Secrets

Oh Gosh... I'm really late with this one. I suspect that it is because I have fully returned to the regular grind. Here is a question for those of you who have not been involved in the school system for quite some time; does September still feel like the start of a new year to you? Why is it that September feels like the start of something... not nine months in and you should be feeling sick of it? You are fresh off of your summer holidays and you start new back at work again. Or, start back to school. Or, start your harvest for the rest of the winter/ year. Yes, January is the 'start of the year', or that Spring is the start of nature's life cycle, but to me, my life cycle seems to start in the Autumn.

Autumn is progressing lovely here. All the colours that we have at home are in full array, except with green grass! The foliage is a welcome break to the eye with the grey backdrop of the sky. It hasn't been particularly rainy, but it also hasn't been very sunny. The days are most certainly getting shorter and I am once again dressing in the dark in the mornings and typing in the dark on my way home on the train.

So why have I been so busy the past six weeks?  I had a tour of the chocolate factory in September, which was fabulous! Not as wondrous as Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, but I seemed to get giddy watching the pumping and squeezing of viscous chocolate from the gadgets and the bits and bobs move around the production line and into their packages. I saw the production of Creme Eggs, Dairy Milk, Fudge, strawberry filled Roses, and Wispa (sort of like Aero but WAY better). And dare I say for fear of a gigantic letter falling on my head, I now know THE SECRET! What secret, you ask. I know the secret of how they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSukfRtCOU

Feeling a bit nostalgic (not homesick, let me make this clear) this month, I decided to spice up life a bit... with some pumpkin pie. Not a bit thing over here and I knew the only way to have my fix was to make it myself... from scratch because canned pumpkin is just not something that is done over here. For any of you wishing to do this yourself, I now know that one 10 inch pumpkin makes about three pies, one loaf, one 8-inch cake, and ten UK sized tartlets and I still have one more pumpkin to use. Key learnings from this exercise were:
1)Have your mom send you tinned pumpkin
2)Have your mom send your her pumpkin pie recipe because yours will never match, and when it still doesn't match...
3) Just send your mom over at Thanksgiving the next year.

But seriously, preparing the pumpkin wasn't too difficult, except for that I didn't realise how difficult it was to cut a pumpkin because I think that is usually dad's job (next time I will import my dad ahead of time to cut my pumpkins for me). I halved my pumpkin, placed the halves in a baking dish face down in water, and baked for about an hour. The pumpkin meat (??) was perfect and the skin peeled off nicely. I then let it cool, chopped it up and blitzed it ready for baking. Of all of my goodies, my loaf/ cake turned out best and would have been perfect with a pumpkin spice latte. Again, not a popular thing here so I give you full permission to double your pumpkin spice latte intake to account for my quota and please throw some pumpkin scones in there for good measure. In the end my pies just didn't measure up to my expectations and I really blame the pre-made pie shells, but I have some more ideas for my next pumpkin and will give it a go next weekend!

Other than experimenting with pumpkin in the kitchen, I have filled most of my weekends socialising; birthdays, pre-wedding, and wedding parties and it appears that my social calendar is booked nearly until 2011. I'd like to say happy birthday to my friend Kirsten who had a fab birthday at a 70's themed night club with all of the girls and congrats to the new Mr Dean and Mrs Faye Healy! Again, the girls had a great month and a half run-up to the wedding with her two hen nights (cider festival and a night out in our LBDs) and their wedding was wonderful- ultra glam!

Halloween this weekend and Tracy is coming down to Reading to come to my staff Halloween party while the boy are going to a stag-do weekend in Dorset (zorbing and cliff diving-eek!). Equally as fun, and potentially as scary, Tracy and I are going to London on the Saturday to let loose... pictures to follow in next month's report and I'll fill you in on how the Brits do Halloween.

All the best and Happy Halloween!

Time Warp

What a great end to the summer! We went on a camping holiday, albeit I was very nervous about it not being very holiday-like because of the limited access to facilities, in Dorset which was packed with exploring and other activities in generally sunny weather! We spent each day in a little town along the coast and the entire six days went something like this:

Day 1 in Burton Bradstock: A sleepy little country village where we camped at a site exclusively for Caravan and Camping Club members and about a 5 minute walk to the beach. This area of the coast has small pebbles but a gorgeous sandstone cliff face. Day 1 was spent setting up camp and a spot of unsuccessful sea fishing, but many giggles as Tracy and I watched the kids try to jump across the sea eddy.

