Somebody has finally chosen to fight back. August Bank Holiday (tomorrow) is usually the date the starting pistol is fired for Christmas.
One year it was a hot September day and wearing shorts and a t-shirt I wandered into BHS (in Churchill Square, Brighton) and the whole of the front section was given over to gifts, cards, decorations etc PLUS Paul McCartney singing 'Simply - Having - a - Wonderful - Christmas-time'. When I mentioned it to the staff they had already desensitized themselves to it. I genuinely avoided the store until week 2 of December!
In Leeds someone has threatened to superglue shop locks if they put out the Christmas cards before November and I can appreciate their sentiment if not their means.
There are some reasons for bringing the word out early. Saving for Christmas for example - putting a little aside each week to spread the cost over the year. Most supermarkets have such a scheme and some offer rewards. How times have changed! As a child in the 1960s and 70s my mother used to collect stamps in her 'Christmas Club'. Then the 1980's onwards saw the borrowing boom and it was OK to put Christmas on the cards and pay it all back later. Wasn't this the case until a year ago but what's the betting people are saving again or planning a more frugal festive season? No harm there!
Even at the Avalon, Brighton, I have to bring the word up soon. We need to decide when to open, what days to string together as a mini-break, what to offer as extra to make a good value holiday etc.
Rest assured however the reindeer won't go up until the very last minute. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking it was only a short while ago that I was putting all the stuff away in the loft!
When did all this early Christmas stuff start? Again I don't remember as a child hearing much about it until mid-November when we started preparing for the school carol service. Even when I was in St John's choir, Woking, we didn't start rehearsals until November. The festive season used to last about a month - not four.
We all realise when watching Christmas Specials on TV as the season genuinely gets underway that recording took place in the late summer or early autumn. All that fake snow, jumpers and sitting round a log fire took place as we baked outside (well, theoretically as baking weather seems to have deserted us of late). Perhaps it spread out of one of those recording studios. The audience left in festive spirit and gave an impromptu August carol singing concert somewhere near Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush and like Swine Flu it spread across the nation.
Seasons Greetings to you all, this August Bank Holiday - and get that Paul McCartney song out of your head right now!
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Paella
Now there are only so many times you can have a succession of suppers (dinners if you're posh) of spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, chilli-con-carne, burgers, fish pie, steaks, chops or chicken.
Sharing a household with somebody with Asperger's Syndrome (a newsworthy topic at the moment) means that we have to take turns at choosing the meal for a particular night. There are three of us, and at the beginning of each new year our inititals are carefully put in the diary for each day and that's that - the nights are set and (without banana republic scale bribery) we must stick to our turns. If my birthday falls on George's turn and I choose to eat out I must miss my next turn because he missed his, regardless of whether we - including him - eat at Rules in Covent Garden for £300.00!
So I try to vary what we eat from time-to-time and come up with exciting stuff. Sometimes to great effect, sometimes disaster. I've already mentioned Delia's 'How to Cheat at Cooking' book and have tried something from that. Well, the result was good, but the cost! I suppose you pay more to cheat but Braised Steak with wild mushroom and Madeira Sauce? We may as well have flown to Madeira for the experience.
In between were spaghetti bolognese and chicken so my next effort was Paella. Have you ever tried making this? For a start the shopping list easily fills an A4 sheet, possibly more, and that's with about 6 or 7 items already present in the spice rack and storecupboard. Not saffron sadly - highly expensive and I'm not convinced it adds much to the overall taste when you put in a 'pinch' - itself adding another £1 to your meal. George nearly took the jar to Customer Services to complain someone had already taken the saffron out but no, if you look closely, there's a smattering in there in orange cellophane. Raw prawns, squid, clams (there were millions on the beach last week where those rock pools were but I'm not sure I fancy anything from the sea here), chorizo, chicken thighs, dry white wine, hot chicken stock, fresh parsley, thyme and so on...
I started 'preparation' as Mr Worrall Thompson euphamistically puts it - 1 hour he says. Maybe, with a team of eager apprentice chefs keen not to be shouted at. About a week is what it felt like. I put together spoonfulls of this, pinches of that etc but after an age barely seemed a quarter of the way down the list.
