One single plant has produced around £100 worth of redcurrants this year. I was somewhat amazed to find a few more the other day at the tail end of September. Tasted amazing. Thoroughly recommend a redcurrant plant for 2016.
Redcurrants from surrey
Redcurrants from surrey
Redcurrants from surrey
Redcurrants from surrey
Redcurrants from surrey
Just a various eclectic mix of food photos taken in various locations. Nothing special. Just enjoy and be hungry.
Coconut Tart
Sliders and Beef Wellingtons
Norway has to be one of the most civilised countries. Having been here only two days I have yet to find anyone who is anything less than polite and helpful. Anyone who serves you with food and drink has all the attitude you need and none of that surly dont care stuff either. The food is fresh and simple. Lots of nice bread, fruit and fish. Flying on Norwegian Airlines ( in Row 30 I should add economy cheap class), there was free wifi on the plane above 10,000 feet. Taxi drivers smile and are helpful. People are intelligent and interesting. Admittedly this place is not so cheap. Something like 8£ for a hot dog at the airport, but it did come with mashed potato, relish and a decent bread roll. In short I like this place.
Wifi if it is free at 10,000 feet and free in the airport and free in all hotels. Why Marriott hotels and others is it not free in UK? Explain to me also why all airlines cannot offer free in-flight wifi?
LCY is a very convenient airport and in general terms functions well. I came across it by chance a few months ago and have used it as often as possible as it frankly beats travelling and experiencing the hell that is Heathrow. That was until something went wrong. When things run smoothly then all is well but when something goes wrong in a small airport then how does it cope. LCY is a small airport. There are no lounges and or anything luxurious. A huge open space that subdivides ino a few eating and drinking areas. Last thursday things went wrong. Having arrived early and spent 2 hours there it was a happy occurrence to then find out from the departures screen ( no announcements of this happy event) that my flight to Edinburgh was cancelled long with the last of the day. No reasons given.
At that stage one discovered that two plane loads of folks, perhaps 250 maybe more, were queuing at the ticket desk which had two people working. British Airways no doubt would have employed good souls but to be placed at the back of this queue meant that I did a quick estimation that even if each customer was sorted in 5 minutes ( new flight/complaints/hotel for the night etc), I might be there for hours and in fact very many hours. Possibly all night even. so here is a situation that does not work in a small airport. This is a shame as I shall now think twice before using a small airport again , maybe the larger airports would have more staff, more flights, and a speedier resolution.
So a few photos as momentos . The queue snaked around and around and in fact like a giant conga twined itself through the 2 cafe’s in the airport.
Going to weddings is not my usual form of entertainment but when they take place publicly on the beach when on holiday then maybe its ok to have a peek. This is how you do it:
Marriott Grand Cayman
The Cayman Islands have to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Seven mile beach is just that. The downside is the cost. As I understand how things work here, no tax is paid so the government claim their money on all items sold. Hence a litany of taxes and charges are added to each and every bill. An hour in the Kirk supermarket, a lovely clean supermarket that I wish we had in UK, is sadly enough to depress one when looking at the cost of food items. Think of a UK price and then increase it between 2-4 fold.
The Island itself is full of lovely coves and beaches and snorkelling reveals hundreds of fish and other underwater paraphernalia. The hateful sea urchins live surprisingly close to the shore, maybe less than 10 yards in places. Even 20 yards from shore there are moray eel type fish living in their little holes, spitting sand at snorkelers.
Starfish Point is well worth visiting , to see guess what, Starfish. In 20 minutes we also saw a wild dolphin, sea cucumber and an odd red jellyfish. The point is accessible by car but you need to know where to go and where to park. Most visitors come by boat and spend maybe 30 minutes there whilst we spent 2 hours. A hot place and there is no shade and no facilities of any kind. The official boat trips seem to come earlier in the day and the starfish are collected from a little way out and you can find maybe 6 easily in the shallow waters, maybe more. So, midday is not a bad time to go.
