Chicken, Chorizo and Chick Pea Chadli

Ingredients 

I medium onion chopped (I use frozen)

Chorizo ring, sliced

Garlic (I use the stuff in the tube)

500g fresh chicken cubed (I usually use skinless, boneless thighs but its breast in the picture.

2 spoons dried mixed herbs

1 tin of check peas, drained

chopped tomatoes (Fresh is best, I use liquidised tinned or boxed)

1. Fry the onions in olive oil until soft and light brown.  
2. Add the garlic and sliced chorizo for a few mins.
3. Add the cubed chicken and fry until the chicken is cooked.
4. Add the dried herbs and tomato and then the drained chick peas.  
5. Cook on low heat for 20 mins (or put in the oven for 20 mins)

onions, garlic, chorizo

add the herbs 

The Great Ickenham Bake Off

A while ago I agreed to look after Georgie (7) and Mattie  (10), my niece and nephew, overnight so Alison and Tony (sister and husband) could go to a wedding in darkest Surrey.  Mattie had been invited to a sleepover at a friend's so it was turned out to be just Georgie and me for 26 hours, what on earth would we do to fill in the time?
Georgie is no culture vulture and she doesn't like shopping (go figure) so we settled on some sewing and baking.
The sewing was not a roaring success because of a missing piece of the sewing machine but baking seemed to hit the spot.  I put the slightly flat nature of our scones down to the the flour expiration date of Dec 2012 but adding a pack of baking powder to the cake seemed to do the trick.  Georgie did a detailed design plan incorporating a yellow star, pink clouds and carefully positioned blackberries we had picked earlier in the day (you can just about make it out in the picture) which we followed rather faithfully.
It's true that children can be irritating sometimes but at other times they restore your faith in the human being and help you to understand the purpose of all that breathing out and in.   Thanks Georgie, I really enjoyed myself and look forward to repeating the experience with slightly newer flour.

Great Weekend - About Time Too!

Not feeling the love for my job at the moment so an action packed weekend was just what the doctor ordered.
Started on Friday 2 August with the Wizard of Oz at the Compass Theatre which opened to rave reviews on Friday evening.  Unfortunately due to prior commitments of the cast it closed on the same night.  Georgie Regan put in a star performance but photography was not permitted in the auditorium and all publicity is going through her agent.
Saturday morning early start for emergency appointment at the passport office in Ecclestone Square, Victoria.
It always comes as a surprise to me when someone else turns out to have the same sense of direction as me.  Took us 15 minutes to find the passport office.  Later when we got back to Victoria station I noticed the directions printed on the ground in the station.  No sense of direction and missing the blindingly obvious is not a good combination.
Lovely breakfast at Giraffe, I can recommend the Mexican breakfast and some of the sausages had magical powers (but not all).

4 hour wait for passport so we took the opportunity to visit the British Museum.  

Mattie enjoyed the Egyptian objects and the Parthenon marbles.  Georgie didn't.  

I love these Greek tripod pots, they make me want to take up pottery again.

We left the museum and headed for Chinatown in the hope of buying a waving cat but only found lots of restaurants and souvenir shops.

Saturated with culture and new passport safely obtained the Regans returned to Ickenham and I met up with Adrian at Victoria for a planned trip to Apsley House.  But on the way we changed our minds and went back to the British Museum instead to see the Pompeii exhibition.  Well worth a visit.

One of the famous casts found inside the house with this mosaic dog guarding its entrance.  You don't really think of the Romans as dog people but some of them obviously were.

In search of a beer in the sun Adrian came across the source of his favourite publication.

And I found a watch to keep me going while mine is being serviced.

Got our beer in the sun, lovely dinner opposite the Gielgud theatre before we went in to see Noel Coward's Private Lives with Toby Stevens and Anna Chancellor.  After watching the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton film where about their disastrous run in the same play I was intrigued.  Very funny play, I recommend it.
Rounded off the weekend with a trip to The Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead and watched 49 riders compete for the King George V Gold Cup won by Ben Maher on Triple X III.  Thanks Kerrie

And then back down that mine on Monday morning.  This was the sort of weekend that might have been designed by Carlsberg.

