Easter Bluebells

Spring is here, even though it's been so hot over the last week it feels like summer, and the bluebells are out in the woods, not wanting to miss them this year, I went to Linslade Woods, near Leighton Buzzard. So pretty in the woods, it did turn in to a comical photo shoot that was too much fun! LOL!

Love Food: Festival of Food & Drink

I went to the aptly named 'Love Food' Festival in Great Missenden, as I do love food, or more specifically, I love good food. Held over the Easter weekend, there were stalls, cooking demonstrations and a little light music.

Set up in a few marquee's were the food stalls - lots of olive oil and vinegar, pickles and chutney's, kitchen appliances and loads of free samples. There was a good demo of what is essentially an industrial blender from Vitamix- he demo-ed a Thai soup, strawberry ice-cream, veggie and fruit smoothie. If you want to blend something, this machine will blend it. It all tasted really good and at over four hundred pounds it was a little out of our price range. Dad got an ice-cream maker for Christmas and we're waiting for the summer fruits to ripen to really start using it. 

There was a big focus on local, quality produce, yummy! We ended up buying free range eggs, sausages made from outdoor reared pigs - Giggly Pig, olives and a day in the sunshine wouldn't be complete without a local cider.

Black Horse, Woburn

Just a short drive from my house is the historic, picturesque village of Woburn, apparently, home of 'afternoon tea' as started by Duchess Anna Maria, wife of the seventh Duke at Woburn Abbey in the mid 1800's. On this particular visit, I regret to inform my readers that I declined to attend an afternoon tea. I choose instead, to frequent a more 'common' pass time in a local public house, Black Horse.

Accompanied by my mother and younger sister we spent a happy hour or so enjoying the sunshine, a cider and a platter of exotic nibbles.

Exotic nibbles indeed.

Later, we strolled down the wisteria draped main street and stopped for an ice-cream and wondered what it would be like to live in such a place where one could visit Woburn Abbey, explore the open space in Woburn Safari Park and enjoy a round of golf. I shall, henceforth, make an appointment to take afternoon tea in this delightful little village.

Harbour Wave

Last month, March 11th to be exact, 'a big one' hit Japan. The destruction that followed from the tsunami hit the area I used to live and a massive stretch of the northern coast in Tohoku. Although I haven't lived there for over two years, the area is very close to my heart. I'm fairly certain the ocean school, Ukedo Elementary School, I used to teach at has been destroyed by the wave. It reached up to and across route six, the main road that runs south/north along the coast.

Namie is in the area that was hit by the Tsunami and the subsequent radiation issue, although it wasn't featured on the news, in a map on the BBC, I can see how close my little town is to the nuclear power station that is now going into melt down. The BBC's Japan feature pages and Facebook were my main sources of info around the time of the earthquake and the destruction that followed.

I can't contact the older people I was in contact with via letter, and I'm pretty sure they aren't on Facebook, although recently, a fellow Namie JET, Aleisha, has put me on to a list issued by our town council naming all the survivors, which I did look at a few names I remember in full and they were on there. So I can only hope they are at least safe somewhere. The friends I know still in Japan and across the world have been pretty amazing at keeping everyone updated on Facebook about what was going on in the place we all used to call home.

Namie is right in the exclusion zone, it must look like a ghost town there and probably will for a while due to the amount of radiation that is now in the area. It's so sad and I can't imagine what happened to the families of the kids I used to teach and the teachers I used to work with and I expect all the rice paddies will be laying fallow this season and for a few seasons to follow.

I really do.

I have folders and folders of photos from my time teaching in Namie, this is a link  (unfortunatly, I now don't look as trim as I do in these photos) to an album I made,  right at the end of my time teaching in Namie which I think sums up my experience and connection to that part of the world.

Costa @ Tesco, Amersham, The Team and I

The song choice, The Strokes -  Under Cover Of Darkness, is from hearing it on the radio every morning on the commute to work, 


Loved working with you guys!

Eldergate Costa in Cotswolds

Another month, another new store opening, this time in Milton Keynes in what was the site of Boarders and Starbucks and what is now a Cotswolds with a Costa upstairs. Opening day went smoothly, compared to Amersham which is my benchmark for bad, it went pretty well. Loads of freebies on offer, the first hundred customers got anything they wanted for free, there are the usual free coffee vouchers that accompany new store openings, sampling downstairs, the Mayor of MK apparently made an appearance at the opening and I saw champers at the door and goodie bags from Cotswolds.

This relationship with Cotswolds is a new one, the feedback from Cotswold management and customers seemed really positive. There are high hopes for this Costa to be a 'desination Costa', one where people come out of their way to visit. Over time, I think this is a realistic outcome for this particular Costa, it has a massive seating space, with nearly fifty percent is soft seating, perfect for families. This Costa becomes the eighth equity store (not including franchises) in Milton Keynes and one of about ninety new stores Costa is opening in 2011.

New Eldergate store family.

P.S Those who worked at Amersham with me will know what I mean by 'benchmark for bad', it was a hard few weeks and just when the days were more amber than red and the weeks more green than anything, I am placed in a MK store. We went though the wars together and I have a special place in my Costa heart for my little cubs I left there. I wasn't so bad really, a!?!