A lifestyle blog
The Roux brothers have banned photos of their food <massive eye roll> I mean, seriously boys? For those that don’t know there was an article in The Evening Standard this week that quotes Michel Roux I’m really getting so upset about people taking pictures. We put up a card at the door saying ‘No photos, please’. I mean, what are they doing? Maybe once during the meal you want
Despite being members of the National Trust for about twenty years we had no idea they owned Brownsea Island, just off Poole in Dorset. We also didn’t know that you could get the ferry over to visit for the day. Or an hour Which is all the time we could spend there recently. Because we didn’t know you could get the ferry there until 3.58pm, as we walked past the
I tried a bit of an experiment this weekend, Saturday baking- we were taking pud to a friends’ house and I decided to bake a cake to take round, rather than buying something. Which is brave as my kitchen disasters are pretty regular and by doing this I was leaving myself no time to then go out and buy a replacement. I also thought I thought I’d get the recipe
A few weeks ago I was car shopping. First online, and then visiting showrooms with a view to test driving before making a final decision. The only criteria I had were that it had to be fun, and, in what might have been some kind of mid life crisis, it had to be a convertible. Oh and an automatic, but I will come back to that point later. The
How to make sure you’re sleeping better Sleep is the key to health and happiness but for many of us it is often hard to get several hours of shut-eye. Here are seven of the best tips to ensure that you have the best sleep that you can. Stick to a sleep schedule Set aside no more than eight hours for sleeping each night, but remember that It is
Bladon Church, the subject of today’s Window Wednesday, is tucked away off a main road, so tucked away in fact that we drove past it twice and had to turn around to finally find it. When I started my Window Wednesday posts it was because I have always loved how windows can frame a shot. You can look through the window and see it perfectly frame the vista beyond. Or
Yes, my gin of the month for October is called TOAD. Or rather my gin of the month is made by The Oxford Artisan Distillery, TOAD for short. We first heard about this distillery after Tom, who runs it, was featured on BBC’ Countryfile because not only has he just started up this distillery in Oxford, but he is doing things slightly differently. You see all gin starts from a
Xero I started my business, making the leap from being just self employed to running a company, a couple of years ago. It made sense to do that and made me feel like a grown up suddenly being able to write “company director” when asked about my job title. No longer would I have to mumble something about what I used to do, or that I was a mum “does
“We have been invited to Ben and Michelle’s Wedding” “Oh that’s lovely, is it in Barnes?” “Nope, Malta” “Oh” And so that is how I found myself Googling Malta to find all I could about where to stay and what to do on the island that is often the hottest in the Med. We plumped for the little town of Silema, away from the capital as we thought it would
Wake me up when September ends Ring out the bells again Like we did when spring began Wake me up when September ends The lyrics to “When September Ends”, the song by Green Day don’t really fit my situation but I always feel that the end of September is significant for me. I don’t acknowledge New Year too much, there is so much hype around it with all the “new
Window Wednesday this week is from Venice and features a first: a photo that not only did I not take it, but that I also wasn’t even nearby when it was being taken. The above pic was taken by my youngest, Ellie in Venice earlier this week. Her first trip abroad without one of us, or a teacher, just her and a mate flying off to Italy for
My gin of the month for September is made in the kitchen of the Fera restaurant in Claridge’s Hotel, London. I have never had a gin with my name on it before. Or indeed made a special trip on a Sunday morning, into London to buy a bottle. But then this a special gin. Fera means wild in Latin (dontcha know) and is inspired by the flavours used in their