Gerries to Gerryland

 Noon ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne.  Adrian looks a bit suspicious about the idea of going on holiday with his in-laws, Pa looks a bit more enthusiastic about the idea.

Sisters on tour enjoying the sun and sea breeze aboard the St Cecelia.

First stop Osborne House after some interesting circular navigation from Siri.

This is the Swiss Cottage which is a short walk from the house by schematic diagram and a long walk via the beach in reality.  Don't go there if you only have a few minutes spare before you head off home.






The Isle of Wight maybe on a time cycle about 30 years behind mainland Britain but its a staunch outpost of capitalism.  Material printed for the visitor seems to completely ignore attractions that have not paid to be there.  Osborne House doesn't make it onto my tea towel but the Hovercraft (which must have had a long contract) is.  After Osborne House we made our way to the hotel and on to dinner on the Shanklin Esplanade.
Up for an early breakfast and onto the Model Village at Godshill, the highlight of my visit.  Beautifully maintained gardens with quirky and witty scenes of well fed people going about their busy lives getting married, going on Scout camp, playing football (with a streaker on the pitch) or athletics and lots more.

 Beside the model village in the model village.

 Alison beside the show jumping arena.

Seasoned Scout master and Akela salute the Scout camp.

Bed of the king who loses his head.

The famous cock headed man

Not famous normal headed men

Shanklin Chine

Barbados 2013

One dreary winter morning last winter an email from British Airways lured Adrian and I into booking a holiday in paradise, also known as Barbados.   It was such an amazing break we did something we've never done before and booked exactly the same holiday again this year.  There was a niggle in my mind that repeating the experience might break the spell, I needn't have worried.
A group of very lucky staff from a Manchester IT company arrived and the hotel on the same day as us.  They were being treated by their (world's best) boss to 5 days in Barbados (about 20 of them, can't imagine what they must have done to deserve it).  It was a bit wasted on at least one of them who seemed to have misunderstood where she was.  Overheard speaking to a friend in the UK, very loudly (fuelled by rum) 'the Jamaicans on the boat were great.'  I wonder if she ever found out she wasn't in Jamaica.
Anyway I'm sure it was their block booking that got us allocated a better room so we were delighted by their good fortune.
Slight concern when we arrived at Grantley Adams airport and weren't able to produce our transfer voucher.  Fortunately we were on the list so got our ride but when we got to the hotel they were not so trusting and only thanks to free WiFi did I manage to find the email with the link to the hotel voucher.  I will try to remember to print the vouchers next time I go on holiday.

No submarines or round the island tours this time but we had the most amazing experience watching a sea turtle climb up the beach and nest.
A hotel security guard had an infra red torch and I know the picture is hard to interpret but here she is covering her eggs.  I contacted the Barbados Sea Turtle Project and they are going to let me know of the progress of this nest.
Barbados is a place where getting around and nourishing yourself is either very expensive or very cheap, nothing in between.  Horrified at the quote of $30 Barbados (about £10) for a 3 mile taxi ride back to the hotel (way too hot and humid to walk) we went for the reggae bus instead at $2 each.  Apparently these buses are privately owned and they are all quite different.  All the ones we went on had the loud music and some had a conductor who hangs out the door drumming up business as you progress at flat out speed, quite unlike London Transport.  We travelled on one bus where the speedometer had been removed and replaced by a piece of paper and another had a perspex sort of honesty box instead of the outdoor conductor.  Very convenient, casual, cheap and sometimes terrifying way of getting around.
We a few couples in the hotel who had been returning year after year (one couple were there for their 20th time) and I would have found this a bit odd in the past but ItI'm all for repeating this experience again next year if we can.  I recommend this holiday to anyone with batteries in need of recharging - this really did the trick.

