Easy Pancake Recipe for One or Two [Ad]: I love pancakes, so whether or not it happens to be Shrove Tuesday, it doesn’t take much to get me battering up and making pancakes just for myself. So, when Aldi approached me to work with them and explain how to make pancakes from scratch, I […]
Boutique Hotels Palma de Mallorca – Brondo Architect Hotel
Brondo Architect, a Quirky Boutique Hotel, Palma de Mallorca: Press Trip Wandering the streets of Palma de Mallorca with a guide, we stopped to look at a pair of buildings, Can Casasayas and Pensión Menorquina. My naive comment, that they looked like Gaudi provoked the response that the architect was, of course, heavily influenced by […]
The Real Flower Company – Flowers for Mother’s Day
Real Flowers for Mother’s Day (Gifted). Do you know what I mean by ‘Real Flowers’…? Growing up in a rambling Victorian house in Norfolk with orchard, vegetable garden and rose beds, I never really thought too much about the flowers which filled our house. My mother picked from the garden, telling me that her own […]
Four English Cathedrals and a Minster
England’s Finest Cathedral Cities: There’s nothing like a visit to one of the great Cathedrals of England make me question my own spirituality. On hilltops or on plains – towering spires that reach up into the sky. Intricate stonework, jewelled windows and imposing ceilings. These are buildings surely created by some God or higher force. […]
The Corn Stores Reading
The Corn Stores – Bar, Restaurant and Members Club in the Heart of Reading: It’s unusual for my colleague not to know a Reading venue. I have a sneaking suspicion he’s lived there all his life – and knows every bar and restaurant like the back of his hand. The Corn Stores, right by Reading […]
Win Baileys Chocolates for Mother’s Day
What All Mothers Want – Baileys Chocolates! When my own mother was around, she’d protest a lot about Mother’s day, claiming that what she’d really like was a Victorian style posy of spring flowers. The sort I used to make in Sunday School for her. Or a homemade card. She was, however, rather good at arts […]
The Welcombe Hotel – Review
Hallmark Welcombe Hotel and Spa – Stratford upon Avon: The stunning Welcombe Hotel is a former country mansion house near Stratford upon Avon, built in a grand Neo-Jacobean style for Manchester businessman Mark Philips who commissioned the building from designed by architect Henry Clutton. Completed in 1869, Philips died just four years later, leaving the estate […]
Casa do Frango – A Chicken House in Borough
Southern Portuguese Food at Casa do Frango Round the corner from Borough Market, you do need to look quite hard to find the entrance to Casa do Frango. Upstairs in the same building that houses ‘Native’ (somewhere I really DO need to try soon), it’s a large, warehouse-style affair that somehow manages to combine a vast […]
Boringdon Hall Hotel and Spa – a Plymouth Sanctuary
Boringdon Hall Hotel Review It must have been Karma. Just as I was putting the final details to my recent trip to Plymouth exploring the Mayflower heritage, an email hit my desk about Boringdon Hall Hotel. What could be better than balancing a trip to the centre of historic Plymouth with one to a historic […]
The 2019 BAFTA Awards – Preview
A Taste of BAFTA – Preview of the Awards Ceremony: We’ve all heard of BAFTA, but I suspect most people, like me, have little understanding of everything that BAFTA does. Of course, there are various annual awards. Next Sunday, 10th February is the main award ceremony – the EE British Academy Film Awards. Hosted by Joanna […]