Reviews

There’s nothing like a younger sibling to remind you about how old you’re getting or have become. So when my pretty awesome baby brother booked me a Land Rover Experience taster session for my 40th birthday, there might have been a few tears in my eyes; for finally joining the 4-0 club, the thoughtfulness of his gift and the reminder that he’s still several years behind me with the rest of his 30’s to look forward too!

Summer’s gone and we are officially in autumn which means a windy chill whips around the house, the leaves are crunchy under my feet, evening’s are spent curled up on the sofa with a good drama and Halloween is just around the corner! But this year, it’s not all ghosts and ghouls, enter the realms of the lives of witches, vampires and daemons with Sky One’s new 8 part mini-series, A Discovery of Witches, adapted from the first book of Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy.

As I write this my stomach is somewhere in my throat as the airplane bounces through the skies above the Atlantic and we’ve just experienced the most horrific take-off I’ve ever had the erm… pleasure of experiencing in my 30-something years of flying; and I’ve flown some pretty nasty flights. The ‘shaky’ announcement at Funchal airport that the Lufthansa flight that was due to land just before we left was diverted 400km south to Tenerife because of the horrendous weather on Madeira, probably induced my only, and only slightly, flight-panic attack. I hate heights but love flying; this is all wrong! So feeling a little queasy I’ve decided to write about food, because thats what you do, right, when your stomach’s flipping around all over the place?

You wouldn’t think it, but we do get chance to get away every once in a while… Admittedly they tend to be at least 12 months apart but it does happen. In fact this year we’ve been spoilt and managed to get away to Cornwall to stay with friends, and also amidst a chaotic work schedule jet off for a week to Madeira.

There are things in life that I dream of doing, some of those dreams may even come true, but some of them I’m resigned to the fact that they are just that ‘dreams’. But every once in a while, something magical happens and one of those dreams has the chance to become reality!

So when an email from the fabulous people at John Lewis and Kenwood landed in my inbox inviting me to the launch of the new Kenwood Chef Sense at Le Manoir, I couldn’t keep my phone still in my shaking hands long enough to read it properly. A few shakes later, I’d managed to take note of the date and time and speed walk across the office to make sure I could book the time off work.

Last year I’d packed myself off for a birthday treat and joined some fantastic people at The Raymond Blanc Cookery school for the day-long Patisserie course. I fell in love with the hotel, the people, the food, the atmosphere… well everything; and I’d been dreaming of going back ever since. So off I set to join a small and select group of lovely ladies; Penny, Caroline, Tara and Becky!