World Book Night 2013 - quiz and fish and chip supper in Horsham

 is World Book Night on St George's day?
Because it is the birth (and death) day of William Shakespeare.
That's one of the 67.5 questions The Hillsiders got right.  Barry, Clive, Lisa, Sarah and Sue (with interloper Adrian) came 3rd overall (2nd of non library teams) out of 8 or 9 teams so we improved quite considerably after the first 6 or 7 questions that none of us had a clue about.  It was a bit touch and go to begin with and we started to wonder if we might have to slope off at the interval.
We learned that crime is where it's at in the world of literary quiz fodder and that we didn't read enough of it.
We recklessly answered 'Sense and Sensibility' to one of the questions because that's the book we are reading this month, rather than Pride and Prejudice which was clearly the right answer.  Fortunately that lost point was redeemed by knowing Miss Marple's first name.
Other teams seemed to be drinking home made lemon squash and took up the offer of cups of tea at the interval enjoyed their evening rather demurely.  By contrast the Hillsiders, who each brought their own bottle of wine gradually got louder as the evening progressed with a crescendo of exuberance when Michael Frayn turned out to be Claire Tomalin's husband.
Thanks to Horsham Library for organising the event.  Last year's cuddle from Peter James was lovely but this year's quiz included the opportunity to eat greasy food and make a noise inside the library, it was great fun and we all got a book to take home.
Tip for the movie round in a literary quiz - watch the credits at the end of a film and take note of who wrote the book.
As a WBN giver I have 24 copies of Red Dust Road to give away this year to 24 lucky readers so look out for me in the next week or so, it could be you.
I hope they let us enter next year - we might need to use an assumed name though.

Las Vegas - March 2013

Nobody believed it would ever actually happen, eight ladies going to Las Vegas, Nevada to celebrate Marguerite's 40th birthday but here are four of the eight in a taxi on the way to Heathrow to board flight BA0275 to McCarran International.

Alison and I had been so organised we were ready ahead of time and waited impatiently with our modest sized suitcases for the taxi.  We got to Heathrow and met our travelling companions who all but one seemed to be going on a much longer holiday. 

The six bottles of duty free prosecco came in very handy as pre dinner drinks but the, now well travelled, bottle of Vodka remains unopened awaiting the next book club meeting.

After 10 and a half hours aloft in a plane with a sound system that prevented any enjoyment of the in flight entertainment we finally arrived in the dessert.  On the way back I tried my own earphones and discovered that to be the problem so I got to see Argo after all (very good film by the way, highly recommended).

Following a slight delay waiting for the the second limo we set off for the Bellagio.  Our driver did not stop talking from the moment we set eyes on him until the moment we shut him up with a tip.  If only we had known we could have tipped at the beginning of the journey and travelled to the hotel in peace.  The only time he didn't comment was when we were stopped at an intersection and (Jodie I think) mentioned that this was the intersection where a fatal shoot out had happened recently.

Everything in Vegas is geared towards getting you and your wallet into the casino - even the lift.

We managed to stay up until after midnight on the night of our arrival.  We looked around the hotel, made a donation to the casino and had a snack at one of the restaurants in the hotel.  This was our introduction to the enormous American portion sizes.  We didn't ever seem to learn that one meal would easily feed 3 or 4 - I'm sure more food gets thrown away in America than gets eaten.

Thursday morning bright and early we crossed the road to breakfast in Paris.  Not very French but delicious non the less and so good to be able to sit outside without a coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

Spot of sunbathing beside lovely pool with purple bikini clad waitresses delivering frozen margaritas as $15 each and interesting mix of American guests to eavesdrop on.  Two late middle aged ladies in (very expensive looking) identical swimsuits with matching wraps and full battle makeup and a New York princess discussing the price of her bikini with her dad! 

