It’s very nice to go traveling but it’s so much nicer to come home !

Well it is very nice to go traveling – and thank you Frank for the inspiration – but it is so much nicer to come home ! Actually we do love traveling – but we do love the coming home part as well ….. So 2 hours back at home as I sit and write this in readiness for publication ! – and so much to write about…..

Of course the food played a big part in our trip – so many unnecessary but delicious English breakfasts , afternoon teas , lunches and dinners shared with friends and family – such a delight. The last night we were in London Bob and I finally went for an Indian meal – to Dishoom – a brilliantly successful small chain of restaurants that I first wrote about a few years ago. They have gone from strength to strength and the one we ate in serves around 1100 meals a day – can you believe it – and the food was spectacular. They have published a cookbook that I have now bought on line which I was browsing through while we waited for our food. I was exclaiming with delight that I would definitely be making the Bollybellini cocktail I saw in the book to the waitress and 2 minutes later she brought me a complimentary one – now that is good marketing isn’t it ? Apparently there are 7 restaurant locations at the moment with more to come…

Earlier in the day I met up with my sister Anne and we went to the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Royal Academy. I will write more about that as one of the major highlights of our trip – but first let me tell you about the lunch we had in Selfridges Department store … It was in the Brasserie of Light – a lovely if slightly over the top setting. We shared an appetizer of wild mushroom and truffle rice balls – absolutely gorgeous – followed by an appetizer size of roasted sea scallops with a divine sauce and parsnip curls – washed down with a glass of champagne. Well you see I had met up with my other sister Jane a couple of days before and we had a champagne afternoon tea at the Ham Yard Hotel so I couldn’t share food with Anne without the champagne – right ? wouldn’t be fair I thought.

I never used to have a taste for champagne – I blame and thank Angelika Bacchus at Bacchus Fine Food for awakening this previously hidden predilection – she sells the best champagne around and I have taken to it like a duck to water. Anyway just a glass of it now and again never does any harm……

Right – now let me tell you about the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Royal Academy. He is a British sculptor whose works are known around the world – here is a link for those of you who are interested in reading about his work. Generally he works on a pretty large scale – one of his most famous pieces is a work called The Angel of the North which is 66 feet high and 177 feet across – but the piece in this exhibition which had the biggest impact on me was outside in the courtyard – a large open space in the front of the building.

It is called Iron Baby and was made in 1999. It is a life size form of his 6 day old daughter and it is so powerful it is the piece I keep on thinking about. This is what he says about it – ” The material is iron ( concentrated earth ) , the same as the core of our planet. Here this tiny bit of matter in human form attempts to make us aware of our precarious position in relation to our planetary future. It is the gesture of a body closed in on itself, needy of comfort, shelter, sustenance and peace.” It is stunning and I love an exhibition where one piece makes a lasting impression with its power. And this is tiny ……

There are a lot more things to write about and in time I will make sure I do – we had some really lovely experiences but I do want to point out that we had some pretty mediocre ones as well ! Writing a blog and posting things on Instagram can make it look as if every trip is one long tale of fabulous things happening all the time and of course we all know that the reality is that this is just not true. So thanks to all the poor and mediocre experiences which give a real life balance to us all…..

Beans on toast for supper tonight then !