An Afternoon at Brighton Pier

My brother’s girlfriend and her twin are amongst the many of my close family and friends to have their birthdays in March. To celebrate, we all took the day off and drove down to Brighton for the afternoon. 

  

 

 First stop was Brighton Pier’s gigantic arcade to loose some money. Raffy was so overstimulated with all of the flashing lights and noises of the machines that he couldn’t contain the excitement. 

 

Raffy had never been to an arcade before so wanted to make sure he saw everything. And I mean everything. Luckily his generous uncle funded most of the festivities so we’re not too out of pocket!

   

  

   

After these, we found a little game where you roll 10p coins in and they land on a spinning disk with different amounts of tokens that you can win. Amazingly, Raffy hit the jackpot and won 1,000 tickets meaning that we got to come home with half the junk from the kiosk. 

  

After the arcade, we had a wander through the lanes, some fish and chips and some incredible Malteser ice cream at Cloud 9 ice cream parlour.

Brighton is such a lovely place to visit, especially in good weather. We’ll definitely be heading back to shop and explore in the not so distant future.  

Kids: Reunited and it Feels so….Squishy

One of the very exciting things about Christmas holidays is that your expat buddies from Dubai migrate to colder climes for the festivities. You heard it- Raffy and Stanley (and Baby Wilf) were reunited after months of separation.
As they only landed a couple of days before, we made the trip over to the beautiful rolling hills of Kent to pay them a visit. We were quickly reminded of just quite how high the pitch of an excited toddler can go, so we bundled them all up and drove down to the park.

Their local park is a bit breathtaking. I was expecting the usual tarmac and swings type affair and was dressed accordingly. I didn’t realise we’d be trekking through slush to get there… The boys had a quick run and were unsurprisingly easily tempted to the cafe for ice cream.

We sat in a beautifully sunny spot on the deck of the cafe overlooking the lake. There were lots of other people enjoying the scenery until our boys had a very lively conversation about being annoying, of all things. Apparently they are quite good at it and we suddenly found ourselves alone on the deck!

Once they were sufficiently caked in ice cream, and Wilfred had eaten his snacks, we walked back to the car to head home.

These lovely boys were such a big part of our lives in Dubai and we miss them dearly. It’s fortunate that their UK base is not too far from ours but it’s a shame we don’t get to see them as much as we used to. Here’s a little throwback to simpler times…

Food: Apple and Blackberry Crumble

It’s all starting to fell quite autumnal in the UK at the moment; the slippers are on and I’m craving some warming comfort food. Out at Newland’s Corner at the weekend, the brambles were bursting with blackberries (or blackbleeps, as Raffy calls them) so we collected a load for a crumble. Raffy probably ate about a third of what we collected, so it took a little longer than expected!

 

 

 

We grabbed a few apples from the tree in the garden, washed the blackberries and Raffy helped me make the crumble. I make the crumble by eye, but for the measurements, I’ve adapted another recipe. If you like your crumble thicker, substitute 60g of the flour for oats.

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

For the filling:

• 500g/1lb 2oz cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 25g/1oz butter
• 75g/2½oz caster sugar
• 250g/9oz blackberries

For the crumble topping:

• 200g/3½oz plain flour
• 100g/3½oz soft dark brown sugar
• 75g/2½oz unsalted butter, chilled, cut into roughly 1cm/½in cubes
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
For the filling, put the apples, butter and sugar in a pan. Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the sugar has dissolved and the fruit is just beginning to collapse. Taste and add more sugar if required. Stir in the blackberries and transfer the mixture to an oven dish and set aside.
To make the crumble topping, combine the flour and sugar and spices in a bowl. Add the butter and rub in lightly with your fingertips until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Spoon the crumble mixture over the filling. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden-brown and bubbling. Leave to settle for about 10 minutes before serving.

 

 

Living: The Medicine Garden, Cobham

One of the first things that I wanted to do on my return to my old stomping ground was to head out to one of my favourite local spots, the Medicine Garden. This incredibly beautiful and relaxing walled garden plays host to a number of small local businesses and cafés and I could spend endless hours wandering around the shops and laying on the grass there.

