December, 2009 - aside from the birthday thing (see a previous post) December was pretty quiet:
02-Dec-09 - a four-hour drive in the filthiest imaginable weather conditions (the rain was so heavy on the A34 we almost had to stop) took us to
Whatley Manor, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire. Last year I had the great pleasure of travelling around northern Portugal with the chef, Martin Burge who, at that time, had a Michelin star. In January, 2009 he won his second star, and we were to have dinner and interview him about his food and the restaurant - the dinner was fab. Full details are in the January, 2010 issue of YES CHEF! Magazine, but I must give the hotel itself a mention:
The approach to Whatley Manor in darkness is a revelation: on an unlit, winding country road between Malmesbury and Easton Grey, lights appear in the trees ahead. Then stone buildings and, finally one of those brown and white tourism signs finally admits that you are approaching the hotel. A long driveway lit by axle-height pylons leads you to another stone building and two firmly-closed gates which look remarkably like the drawbridge to a mediaeval castle. A sign advises hotel guests to drive towards the gates 'which will open automatically', and they do, revealing an elegant, cobbled courtyard, herbaceous borders and a welcoming light at the main entrance. There are few, if any signs to say that this is a hotel, and that's the idea, says Eloise Gordon, from the marketing department. "We want it to feel like a private country house, which is what it was when it was built." When was that? Stone walls, leaded lights, Elizabethan pediments - 16th, 17th century? "Well, no, actually it was in the 1920s. It was converted into a hotel in the 1950s and an extra wing was added in the early 2000s", but you wouldn't know it to look at it. You really can't see the join.
The Courtyard at Whatley Manor. Pic.: www.whatleymanor.com
In daylight you can see the magnificent formal gardens and the river Avon which, even in winter, raise the spirits. If you're looking for a real romantic getaway, this is definitely it.
03-Dec-09 - From Whatley onward to Daventry in Northamptonshire, via Cirencester and Banbury: a pleasant drive through some lovely old towns and villages, and even some decent weather after the downpours of the previous day. The occasion was a gig for
The Wine Adventure, which arranges corporate wine events, and this was the 'finale' for a sales conference. The group were enthusiastic and boisterous but did remarkably well in identifying the wines - indeed the overall individual winner who got all but one of the questions right, admitted publicly that he knew nothing about wine. I think he probably does now.
We were staying at the Premier Inn (very pleasant, no frills, excellent service), near to junction 16 on the M1, so the following morning we were able to call in and see James, Claire and Evie on our way home. A very pleasant three days (apart from the weather on day 1!).
08-Dec-09 - another very welcome late invitation arrived from
La Rioja Calidad, which is the organisation which looks after all the DO products of La Rioja, including wine, of course. They asked me to conduct three evening tastings as part of a 'La Rioja Week' at the National Geographic store on Regent Street in London. I thought it a rather unusual venue, but in the event they were perfectly geared up for it, and the tastings were well-attended, and I was able to taste one or two wines from bodegas which I haven't visited, perhaps most notably Bodegas Tobía in San Asensio, whose range was impressive. They are on my list for a visit next time I'm in Rioja. The organisers were Jorge Portu from Rioja Calidad, and Juan Chavarri from the regional Ministry of Agriculture, who helped to field the more technical questions, and everything went like clockwork.
I'd never been to the store before and was amazed at the range of stuff they stock: not just maps, books and magazines but furniture, ethnic artefacts and specialist clothing. Most fascinating was the range of 'arctic-wear' in the basement, where there's even a freezer chamber with glass walls and a thermal-imaging screen, so you can try on your polar parka, go inside and see where the heat is leaking out - if any. I could have watched it for hours.
17-Dec-09 - the last 'away from home' job of the year was putting issue 12 of
YES CHEF! Magazine to bed. Jill warned me that it was going to snow and I laughed: it never snows in Worthing, apart from a few feeble flakes. Before the train had even arrived, however, snow did start to fall... I changed trains at Clapham for Milton Keynes, as usual, by which time I'd seen some fairly substantial falls from the train window, and they got heavier the further north I went. The train was, nevertheless, more or less on time, and I got a cab to a bar where I'd arranged to meet a former colleague - Sam Jones, who'd been my deputy editor at YES CHEF! but was about to take up a new job with a magazine in London. The idea was that the publisher, Peter Marshall, would pick me up at 7:00 pm and take me over to Buckingham, where I'd stay the night prior to going into the office the following morning. In the event he'd flown in from Jersey to Birmingham and the flight was late, so we ended up running up a rather large bar bill while we waited. Eventually he did arrive and we decamped to the Brasserie Blanc on Avebury Boulevard - I can recommend the strog.
The drive back to Buckingham (about half an hour on a good day) was a bit slippery, although the snow had stopped falling. I was telling myself that it'd all be gone by tomorrow morning as I turned in at the Buckingham Hotel - very comfortable, warm, and free wifi, too.
18-Dec-09 - it snowed again overnight. Peter picked me up at 09:00 and we slipped and slithered towards the office. It's on an industrial estate so there's almost no through traffic, and it took us several attempts to get up the gentle slope to the office door, but we did it in the end. I knew that this one was going to be a long job, and had originally suggested that I should stay over a second night rather than risk having to cross London on a Friday evening, but as they day wore on and the internet weather news got worse and worse, I began to think I should just do what I could and leave as early as possible. Then things got worse still. Trains were cancelled, roads closed. There were no trains between Brighton and Worthing. I began to worry about the prospect of being stranded somewhere like Clapham Junction and freezing to death overnight, so I decided that I would have to stay over, after all. But we did get the job finished, by about 6:30 pm. They put me up, not at the Buckingham, but at the
Villiers, in the centre of the town, and a charming old coaching inn. It looks very quaint from the outside but inside it's warm and welcoming, has a lift (alleluia) and wifi (but only in public areas). I was, however, exhausted, so I retired to the room which proved to be very spacious, warm, and comfortable, and sent out for room service (steak baguette, chips, bottle of house red - sorry, not very original) and had the best night's sleep I'd had for a week.
19-Dec-09 - no more snow, and the roads were pretty clear as I travelled back to MK in a taxi: an interesting thing, the cost. When I get a taxi from MK to Buckingham it costs around £25. The taxi in the other direction (admittedly a private-hire car rather than a hackney) was only £16. I must keep their number.
Anyway, the train was in, there were, apparently, no delays, and all seemed well. We arrived at Clapham on time, and there's about a 20-minute dwell for the Worthing train, which also arrived, more or less, on time. I was congratulating myself on good planning... Until we got to Haywards Heath. The 12-car train split into three 4-car sets, one fast to Eastbourne, one slow to Ore, and ours (at the back) for Worthing and Littlehampton. And then... Nothing happened. After a good bit of shilly-shallying the guard eventually told us that the front set had broken down (apparently nothing to do with the 'severe weather conditions') and so, of course, the middle and rear sets weren't going anywhere, and would we please get out and take the next train from the platform opposite. Trouble is, the next train (a Brighton service) had been cancelled, which meant that there were now passengers from 16 or even 20 carriages waiting for a connection, and it was quite possible that the incoming train might only have four carriages. The next (Brighton) service was diverted to one of the up platforms, which meant a trek down into the bowels of the station, and when I got down there amongst the flowing herd of fellow travellers I saw a welcome sight: 'Taxis'. So that was it: a taxi home cost me £50 and I've written to Southern to complain and ask for my money back. We shall see.