Day 2: Charmouth Beach; Fossil Hunting: Much of the Dorset coastline is a part of the Jurassic coast and at this spot they encourage you to hunt for fossils. Some were lucky and found 150 million year old fossils within minutes where it took some others, including myself, a little while to get lucky. After we got the hang of it, we realised it wasn't that lucky because the number of fossils was amazing once you knew what to look for. Most of the fossils were shells, ammonites (swirly things) and belemnites (squid bones that look like a tooth of some sort) and weren't very big at all; nonetheless, it made for an enjoyable morning.

Later that day we went to Weymouth for a spot of mackerel fishing off of the pier. Weymouth is more of a city (has a mall), but still has a colourful and preserved seaside harbour with pubs, restaurants, and small shops along the way. Fishing this time was very successful with a total of 15 mackerel and 1 Pollock caught. I didn't really bother with the fishing, but I did put my fish gutting/ filleting skills from my odour research last year to use by prepping the fish on the beach side in a race against the sun setting... the sun did win in the end and it was evident by the crassness of my fillets seen the next day.Day 3 was spent near to camp where we visited Bridport for a vintage street market (new 50's dress included), West Bay for a spot of fish and chips, and had a game of Pitch and Putt in the afternoon. Oh yeas, and I made fish cakes for the first time with our catch from the day previous (kitchen not included).

Day 4 we travelled to Wareham to see our friends Matt and Nicky at their new house! The town of Wareham (and practically in their front garden) is surrounded by an Anglo-Saxon dirt wall (essentially a hill with history). They took us to some of their favourite spots in the area: Dancing Ledge, a rocky cliff side with access to the beach and beautiful country and coastal views; and Corfe. Time-warp yourself back to a dreamy little medieval stone village with a castle on the top of the hill and you have Corfe- entirely picturesque. And what better to do in a medieval stone castle than watch a film in an open-air cinema... sitting under the stars on a perfectly clear night in the castle foreground watching Rocky Horror Picture Show. Mwah haa haa! Bet you didn't guess it was going to be that!

Day 5 was again filled with stunning country and coastal views in the areas of Lullworth and Durdle Door. We parked somewhere in between the two places, walked to Lullworth, had a look around the cove, and took the coastal path hike to Durdle Door. Blessed with great weather for the majority of the vacation, it was definitely time to go swimming in the sea.

Day 6 we packed up camp and took a drive into Lyme Regis on the way home. I must admit that for all the boasting that was done about Lyme Regis prior to my vacation, I was disappointed. I saw just as many picturesque places in the previous days and didn;t feel that it added any value (nor did it take away) to the end of my time in Dorset.

Onwards ho! Drove back home and had two days off of work basically to get myself ready of another few days of camping because it was time for the Broome Farm Cider Festival! Woooo!!! A perfect end to my summer vacation. This time it was just the girls as a total of five of us went for one of four of Faye's hen-weekends (donning neon tutus and legwarmers, as you do on a hen-weekend). We visited Broome Farm earlier this year as a part of a previous camping trip and Tracy and the gang had gone to the cider festival the year previous... so again, there was much enthusiasm building to the start of the event. From the moment we arrived, there was a buzz in the atmosphere and Tracy and Faye were recognised. Friday night there was a local Ceilidh band; this type of band plays folk-type music with traditional dances that they teach to the crowd (think Titanic). Saturday was spent recovering/sampling the local ciders from other growers/producers in the area with live music throughout the day and an extra special band (the Zang Tang) on the night. I highly, highly recommend the Zang Tang who are self described as Funk/Soul/Acid Jazz/House. Check them out! And apart from much dancing and giggling, the weekend was spent chatting amongst ourselves and with some really incredibly intriguing and genuine people. Absolutely cannot wait to go back again next year with the girls!

So with that comes the end of the summer; shorts and sandals packed up until next year, and back to the reality of mundane real-life.