Travel 2006 – Oxford, UK

Saturday, 4th March 2006 – Oxford College reunions can be dangerous! Where do I start? Good question. There wasn’t anything to suggest the weekend was going to get badly derailed, at least not to begin with. I treated myself to a gym session early on Saturday, knowing we’d be eating lunch and dinner in Oxford,…

Food 2005 – The Vine House, Paulerspury, Northamptonshire

Dinner last night was very fine indeed as we finally made a trip to the Vine House.Even though we were the only people in the restaurant… it made us feel a little guilty, because without us they could have packed up early! Anyway, we started with Kir Royales, because the lovely Julie Springett, who is…

Travel/Food 2005 – Macau

Saturday, 12th/Tuesday 22nd November 2005 – Macau We wasted a lot of the day at the airport, but it was worth checking in early to get the extra legroom seats on the plane. Virgin now sell these seats, at £50 extra each. They were, however, doing a promotion of buy one get one free, so…

Travel 2005 – Germany

Saturday, 29th October/Sunday, 30th October 2005 – Essen, Germany Friday was the usual routine once we made it to the airport – we headed straight to the seafood place for a meal, then walked to the gate just in time for our flight to Düsseldorf. At the other end it was a quick drive to…

Travel 2005 – Valencia, Spain

Friday, 21st October/Saturday, 22nd October 2005 – Valencia Friday got off to a bad start with torrential rain all over Southern England, and us needing to get to Gatwick Airport to fly out to Spain. The 2005 Girls’ Weekend Away was scheduled to start as soon as we got to the airport. Lynne, Steffy and…

Travel 2005 – Silverstone

3rd June 2005 – Silverstone Tests It’s been a busy few days, is all I can say. Lynne stayed up in Silverstone till Wednesday, mostly building bookshelves, but we also went out to the Rice Bowl in Towcester for dinner on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Gina called round on her way back from Oxford, and…

Travel 2005 – Spa-Francorchamps, Jezus-Eik, Brussels, Belgium

April/May 2005 – Spa-Francorchamps, Jezus-Eik, Brussels Something of a wasted weekend, frankly. As soon as the 2005 calendar was announced, and it became obvious we’d be racing on a number of foreign tracks, I’d been asking anyone who’d listen why it was that we were going to Monza in July when the Italian summer weather…

Food 2005 – Recipes (Lasagne with Turkey (or Veal))

Monday 25th April 2005 – Recipe for Lasagne with Turkey (or Veal) While I was looking for restaurants in Brussels, I found this. It amuses me, especially the bit about “posing” the escalopes… and for that matter beautiful tomatoes! I have left the English exactly as I found it, so all mistakes are theirs not…

Travel 2005 – Combloux, Megeve, Bettex, Rochebrune, France

Friday, 26th February – Sunday, 6th March 2005 – Combloux and Megeve We were catching a ridiculously early ferry from Dover – 5.00 or something ghastly – which meant we should be in Combloux by mid-afternoon all being well. It also meant we were staying in a hotel near Dover overnight on Friday, because I…

Travel 2005 – Portishead, Curry Rivel, Kingsbury Episcopi, Montacute

February 2005 – Portishead, Curry Rivel, Kingston Episcopi, Montacute The weekend was excellent, relaxing and interesting too. I picked Lynne up from the station after work and we set off for her parents’ place in Portishead (down near Bristol). Despite horrible traffic bulletins, and the fact that it’s always busy on a Friday night heading…