Booking a short holiday in Aldeburgh was based on wanting to explore Suffolk, which I don’t know, and staying right by the sea. I love being by the sea. By the time I’d looked at what was on offer via Booking.com from Southwold southwards, I found The Cross Keys and decided that looked like a […]
It’s half term week, so a promise to take the boys to Kingston upon Thames – more specifically Bentalls – in the next holiday time was fulfilled. Bentalls has a brilliant toy department, which is its chief attraction to the boys, including the best collection of Schleich animal figurines that I know of (short of […]
I’ve never made madeleines before. They seem to have been in my life for as long as my memory goes back, like scones and clotted cream, the bread pudding and Christmas puddings I used to make as a child with my grandmother. I guess I perhaps ate madeleines for the first time in France. I […]
I’ve written about Tangawizi before but it was 12 years ago in the early days of the blog. I listed it as one of my ‘favourite haunts’ – a category I eventually abandoned but Tangawizi remains a favourite haunt and the only place I ever order a takeaway from. I thought it deserved some attention […]
It’s been a bit of a French week: I’ve been upgrading my French Peugeot car to a newer (not new) version; I’ve been enjoying the re-run of Rick Stein’s Secret France on BBC TV in the evenings; and there was a French market in Twickenham on Sunday and Monday. I had the eldest grandsons – […]
Tonight’s supper was my interpretation of the wonderful meal I had a Jose Pizarro’s restaurant in the Royal Academy of Arts in March (click here). I was particularly keen to make the blood orange salad, which was so gorgeous. I’ve been buying blood oranges recently from the local Twickenham greengrocer P. Cooper & Sons. It’s […]
I had the two eldest grandsons, aged 4 and 7, for 20 hours – from yesterday afternoon until late this morning. It was fun as always and such a joy to have their company. Supper was ragù bolognese from my freezer. When they have a sleepover, I like to eat with them, so their usual […]
My grandson Freddie (7) loves lemons. He likes lemon drizzle cake, lemon sorbet, slices of lemon in drinks. For my birthday lunch at Masaniello last Saturday, when nine of us gathered around the long table, his chosen dessert was lemon sorbet. Not strawberry, chocolate or vanilla ice cream, but lemon sorbet. And he loved it. […]
Why go and what to do In all honesty, I went to Worthing in West Sussex simply because it’s a short drive – almost directly south – from my home in SW London (about 1½ hours). I wanted a seaside break to look forward to in the spring but didn’t want to travel far. You can also […]
I’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather here in Worthing. And as if to prove that I chose exactly the right days to come down, the forecast for tomorrow changes dramatically showing rain all day and strong winds. I’d thought I might hang around for the morning, have an early lunch and then head home, […]