The Blog...

I am just recovering from a 3 day celebration weekend for our 20th wedding anniversary and wanted to quickly give the following people, venues and acts a mention as they all helped to create a fantastic weekend for us.

The Wight Bear micropub - they gave us a right surprise down at our evening beach BBQ delivering two different takeout cartons of stout as they know that is my tipple. #deliverbrew They also supplied beer to be used at our party at the Cliff House Hotel the day after. They can do the same for you, or you can hire their pop-up tent as well.

The Cliff House Hotel - this is where we had our family day event. Tim and his team ensured everything just flowed and our friends said the staff couldn't have been more helpful. Everyone was very impressed, and so were Angela and I.

The PB Pocket Orchestra - although not local per se, we first saw them play at the Library of Liquor and then catch them at Chaplins Bar in Boscombe when we can. Brilliant people.

Lydia Hannah Davies - young, beautiful talented singer who is local.

Jules the Entertainer - something for the kids, who loved it, and by all accounts something for the adults!

DJ Allan Turner-Ward - Britain's Got Talent semi finalist, thoroughly nice chap, huge fun.

The Larder House - well, it wouldn't have been any other place for our main adult's night out would it? We took over the event on a busy Bank Holiday weekend and they handled it magnificently, as I knew they would. Our friends just loved it. We were able to use the Library as well, a hidden surprise for our guests.

The Floating Rum Shack - another surprise was also in store for our guests with Peter Holland working his Tiki magic right at the top, so another floor in the Larder House building for people to explore.

Enrique and his Salsa Explosion - after dinner, Enrique got the party really started with a Salsa class, which was really fun and got people involved, even the mother in law with a bad knee. Then people danced all night.

A huge thank you to everyone for making it a fantastic extra long 20th wedding anniversary weekend for us. Over the moon that we did it all in Southbourne.

#SoBo #BH6tillIdie #shoplocal

We've just been to Prague again, me for my fourth time and still loving the place.

Blog entry: Prague holiday where beer is cheaper that a soft drink

The first rule of Txoko Club is not to talk about Txoko Club. That doesn’t really help does it, to spread the word on the fun we had that night.

What is a Txoko?

It comes from a Basque (Northern Spain) region event which is a gathering of people that come together to socialise and to cook together. Traditionally it is male only, hence the reason why you see women with stick on moustaches so they can go under cover.

The Larder House has held a few of these already but this was the first one I was able to make time for, and the fact it was a seafood one sealed the deal in reality.

I've been meaning to write something up about Mr Lee's Noodles for a while and I’ve been putting it off for so long that they’ve only gone and updated all their branding and flavours! So, this blog is about their first release as I haven’t tried their new stuff yet.

Yes, Mr Lee is a real person, Damian Lee to be precise and he and the company are based here in Bournemouth. A business entrepreneur who has started many companies, whose story leads him to Bournemouth. I saw Damian tell his personal story at a local marketing event, Once Upon a Time, at the Shelley Theatre in the summer of 2016.

I've grown up with rice and noodles from birth. Noodles has been a staple part of my diet, when I say diet I mean general eating rather than healthy mindful eating. The noodles I have been used to are the packet ones with a bag of soup base powder full of flavourings and not necessarily MSG either, and a sachet of oil to boot. The Chinese noodle pots are pretty similar as well. My student years were all about instant noodles and a fried egg on top.

I've seen the business appear all over social media (Twitter and Instagram) and I like the way roll. Spring roll? Looks fun. Ho fun? Asian culinary based banter, it's a thing now.

These pots are in the low calorie range and being marketed as healthy, with no nasties. So, how will they stack up on the flavour and filling tests? At first I was a bit apprehensive about writing anything as I’ve seen the people behind it, their messaging and so on but I didn’t want any bias coming across and what if I didn’t like it. What if I prefer the mass produced deep fried instant noodle variant? Some of the other blogs I have seen were a bit too fawning and cheesy let’s say, and Korean Cheesy Noodles is also a thing.

You know what, I’ve just got to put it out their and as they say, your mileage may vary - but that’s OK.