This time I was meeting some friends, who came bearing gifts in the form of a giant car transporter and four new cars. We had one very happy boy!

We all went through to the Hothouse Cafe for lunch; bacon wrapped sausage sandwiches in ciabatta with salad and lots of coffee (some of us were a little jaded from the night before).

After lunch, we treated ourselves to a delicious waffle cone ice cream from the Garden Pod and played frisbee in the garden. All of the guys were very good at letting Raffy play with them, especially considering he had just nosedived into a chocolate ice cream cone! While all of this was going on, I jumped at the opportunity to sit and watch from the comfort of one of their double width deck chairs. Absolute bliss!

Living: Ice Cream Throwbacks

Neal’s new work schedule means that he is home a couple of afternoons a week, which is great, although it left us with the unfamiliar problem of deciding what to do. The most obvious solution was window shopping and ice cream, so we headed out to the Marina Mall.

Amazingly, Raffy was in a great mood for shopping and spent a good 20 minutes walking around the Diesel store commenting on which mannequins he thought looked ‘nice’. This allowed me to have a good look around at their current collection. I haven’t always been a fan of Diesel, but I have to say, their last couple of collections have been awesome. If only I had the disposable income to acquire a few more pieces…..

Once we had exhausted Rafferty’s patience, we headed downstairs to Gelatino Divino on the promenade level and was amazed to see that they had my all time favourite flavour, Ferrero Rocher.

Ferrero Rocher ice cream is the ultimate symbol of my childhood summers spent in Spain. My Grandad lived in Fuengirola on the Costa Del Sol and we’d head out to him for a couple of weeks every year. Tucked away in a back street of the town centre, there was an amazing ice cream shop; a little window in the wall filled with homemade waffle cones and gelato. It was opposite a beautiful church in the town square and as I remember, a pretty good little tapas bar. The ice cream tasted exactly of Ferrero Rocher and was topped with a drizzle of dark chocolate and toasted hazelnuts. If you were lucky you’d get your scoops from the top.

You can imagine my excitement when I spotted this in the Marina Mall, so of course I had a scoop. Neal chose a Ferrero/pistachio combo. Raffy managed to get hold of a handful of spoons and sampled the lot! We sat together watching the world go by, trying to slow Raffy down in his double-spooned attack as I told both Raffy and Neal some of the stories of my summers in Spain. It’s amazing the things that trigger your memories. We’ve vowed to take a trip there soon, and of course our first port of call will be that ice cream shop (if it’s still there!).

Rafferty’s double spooned attack.

Food: Dairy Free Ice Cream

Healthy versions of ice cream have been doing the rounds for some time now, and there seem to be a million variations. Mine came from a slip in my Abel and Cole organic veg box back in the UK and it couldn’t be simpler, or more delicious.

Next time you have some well ripe bananas, peel them and pop them in the freezer. They are really handy for last minute smoothies (frozen banana, a handful of frozen berries and some coconut water) as well as ice cream- I have now taken to buying two bunches of bananas, one slightly under ripe and one for straight in the freezer. Riper ones are better, as they have a stronger flavour.

When the ice cream craving hits, grab some frozen banana (allow 1 per person) chop it up and pop it into a blander or food processor. Add a teaspoon of honey and blend until it comes together. It will go through a crumbly stage- keep going and it will be smooth.

If you want to omit the honey, it helps to add a small dash of milk, cream or other liquid to help it to come together.

If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, here are some flavour combinations that we like;

• Chocolate (add 1 heaped tsp of Raw Cacao powder for each banana before blending)
• Rum and raisin (add a splash of rum and a sprinkle or raisins)
• Coffee (Add a splash of cold coffee before blending)
• Lime juice and raspberries (squeeze half a lime and throw in a few raspberries before blending)

Go crazy and add some toppings too- fresh fruits, edible flowers, chopped nuts and cacao nibs all work nicely!