Bracklesham Bay’s shingle beach
… and here are a few of my favourite things:
our house in the middle of our beach
picking our own
the boats in Bosham harbour
surfs up in West Wittering
- toasting marshmallows
HayMax: no prescription required
Smaller verion of Him seems to have a few of His hayfever symptoms. This summer, for the first time, Small has itchy eyes and a steady stream of sneezes. Not adverse to remedies and medicine, I initially reached for His antihistamines. But Small didn’t qualify due to his weight, and anyway, to be honest, the symptoms didn’t seem irritating enough to warrant any side effects such as drowsiness.
HayMax pots
Then I read about HayMax. A brain wave of Max Wiseberg, a lifetime hayfever sufferer, HayMax is a completely natural balm which needs to be applied to the bottom of your nose. It acts as an effective pollen trap preventing much of the sneezable pollen from even entering it.
Since Wiseberg launched his organic pots of balm, the product has won prestigious awards as well as being snapped up by the big supermarkets and chemists. While it isn’t a perfect cure (it is natural after all), it does definitely seem to help Small and his sneezes.
HayMax – A single pot (looks like a lip balm pot) costs £6.99
teacher’s favourite @divertimenti
There are quite a few cooking courses out there for those looking to either learn some basic skills or for those who feel a huge need to be knock out in the kitchen. The boy-who-is-a-friend in my life (as opposed to conventional boyfriend) is as passionate about cooking as he is about eating great food. Hitting the big 4-0 and already possessing enough kitchen gadgets to make Nigella’s kitchen look as bare as mother hubbard’s cupboard, I have been searching for an inspiring culinary experience for the birthday boy. He can be a little snobby about ingredients so I quickly realised that there was no choice; it was to be Divertimenti’s Cooking School or nothing.
Guo Yue – the master chef and flautist
We had to be at the Brompton Road branch of the superior kitchen shop by 630pm. Downstairs is a fully functional kitchen with at least 8 work stations. Guo Yue was our teacher for the evening and, entitled The Real Sichuan, we were in for a real treat. And, surprisingly, the treat was not solely edible. Discovered by Peter Gabriel, Guo is a musician and chef in equal measure. Growing up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution, this talented and wonderfully eccentric guru is recognized as both an outstanding soloist on the Chinese bamboo flute as well as a true master of Chinese cooking.
He explained how the art of making Jiaozi dumplings demonstrates the love and friendship you feel for your guests. I’d like to pretend that my dumplings (filled with pork, tiger prawns, bamboo, dried mushrooms and Chinese chives with chilli oil) were as good as Birthday Boy’s version but it was hard to even come close. Within minutes, Guo had recognised his talent and he was officially nominated as Teacher’s Favourite.
making noodles
Once Guo had shown us just how curiously easy it is to cook his delicious Sichan Chicken (with red pepper, cucumber, toasted nuts and chilli) and taught us how to make our own hand-made noodles (with beef, red pepper, courgette and sesame seeds), it was time to break open the wine and toast the birthday, our fellow cooking students and our new found skills. And finally it was time for Guo to play his flute as the food sizzled in front of him, before we sat at the communal table to feast on our labours.
I was a guest of Divertimenti Cookery School 227-229 Brompton Road, SW3 020 7581 8065
Filed under fabulous finds, food
Good old-fashioned imagination
imagination on the beach
Watching the Smalls play with the other smalls on the beach I am realizing just how important this unrestricted play is. One moment they are in a make-believe world of fairies and cowboys and the next they are playing the age-old favourite ‘mummies and daddies’ (the irony of that ‘game’!)… Their imagination transports them to a truly relaxing world where there are no rules nor instructions.
As a G&T type of gal, I noticed that Bombay Sapphire also see the true value of imagination. Together with Tribeca Film Festival, the iconic gin brand is offering budding filmmakers the chance to make their own imaginative short film. What’s the connection I hear you cry? Well, the marketeers behind Bombay Sapphire strongly believe everyone has an imagination and their recent survey showed that we (flicks aficionados) are hankering after more original screenplays at our local cinema, instead of the endless stream of big film franchises. I’d definitely agree.
So, if you want to part of the global imagination revolution, check out www.imaginationseries.com where you’ll find Oscar-winning screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher’s specially commissioned script. Through words and/or images, you can have a stab at interpreting the script. Winners will be chosen to go on to direct their own short film which will be launched at exclusive international screenings in early 2013. (The competition closes on 1st August – so don’t deliberate for long.)
Limited Edition Bombay Sapphire
COMPETITION: And back to the gin. Bombay Sapphire are so keen to inspire you all that they have given me 5 of their ‘This is London’ Limited Edition Gift box worth £19.99 each. If you need one of these boxes to get your creative juices following, email emmaparlons@googlemail.com with your name and address before 23rd July 2012.
follow @yablon to find out the winners of this competition…