I tried one of Delia's 'cheat' devices - the Mini-Chopper - instead of chopping a large onion and a red pepper by hand. After searching the kitchen for whatever valued space I'd stored it, checking it thoroughly to make sure it had gone away clean the last time, clearing an area to use it near a socket, actually peeling and quartering the onion and de-seeding the pepper by hand, using it and watching it dice the onion apart from two wedges that seemed untouched but once they too were chopped the whole thing was a puree - likewise with the red pepper which it treated in the manner of a juicer - dismantling and washing it, drying it and boxing it up and packing it back in the cupboard I could have done the chopping by hand and gone for a couple of pints in the process. Breadcrumbs, that's all it's fit for.
Eventually the last ingredients were prepared - not cooked - but ready to start and I went to join Tom and George in the pub much later than planned. We got back an hour later and, yes, Anthony was right it took about 30 minutes to cook. The 'one pan' meal used a couple of others for the prawns and squid and apart from welding a couple of tablespoons of rice to my proud new stainless steel heavy-based deep frying pan the whole thing was delicious. I should have taken a mouth-watering photo (is there such a thing as a mouth-watering photo?).
While maybe not regressing to Vesta's packet Paella (a real treat in 1971 Woking and I wonder how much saffron it has in it?) I think I'll have to come up with something of a cheat's version since Delia missed this one out of her book. One that recognises we have both limited lives and pockets. Or maybe I should just accept that we do not live in Spain where all this stuff is readily available and stick to what I know.
Tonight it's my turn to choose again and we're having chilli-con-carne with hand-chopped onions, chillies and garlic. Less than a fiver too and with some giga-hot chilli flakes from 'Chilli Pepper Pete' in Brighton Marina that knock your socks off...
Hasta la Vista, Amigos
Sharing a household with somebody with Asperger's Syndrome (a newsworthy topic at the moment) means that we have to take turns at choosing the meal for a particular night. There are three of us, and at the beginning of each new year our inititals are carefully put in the diary for each day and that's that - the nights are set and (without banana republic scale bribery) we must stick to our turns. If my birthday falls on George's turn and I choose to eat out I must miss my next turn because he missed his, regardless of whether we - including him - eat at Rules in Covent Garden for £300.00!
So I try to vary what we eat from time-to-time and come up with exciting stuff. Sometimes to great effect, sometimes disaster. I've already mentioned Delia's 'How to Cheat at Cooking' book and have tried something from that. Well, the result was good, but the cost! I suppose you pay more to cheat but Braised Steak with wild mushroom and Madeira Sauce? We may as well have flown to Madeira for the experience.
In between were spaghetti bolognese and chicken so my next effort was Paella. Have you ever tried making this? For a start the shopping list easily fills an A4 sheet, possibly more, and that's with about 6 or 7 items already present in the spice rack and storecupboard. Not saffron sadly - highly expensive and I'm not convinced it adds much to the overall taste when you put in a 'pinch' - itself adding another £1 to your meal. George nearly took the jar to Customer Services to complain someone had already taken the saffron out but no, if you look closely, there's a smattering in there in orange cellophane. Raw prawns, squid, clams (there were millions on the beach last week where those rock pools were but I'm not sure I fancy anything from the sea here), chorizo, chicken thighs, dry white wine, hot chicken stock, fresh parsley, thyme and so on...
I started 'preparation' as Mr Worrall Thompson euphamistically puts it - 1 hour he says. Maybe, with a team of eager apprentice chefs keen not to be shouted at. About a week is what it felt like. I put together spoonfulls of this, pinches of that etc but after an age barely seemed a quarter of the way down the list.
I tried one of Delia's 'cheat' devices - the Mini-Chopper - instead of chopping a large onion and a red pepper by hand. After searching the kitchen for whatever valued space I'd stored it, checking it thoroughly to make sure it had gone away clean the last time, clearing an area to use it near a socket, actually peeling and quartering the onion and de-seeding the pepper by hand, using it and watching it dice the onion apart from two wedges that seemed untouched but once they too were chopped the whole thing was a puree - likewise with the red pepper which it treated in the manner of a juicer - dismantling and washing it, drying it and boxing it up and packing it back in the cupboard I could have done the chopping by hand and gone for a couple of pints in the process. Breadcrumbs, that's all it's fit for.
