  My heart lifts when I see someone approaching with a bunch of flowers in their arms.  And last weekend, I was lucky enough to get three bunches of flowers from three very lovely friends!

Thank you very much indeed V, P and K – you know who you are

Been a bit busy lately, what with my first ‘staycation’, (more of which another time) and various work related commitments. But have to tell quickly tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing The Pogues at the Greenwich Summer Sessions on July 30th.

I have long been a fan of the band – and have particular admiration for lead singer, Shane McGowan, who despite years and years, (over 50, if his autobiography is to be believed) of drink, drugs, cigarettes and generally louche living – manages to stagger on stage, pretty much on time and sing most of the songs in the right order. I’ll admit that it helps if you know the words yourself………………his diction leaves quite a lot to be desired – but he has energy, enthusiasm and a huge disregard for doing the right thing.

In the words of the eponymous song:

If I should fall from grace with God, Where no doctor can relieve me

If I’m buried ‘neath the sod, But the angels won’t receive me

Let me go, boys – Let me go, boys

Let me go down in the mud, Where the rivers all run dry

Sadly, it wasn’t Christmas, and no amount of urging could get them to do ‘Fairy tale of New York’ as an encore – but the Pogues did one encore and then they did another! (More fool those who left after the first and weren’t allowed back in – take note, if they leave their instruments on stage, they’re coming back)!!!  It was a magical evening…………..the weather was probably the best day of the year so far – as dusk fell – the starts came out, the temperature stayed up and the crowd got into the swing of it. One complaint – one beer tent and a small van selling drinks does not a jolly party make – the peasants were indeed revolting about the length of time it took to get a drink – the queue taking over an hour in some cases – plenty of time to sober up – and the door entry policy was so strict that NO food and drink at all were allowed in – not even in safe, plastic bottles. Similarly, no seating was allowed either – contrary to many of the festivals and gigs that are around these days – which made it both a tiring ‘stand up for 5 hours or sit on the ground and get trampled’ and don’t drink much, you can’t get near the bar!!!

My Lovely Husband thinks Shane has got a cheek charging good money for coming on, rambling to music for a few minutes and shuffling off again for a vodka top-up whilst more compos mentis members of the band take over – but it just wouldn’t be the same without him!!!

Pogue Mahone!