Starfish Point on Grand Cayman
Starfish Point on Grand Cayman
Aqualand is a great water park, make no mistake. However before yesterday we had only visited in May/June time. Yesterday it was an awful experience and really ought to consider a few aspects of its functioning.
Facilities are good but go there out of season next time. We are. Last comment would be that on a positive side places like this are great for employment. Spain has youth unemployment rates of around 57%, and most of the staff here were not only nice but certaintly under 25 years.
Aqualand. Torremolinos
The 12- year old went to Marwell zoo on an educational school trip recently and having been allowed to take their cameras they can enter into a form competition only one photo each. But which one? We have narrowed them down to this selection and would be interested to know which one you think she should enter. The entrants are
Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish conservative prime minister, is duly announcing to those who will listen that despite unemployment rates of 27%, that rise to 57% amongst the youth, that the worst is over. What this translates to is that unemployment will fall to 25% by 2016. Not overly encouraging. Although not an expert on the economic aspects of Andalucia I have to report based on a week in Benalmadena that there was no evidence of massive unemployment. That observation has to be caveated by the fact that I was hardly looking for unemployed Spanish youth whilst lounging on the beach. There was a single eastern european beggar outside Mercadona ( the Spanish Tesco equivalent). What was obvious though was that there were far fewer British expats and tourists there than before, a linear annual decline. Fewer English type restaurants and bars, and where these had closed down they were replaced by Spanish bars. As a consequence presumably of all this, less tourists and more indigenous Spainish, prices have fallen considerably. A beer would cost 1-2 euros. In the best bar along the beach side Palm 5, a beer cost less than 2 euros. Glass of wine, and thats of a proper size, was 1-2 euros.
The only clear evidence of economic recession was the absence of building of flats and apartments. But frankly the rate they were building 5 years ago was ridiculous. Benalmadena costa may be a nice place but not that nice. But it is not Monaco! Outside our apartment there is a crane towering over a half finished block of apartments. This in itself is not exciting but when put into context that I have taken the same photograph now for 5 years. That crane has not moved in 5 years. The half finished block remains unfinished and I imagine will look just like that next year.
Benalmar Playa
Benalmadena Costa
Batalha monastery is in Batalha around 130 kms from Lisbon along a nice toll autoroute. In fact it is really the only major thing in Batalha. There is a nice hotel Villa Batalha and some nice restaurants, but without the monastery there is little to entice visitors. You cannot miss the monastery as it towers over the town and is a great landmark to find your way around.
The building took over 100 years to build starting in 1336 and represented the commemoration of a battle. An earthquake in 1775 did some damage and pillaging Napoleonic soldiers did rather more in 1811 but the restoration began in 1840 and was added to UNESCO world heritage sites in 1983. To view all the various segments takes around 2 hours and some degree of internal sat-nav. The Portuguese are not recognised for their signage skills and the first difficulty one has is finding the way in. The second one is to work out that although entrance to the main Nave is free, to get into all the interesting parts costs a mere 6 euros, but no-one actually tells you this. The ticket desk is in fact just that, a desk in the corner. The interior is beautiful. There are many tombs and chapels and there is little point me detailing these as Wikipaedia does a wonderful job. I will only focus on the curious architecture around the monastery. Roads seem unfinished. Piles of sand seem randomly deposited on the road blocking the way for example to the only hotel in the town. The town has great sports complexes, football grounds, swimming pools and even an athletic track. What seemed missing was people. The place other than a few dozen tourists was empty. Cafes and restaurants all with nice smelling foods were essentially empty. Maybe the rain did not help. This is a place worth visiting. A night in the Hotel Villa Batalha. A dinner in a restaurant . A 2 hour visit to the monastery and maybe some coffee and people watching in the squares. I like this place. Even the graffiti is worth looking at.
Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead
Batalha Monastery
Batalha Monastery
Piles of random sand in random roads in Batalha
Batalha Monastery
Soldiers in Batalha Monastery
Batalha Monastery
Batalha Monastery Soldier
Batalha Monastery
Batalha Monastery
Batalha Tree
Batalha Monastery
Batalha Monastery
Batalha Monastery
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 