Eventually the last ingredients were prepared - not cooked - but ready to start and I went to join Tom and George in the pub much later than planned. We got back an hour later and, yes, Anthony was right it took about 30 minutes to cook. The 'one pan' meal used a couple of others for the prawns and squid and apart from welding a couple of tablespoons of rice to my proud new stainless steel heavy-based deep frying pan the whole thing was delicious. I should have taken a mouth-watering photo (is there such a thing as a mouth-watering photo?).
While maybe not regressing to Vesta's packet Paella (a real treat in 1971 Woking and I wonder how much saffron it has in it?) I think I'll have to come up with something of a cheat's version since Delia missed this one out of her book. One that recognises we have both limited lives and pockets. Or maybe I should just accept that we do not live in Spain where all this stuff is readily available and stick to what I know.
Tonight it's my turn to choose again and we're having chilli-con-carne with hand-chopped onions, chillies and garlic. Less than a fiver too and with some giga-hot chilli flakes from 'Chilli Pepper Pete' in Brighton Marina that knock your socks off...
Hasta la Vista, Amigos
Sunday, 23 August 2009
What Ferne Arfin REALLY does...
... is not write stuff for the New York Times. Not yet anyway but give it time who knows?
Ferne writes for http://www.about.com/: United Kingdom Travel . She corrected me on Facebook which it seems gets ever more popular. I now have 19 friends which is, of course, untrue.
So my bit of name dropping failed on that occasion. However I cannot resist regaling you with some of the famous people who have stayed at the Avalon, Brighton (if I have ever put this information in a previous post please forgive me but you will soon realise if you are out for a beer with me that if I have an amusing anecdote or snippet of information, telling it once is rarely an option).
We had the sister of the man who used to be the voice of Bungle on Rainbow. We had the understudy (and I think subsequent lead) for Michael Banks in the West End production of Mary Poppins. We've had a viola player from a Netherlands symphony orchestra.
I am really sorry if you have stayed with us and I have forgotten to mention you. Please remind me if I have missed you off our illustrious Hall of Fame.
In the 1960's - and I was not here then - allegedly Dusty Springfield used to come back to the Argyll Bar and stay 'til dawn, her famous beehive often precariously askew as she ducked under the front bay while tottering up the basement steps. The Argyll is what the Avalon was called. One previous owner fell in love with Bryan Ferry - from a distance you understand - and renamed the place after his hit song. We could have been the 'Let's Stick Together Guest Accommodation'.
England have just won the Ashes seconds ago...
Ferne writes for http://www.about.com/: United Kingdom Travel . She corrected me on Facebook which it seems gets ever more popular. I now have 19 friends which is, of course, untrue.
So my bit of name dropping failed on that occasion. However I cannot resist regaling you with some of the famous people who have stayed at the Avalon, Brighton (if I have ever put this information in a previous post please forgive me but you will soon realise if you are out for a beer with me that if I have an amusing anecdote or snippet of information, telling it once is rarely an option).
We had the sister of the man who used to be the voice of Bungle on Rainbow. We had the understudy (and I think subsequent lead) for Michael Banks in the West End production of Mary Poppins. We've had a viola player from a Netherlands symphony orchestra.
I am really sorry if you have stayed with us and I have forgotten to mention you. Please remind me if I have missed you off our illustrious Hall of Fame.
In the 1960's - and I was not here then - allegedly Dusty Springfield used to come back to the Argyll Bar and stay 'til dawn, her famous beehive often precariously askew as she ducked under the front bay while tottering up the basement steps. The Argyll is what the Avalon was called. One previous owner fell in love with Bryan Ferry - from a distance you understand - and renamed the place after his hit song. We could have been the 'Let's Stick Together Guest Accommodation'.
England have just won the Ashes seconds ago...
Saturday, 22 August 2009
We were in the Sunday Times
Wouldn't it be nice if they told us! There I was taking a booking from the man with a vintage Bentley (picture to follow at Christmas because we'll use it on our advert then assuming Windows doesn't crash and take my whole virtual world with it) and he told us he'd read all about us in the July 2009 Travel Supplement.
