Food 2016 – Morse Bar/Ashmolean Dining Room, Oxford

Saturday, 15th October 2016 – The Morse Bar/The Ashmolean Dining Room, Oxford A trip to Oxford was always on the cards this Autumn after the Ashmolean Museum announced that they were exhibiting four Rembrandt paintings (his earliest known works) so we knew we needed to see those. It helps that the Ashmolean, since it was…

Food 2016 – The Crooked Billet, Newton Longville

Saturday, 20th August 2016 – The Crooked Billet, Newton Longville, Milton Keynes We’d eaten at The Crooked Billet before (for a Burns Night Supper when there’d been a set menu) and had been meaning for some time to come back on a “normal” night, so a flying visit from a friend to collect a barbeque…

Food 2016 – The Braai Shack, Wolverton

Friday, 26th August, 2016 – The Braai Shack, Wolverton Just to prove it’s not all fine dining, Michelin Stars and Gault-Millau around these parts, last weekend we took a trip to the Braai Shack, a South African restaurant in one half of a pub in one of the shabbier bits of Milton Keynes, Wolverton. With…

Food 2016 – The Gilbert Scott, London

Saturday, August 6th, 2016 – The Gilbert Scott, The St. Pancras Hotel, London We like a post-theatre meal and with a visit to the Almeida Theatre in the afternoon, this was the perfect opportunity to try out the Gilbert Scott restaurant, especially as I had an offer for the three course set menu plus a…

Food 2016 – The Helsinki Cocktail

Here’s the recipe! I highly recommend it though I haven’t personally attempted to make it myself yet. Helsinki Cocktail 2016 30 ml Greenall’s Bloom Gin 10 ml Bols Parfait Amour 30 ml lemon juice 15 ml sugar syrup 20 ml egg white 4 basil leaves Method: shake Glass: jam jar (on the rocks) Garnish: basil…

Travel 2016 – Home, Day 20

Day 20 – Saturday 23rd July (Aalst, Home) Moose count = lots of pictures of them! We left Aalst after yet another very good hotel breakfast and scooted straight to the nearest branch of Delhaize, my favourite Belgian supermarket chain. While Lynne stayed with the car, I hit the wine department, stocking up for the…

Travel 2016 – Haikko, Helsinki, Travemünde, Lübeck, Days 17-18

Day 18 – Thursday 21st July (Haikko, Helsinki, Travemünde, Lübeck) Moose count = Nope. Nada. Zilch. What moose? There are no moose! Finland has no moose! Finland needs no moose! With the ferry scheduled for 15:00 latest check in there wasn’t a great deal of time to achieve anything much. We “scientifically” packed the car,…

Travel 2016 – Imatra, Hameenlinna, Akaa, Haikko, Day 15

Day 15 – Tuesday 19th July (Imatra, Hameenlinna, Akaa, Haikko) Moose count = what do you think? Zero! That’s how many! We were back in the realm of the slightly surreal again this time, but first we needed to check out of the hotel after getting our own breakfast sorted. For the third time I Iet…

Travel 2016 – Lappeenranta, Day 14

Day 14 – Monday 18th July (Lappeenranta) Moose count = still not a one! We got up in a spirit of adventure ready to see if the hotel breakfasts were any better than their dreadful dinners. They weren’t. With an hour still to run most things had run out (there was no fruit left apart…