After changing and having the holiday argument with Alison over who was going to wear her gillet we got our transport for the horseback riding experience.  Short drive from hotel and you are in the desert, literally in the middle of nowhere.  Being English we all wore the helmets provided unlike our guides in cowboy hats.  One and a half hour ride through red rock up and down narrow path in single file.  Very peaceful and enjoyable, fortunately I wasn't near the wrangler, another one of those chatty friendly types who cant bear any silence or the sound of anyone else's voice. 

As the sun started going down we came around a bend towards the corral and there were two ancient men with guitars standing on the top of the ridge singing 'Home on the Range' to welcome us back.  They kept up the singing until we escaped for our return trip.  Outsize steak and baked potato eaten we sat around a firepit outside to make and enjoy toasted marshmallows between two chocolate chip cookies (it should have been Graham crackers - we didn't get an explanation why it wasn't).  I'm still cleaning bits of marshmallow off my phone.

Friday morning the four helicopter girls went to Serendipity, part of Caesar's Palace for breakfast.  Nice tea served in biggest cups known to man and each breakfast was easily big enough to feed all 4 of us.  Good job we ate a lot because lunch provided by Maverick Helicopters turned out to be miniscule. 

Three reasons to avoid Las Vegas - fortunately there are lots of other things to do. 

I wonder what Augustus would have made of Las Vegas?

Helicopter trip over Hoover Dam and on to Grand Canyon was amazing.  Very noisy so you had to wear ear muffs and the refreshments were a little odd but fantastic experience.  We landed in the canyon for champagne (domestic) and lunch (celery stick, few grapes, 2 Ritz crackers and small portion of processed cheese).  Pilot was chatty but not exhaustingly so and having promised ourselves we would not tip due to the extortionate cost of the trip we succumbed to his charm and tipped him anyway.

We were travelling in the newest of the Maverick fleet, apparently costing $3 million.  The very high tech looking piece of wool in this picture is to indicate whether you are flying straight apparently even if it looks as though the pilot snagged his jumper on the way in.

Could this be the only completely square golf course in the world?

Alison, Jodie, Sara-Jane and I got back to the hotel before the Jeep girls and decided to go for a cocktail at Olives while waiting for the others.

Dinner was delicious and the fountains in the background every 15 minutes kept reminding us where we were.  Unfortunately the waiter was not much of a photographer.

After dinner we went into the casino for a little flutter, very successfully in my case.  

Queueing for The Bank (nightclub) is a very odd experience that seems to make no sense.  Bouncer upsets Laura resulting in our fast track with free drinks, still have no idea what any of it was about.

Saturday morning back to Serendipity for breakfast.  Spring Break, college football and St Patrick's day weekend meant the whole place was heaving and we had to queue for a table this time. After breakfast we went to the Mirage to and went into the zoo to see the tigers and other cats and the dolphins.  Set off back for the hotel past various people in all sorts of costumes were hanging around having their pictures taken for tips.

I decided to do some shopping and got lost in the Forum shopping centre.  Got back just in time to change and set off for the birthday dinner at Stratosphere.

Another waiter who can't take photographs.

Great meal in revolving restaurant that provides a great view of the whole town.

Another interesting element of the meal was the bungee jumpers going past the window while we dined.  Only in Vegas!

Limo from Stratosphere to Fremont St.  Helen & I play giant slot machine (without success), queue too long for Jodie to do zip wire.

On to Treasure Island for Sirens show!

Back to Bellagio.

Sunday morning arranged for an extra half day on one of the rooms then back to Paris for breakfast followed by quick tour to Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur hotels.  Saw the sharks, komodo dragon and touched the rays at Mandalay Bay.  Monorail between these 3 hotels then cab back to Bellagio past New York New York.

Another frozen margarita by the pool and top up of vitamin D before setting off to the airport and back to the cold and rain.

Overall verdict - brilliant venue, lovely company - 10 out of 10!  Where to next?