Today we received the said page in the post as promised. Susan d'Arcy (Resident luxury travel expert) had kindly mentioned us for a 'romantic weekend away with pooch' place to stay. Sorry I'll rephrase that in case of misunderstanding - that's a romantic weekend away but you can also bring your pooch.
I've never really thought of this place as romantic although when you are deeply in love even a 1970s caravan in a layby on the A3 would suffice. The romance in Brighton is the whole experience - sunset over the sea, a nice meal in the Lanes, a stroll along the pier, clubbing til 4 in the morning then back to the B&B ears ringing for several hours. OK scrub that last one.
I reckon a dog could possibly put the dampener on a romantic weekend away. Suppose Fido doesn't like your partner? Suppose Fido insists on climbing on the bed and taking the middle space keeping you apart? And refuses to move. The whole thing could get tricky.
Talking of travel writers I've kept in touch with Ferne Arfin who writes articles for GoUK (she's done stuff for the New York Times - that's me name dropping AGAIN!). She came to stay last year with Wallace - a little human disguised as a West Highland White Terrier - and wrote an article on Brighton. We were 'shabby chic' which, I have since read, is quite the thing in the States these days. She should go to Gordon's Wine Bar on Villiers Street by Charing Cross Station in London where it could be described as incredibly shabby, incredibly chic.
Ferne blogs her way around the world - she must spend many hours tapping away on keyboards - and is on http://gouk.about.com/b/ . Her articles are well written and thoughtful - you get a true traveller's perspective.
Today we received the said page in the post as promised. Susan d'Arcy (Resident luxury travel expert) had kindly mentioned us for a 'romantic weekend away with pooch' place to stay. Sorry I'll rephrase that in case of misunderstanding - that's a romantic weekend away but you can also bring your pooch.
I've never really thought of this place as romantic although when you are deeply in love even a 1970s caravan in a layby on the A3 would suffice. The romance in Brighton is the whole experience - sunset over the sea, a nice meal in the Lanes, a stroll along the pier, clubbing til 4 in the morning then back to the B&B ears ringing for several hours. OK scrub that last one.
I reckon a dog could possibly put the dampener on a romantic weekend away. Suppose Fido doesn't like your partner? Suppose Fido insists on climbing on the bed and taking the middle space keeping you apart? And refuses to move. The whole thing could get tricky.
Talking of travel writers I've kept in touch with Ferne Arfin who writes articles for GoUK (she's done stuff for the New York Times - that's me name dropping AGAIN!). She came to stay last year with Wallace - a little human disguised as a West Highland White Terrier - and wrote an article on Brighton. We were 'shabby chic' which, I have since read, is quite the thing in the States these days. She should go to Gordon's Wine Bar on Villiers Street by Charing Cross Station in London where it could be described as incredibly shabby, incredibly chic.
Ferne blogs her way around the world - she must spend many hours tapping away on keyboards - and is on http://gouk.about.com/b/ . Her articles are well written and thoughtful - you get a true traveller's perspective.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
A little bit of the Kings Arms
This picture used to adorn a corner of the Kings Arms in George Street, Kemp Town, until a few months ago.
When Colin and Julie left after nearly 20 years the pub underwent a total refurbishment and is now a tasteful mix of beige and dark wood and soft lighting. Along with a tasteful mix of customers I hasten to add.
Beforehand it was like a pub we all knew when starting out in the 60's and 70's and the sad thing is you cannot find many of them around any more.
The Kings Arms had many fans (us included) and many detractors because it did not fit in or even try to fit in with the 'Gay Village' which sprung up around it over the years. It was also a very doggy pub - they had four large ones at one point. We loved it but that's because we got used to it.
I bought the picture from the new tenants yesterday and cleaned it up (enough nicotine on there it should have come with a health warning) then popped it in Nelson's place (sorry Horatio but you'll soon be above Lady Emma Hamilton, as it were).
If anyone knows the name of the original please let me know (info@avalonbrighton.co.uk). It's a proper oil painting from the Faques Gallery (better than calling it Fakes I suppose) on Upper St James's Street and I have seen it online before. It looks decidedly Pre-Raphaelite to me. The damsel is tied to a tree but her rescuer in shining armour is just sheathing his sword having just run through the baddie. Thankfully she seems unharmed and the baddie only got as far as revealing a bit of her shoulder.
