12 Days of Giving – Singing for Shelter
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend my Jellybean Day of Giving singing at the London Coliseum! The homeless charity, Shelter, had commissioned a song, ‘A Place to Call Home’, with the aim of trying to get it to be the Christmas No. 1 for 2019 and they invited choirs & singers from all over the country to take part in the recording. Over 2,000 people of all ages, including school children, made the trip to London to take part. I sing with Leatherhead Choral Society and we decided it would be a really worthwhile project to be a part of. So having rehearsed together we made our way up to the Coliseum to actually record the song. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by the English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus and most exciting of all Sir Bryn Terfel, Lesley Garrett and Alice Coote!
An Elephant on Dartmoor
An early Spring break took us to one of my favourite parts of England – the South West and I would thoroughly recommend the pub we stayed in.
We were staying in the tiny village of Horndon, just north of Tavistock in Devon, on the western tip of Dartmoor. We stayed at the unusually named Elephant’s Rest, which apparently was named after a previous rather portly landlord who weighed in at 20+ stone and who served his customers by swivelling around on a stool behind the bar. One of his regulars told him he looked like an elephant sitting on a nest, and so the pub was re-named.
The dinner menu was very English and the pub prides itself on only using locally sourced fresh produce, including locally farmed beef, pork and lamb, fish delivered fresh every day from St. Ives and cheeses from Tavistock. I can never resist a Steak & Kidney pudding and mine certainly lived up to expectations.
Breakfast next day was exceptional (recommend the sausages) and it was also accompanied by visits from the pub’s dog Bertie, a Glen of Imaal Terrier, who looked like a teddy bear in doggy form. His party trick on realising there were sausages around, was to sit up on his back legs and look longingly at your plate – he didn’t have any luck with us though, it was all too delicious to give away! So now fully fuelled up I was taken on a bracing long hike across Dartmoor where we encountered troupes of students practising for the Ten Tors and preparing to camp out on the moor (it was 3˚C during the day!). They seemed scarily excited about the prospect while all I could think of was getting back to the log fire in the bar at The Elephant’s Nest!
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The Delicious Eternal City
Where would be the perfect destination to take your food, wine and ancient history loving daughter? Rome of course! So that is where I went with my daughter, Rachel, when she was on a recent visit from New Zealand where she now lives. One of the downsides of living in such a wonderful country is that you can’t just ‘pop’ across to Europe – New Zealand is just such a long way away from anywhere else!
We enjoyed the perfect break in the Eternal City. I had my very own guide who could put all the Roman Emperors into context when wandering around The Forum and could explain the importance of Hut Urns (literally Urns shaped like huts) for the Etruscans – I always knew that degree in Ancient History would come in useful one day. But I think what really made our trip was the food, the lovely B&B we stayed in and the Prosecco on tap.
Our B&B – Bibi & Romeo’s ( http://www.bberomeo.com) – was a ten minute walk from the Vatican and the owner, Romeo, took the time to show us the easiest ways to get to all the sites, the best restaurants nearby and little tricks to get the most out of our visit. His first restaurant recommendation, Hostaria Dino e Tony, Via Leone IV, was just around the corner. We strolled there on our first evening and waddled back. No menus, we were just offered the antipasti, plates of meats and breads, followed by pasta – ‘red’ and ‘white’, one would have been enough, but two bowls each just about finished us off. We had to turn down the meat or fish course, but the desserts were too good to refuse.
I think our other favourite was actually a recommendation from one of Rachel’s uni friends, La Prosciutteria (http://www.laprosciutteriaroma.com), which is in the Trastevere area of Rome, all small cobbled alleys just south of The Tiber and full of bars and restaurants, lovely to explore in the evening. The restaurant is tiny and at the back of a delicatessen. You just find a space on one of the wooden tables, pull up a crate to sit on and order the meat platter, which was piled high with olives, salad, meats, cheeses, bread and fruit, all for €10 each, washed down with Prosecco – it was simply divine.
I would like to think we walked off all this food by exploring all the ancient sites, the Vatican and simply strolling around the streets, but somehow I doubt it!
Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing agency and communications agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, food and drink pr, digital and foodservice design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.
Local Foodie Discovery
I have just discovered a wonderful new foodie shop in Fetcham, near Leatherhead, called Greenwise, and if you care about the quality of the food you eat then this is definitely the shop for you.
They specialise in organic, Fair Trade, locally produced food – even down to Fetcham Honey! And for those who suffer with lactose, gluten and sugar intolerances it offers a huge range of foods, plus wonderful fresh produce. You can wander around the shelves, salivate at the foods on offer from around the world and sample one of the little tasting samples on show – perhaps some locally produced lemonade or a fresh smoothie. Then once you have got your taste buds interested you can sit and enjoy a coffee or may a Red Espresso made from Rooibos Tea – caffeine free and full of anti-oxidants – and of course accompanied by a locally made cake (gluten and sugar free). On my latest visit I bought a tub of Pina-Colada flavour coconut ice cream, which is dairy, lactose and soya free – so delicious with fresh strawberries or raspberries – quite a revelation!
This is obviously a shop that cares deeply about the food it sells, its provenance and its health benefits. Their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/greenwiseshop is well worth a visit to see what they have on offer.
Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing agency and communications agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.
Walking away the winter blues
After a busy year at the leading foodservice marketing agency and a hectic festive season, what better way to drive away the post-Christmas blues than a weekend in an old English village pub? That was our excuse to stay at The Tower Inn in Slapton, a tiny village in South Devon, between Salcombe and Dartmouth. The Tower Inn is about as quaint as you can get – sloping floors, roaring log fires and almost entirely lit by candles. The pub stands next to a crumbling tower (hence the name) that belonged to a 14th century ecclesiastical school that used to stand on the site.
The village itself is set around windy country lanes and is a short walk from Slapton Sands which is a glorious expanse of sand with a nature reserve behind it, but a bit bleak for walking in February! The sands are famous for being used by the American Army in April 1944 to rehearse for the D-Day landings. However it turned into a tragedy as hundreds of American soldiers were killed by the use of live ammunition to make the exercise as life-like as possible. A disused American tank still remains as a memorial to those who died.
The area is perfect for walking, a wonderful mixture of coastal and inland footpaths – we were spoilt for choice – and the weather was ideal, bright sunshine with a little bit of a brisk wind, and of course we had the Tower Inn to come back to. What can be better than being able to step out of your room and into a warm old English pub, with local ales and a wonderful dinner to look forward to?
Locally caught seafood was a feature of the menu – mussels, sole and fresh fish of the day. I really enjoyed a roast pigeon breast risotto, a meat I had never tried before, but it was delicious and I followed it up with a selection of English cheeses. The pub also had a good range of English wines from the West Country – this pub really knows how to make the most of the wonderful food and drink we British can produce. The breakfast also lived up to expectations, of course you have to have the full English, and it was eaten beside a log fire and by candlelight which was the perfect antidote to the pouring rain which greeted us on Sunday morning!
Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing and communications agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.