Theatre 2016 – Richard III, the Almeida, London

Saturday, August 6th 2016 – Richard III, Almeida Theatre, London One of the things we promised ourselves now we’re not spending every spare moment on motor racing was that we would do more in the way of music and theatre with the time we gained back. And so, early this year, we started looking to…

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 – Impressions of Finland

What do I now think of when I think about Finland? What do I most associate with the country after my very first visit? Well the first thing that springs to mind is that Aki Kaurismaki really wasn’t making it up; the Finns really are obsessed with coffee drinking. They do after all have the…

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 – Lübeck, Aalst, Day 19

Day 19 – Saturday 23rd July (Lübeck, Aalst) Moose count = in Germany? What do you think? So technically not Finland anymore but it was part of the trip so it gets the heading anyway… This was the day I seriously questioned the sanity of driving all the way from the top of Germany to…

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 – Porvoo, Day 16

Day 16 – Wednesday, 20th July (Porvoo) Moose count = Are you trying to be funny?! The day began with breakfast on the terrace at Haikko Manor itself in the Romanov Dining Room – and very good it was too with all sorts of choice and lots of lactose and gluten free options, so much…

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…