Also in our dining room from the pub is a ship in a bottle - the Mauretania. I was always convinced this was one of those ships that had sunk or been torpedoed but that was her sister ship the Lusitania. This one had an illustrious career until 1935 when she was scrapped due to the depression. There's a poignant photograph on Wikipedia showing her at the scrapyard beside the Olympic before being broken up. Just think, but for an iceberg 23 years earlier the picture might have been of three ships...
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
There's a black and white Jack Russell in this picture. I took it because she was blissfully happy skipping over the rocks chasing stones.When I downloaded it I spent 10 minutes trying to find the dog!
From Brighton take the seafront road to the marina and follow the undercliff path behind the marina.
Where it ends and the beach opens out again, at low tide it is like this. Rockpools, hermit crabs, cockles and mussels (and Russells).
The undercliff is a pedestrian only path used as a sort of M25 for cyclists only faster. Don't get me wrong - I fully agree with shared usage including on this one. I just feel sad that once clad in lycra and a snazzy helmet some cyclists become invincible and totally oblivious to any other path users.
Don't ruin it for walkers, dogs, kids and even cyclists who welcome the flat route to saunter along the seafront. Your 'official' route is at the top of the cliffs but the undercliff is flatter, faster and nicer. Just remember it's flatter, faster and nicer for everybody...
Friday, 14 August 2009
Cheating is a must
I just happened upon Delia Smith's book 'How to Cheat'. This book should really be called 'Cooking - A Reality Check...'
Now running a guesthouse can provide time in the afternoon for the preparation of our evening food. We get time to buy, prepare and generally process different ingredients for our evening. But if you work in an office and pick up your dinner on the way home, well! A chicken carcass, giblets and vegetables plus seasonings simmered gently for some hours to make the perfect stock? Which counts as a minor ingredient in the whole dish? Get real. That is restaurant food and belongs firmly there.
So Delia has come up with a book that recognises at last that in addition to kitchens we have lives.
I remember so well how sniffily it was greeted by foodies, reviewers and some chefs. If all they do apart from write is pop into the kitchen to spend a day crafting something that is demolished in 30 minutes (15 if they're really good) then good luck to them.
I'll stick for the life too. I tried the very first recipe tonight (the cheesy roast potatoes - there was no ready grated Gruyere so I admit to doing this but it took less than 1 minute so doesn't count) and the whole dish plus gammon steaks took less than 30 minutes and did not leave a whole fridge full of stuff I hope to use but throw after 4 or 5 days.
Well done Delia for turning your attention to us on planet earth and giving us hope. I have some of your other books too and when I have the sort of time usually set aside for jigsaw puzzles or reading novels I'll be back in those creating the longer versions (this sentence seems to presume Delia has time to read obscure blogs but maybe nowadays she has the time with all these cheats!).
Now running a guesthouse can provide time in the afternoon for the preparation of our evening food. We get time to buy, prepare and generally process different ingredients for our evening. But if you work in an office and pick up your dinner on the way home, well! A chicken carcass, giblets and vegetables plus seasonings simmered gently for some hours to make the perfect stock? Which counts as a minor ingredient in the whole dish? Get real. That is restaurant food and belongs firmly there.
So Delia has come up with a book that recognises at last that in addition to kitchens we have lives.
I remember so well how sniffily it was greeted by foodies, reviewers and some chefs. If all they do apart from write is pop into the kitchen to spend a day crafting something that is demolished in 30 minutes (15 if they're really good) then good luck to them.
I'll stick for the life too. I tried the very first recipe tonight (the cheesy roast potatoes - there was no ready grated Gruyere so I admit to doing this but it took less than 1 minute so doesn't count) and the whole dish plus gammon steaks took less than 30 minutes and did not leave a whole fridge full of stuff I hope to use but throw after 4 or 5 days.
Well done Delia for turning your attention to us on planet earth and giving us hope. I have some of your other books too and when I have the sort of time usually set aside for jigsaw puzzles or reading novels I'll be back in those creating the longer versions (this sentence seems to presume Delia has time to read obscure blogs but maybe nowadays she has the time with all these cheats!).
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