Having a design/sculpture/art/crafts day today which led me to two great sites I’ve not been to before. Firstly, This Is Colossal, which is a blog of beautiful art and sculpture creations which are beyond anything mankind can create, I’m sure everything on it is made by space aliens. Secondly, Etsy, which is a much better alternative to searching for custom art and sculptures than my normal haunt (eBay). Everything here seems to be amazingly cheap as well! My favourite find is… MultiColoured 3D Butterfly (which I bought).
On thisiscolossal, I really liked Abby Diamond’s art that you can see at this website. It really reminded me very much of a beautiful hummingbird picture that I bought recently from Art Republic…
Had a fantastic meal (13th of April 2012) at this small but cosy restaurant in Horsham last night. The staff were excellent, very relaxed and friendly. The food was brilliant as well… I loved the amuse bouche then the great starter of crab with goats curd. Main course was a lovely beef rib and daube (which is a posh word for cheap braised beef but tasted fantastic). But the pudding – “Pineapple carpaccio, passion fruit curd, white chocolate & lavender” made me have a very special moment indeed. In fact if I wasn’t already so full it would have verged on the religious! I guess my only comment was that the side dishes were a bit limited in scope but overall it was a great meal and I’ll definitely going back. Now I’m going to ruin this post with a truly terrible photograph of the alternative pudding of “Banana tart-tatin with parsley ice-cream”…
Oh that reminds me, there was another pudding on the menu… ”Carrot, meyer lemon, stem ginger”. Carrot what? cake? raw? stew? I wonder if anyone has ever ordered this pudding without having the staff reassure them it’s not just a carrot with a lemon and some ginger (-:
Am just recently back from the most *amazing* place… the Ice Hotel in Sweden. It’s actually in the Arctic Circle… and I bet like me you had no idea what the Arctic Circle really is? It ain’t an Arctic Roll so don’t get any smart ideas. I’ll let you google the answer (-:
So the holiday was for three nights… and I must say it was stunningly expensive. The reason is all of the trips on offer – as it’s kind of a once in a lifetime sort of trip you want to cram in as much as possible. So this meant:
Snowshoe walking / cross country skiing : (you get put in a sled behind a snowmobile and taken out into the countryside to fall on your ass a lot and make snow angels)
Snow-mobiling : Now I know what it must be like for women to drive (yeh, I went there hehe) as driving a snowmobile is like trying to steer a cat! Was amazing fun though and the trip included an awesome lunch (reindeer) in a traditional tent thingie. Most enjoyably another couple hit a tree.
Reindeer sledding : Now I was expecting to be put onto a sled and pulled along by a few reindeer for thirty minutes. What actually happened was that we went and fed the reindeer, lassoed them, took them to our own sled each, hooked them up and then went off into the snowy wilderness for a couple of hours!!! It was amazing and so beautiful and quiet. You could just sit/stand on your tiny sled and look at the animal tracks in the snow or the beautiful scenery. Afterwards we had a traditional lunch (reindeer) in a tent which was fab.
Night time visit to space centre and then dinner under the stars (via snowmobile) : I have to confess I really wanted to bring the girl who took us on this trip home with me as she was very cool. She looked timid and shy and about 7 but like most locals in this part of the world she was tough as nails. She described her wilderness school where the final test was being blind-folded and taken out into the country (in the snow) and left for a week to survive with no food and just a knife. Well I say just a knife – but she did tell us she threatened to “slit a tourists throat” once when the disobeyed her on a trip. So she gave us a tour of the space centre, took us out on snowmobiles at night then cooked us all dinner (reindeer) – very cool!
Night-time pony trekking : Yes, pony trekking. Yes, ponies! This evening trip was hilarious… a group of us were taken to a farm and had to brush and prepare our poniez, saddle them up and then take them out in the pitch dark for an hour in the woods to see the northern lights (more on those later). Now I ain’t very used to the company of poniez so when the girl introduced me to mine and said “you can go up to her stable now” I blurted out “what, with my pony?!”. She did well not to burst out laughing. The night ride was awesome and then A MIRACLE HAPPENED… yes, our guide made us dinner in a tent and it wasn’t reindeer!!! It was moose (-:
Husky Sledding : Wow this was so so cool. 11 very excited dogs took us in groups of four per sled out to the countryside (to be honest it’s ALL countryside out there) for a few hours with a break for coffee and cake half way out. It was beautiful and silent once we’d got going and the goggies were very friendly and beautiful (yeh I said that too). I learnt an amazing fact on this trip… huskies can crap at full running speed. It’s quite a hilarious sight – imagine running at full speed with your legs apart as you poo… not elegant in any way!
A night on a block of ice : yeh you have to actually pay to do this… the rooms and suites in the ice hotel were amazing, apart from the cheapo ones that are just an empty room with a block of ice. There are armchairs and sculptures all made out of ice and are so imaginative. One room even had an ice pinball machine in it. The mechanics of sleeping in one of these rooms is that you pee (as there are no loo’s in the cold part of the hotel), put on just a base layer of t-shirt and leggings and some thick socks and a hat. Then you collect your sleeping bag and leg it over to the ice-hotel and find your room. None of the rooms have doors by the way so make sure you go into the right one! Once in the room you dive onto your bed which is literally made entirely of ice although it does have a super thin small mattress on it then lots of reindeer furs on top. After taking lots of photos and fixing the damned sleeping bag which has just broken the bloody zip you then apparently have a great nights sleep. Everyone else said they had a good nights sleep but I woke up at 3am boiling hot but with a really cold head – the only part of me outside the sleeping bag – and each breath froze inside my throat and I thought I was going to die. I didn’t though and managed to get back to sleep (-:
Dinner in the hotel restaurant which was awesome but also £240 and it only included two glasses of wine!
However I could not fault it – three days of amazing activities, two goats, loads of reindeer, wild moose, huskies, poniez and ice! The weather was amazing – only -16 at night and between -10 and 0 in the day time which is fine – a couple of months before it was -42 there and apparently hell!
Oh… and I saw the Northern Lights again. I have no idea why I capitalise the words as they were once again crap. And I’m fed up of meeting people who say there were stunning! I’ve only ever seen them as green/white splodges in the sky and nothing like you’d see on National Geographic.
Here are a couple of pics to finish… first the most awesome company car ever…
Next a nice relaxing sit on a chair made from ice…
How could I not love a pub that has the same name as one of my favourite films? The Fountain in Ashurst is part of the same group as The Swan in Fittleworth. Both are really excellent pubs with a great menu and excellent food. I am addicted to the burger at The Fountain – I just love it when you order a burger and they ask you how you want it cooked – that still seems rare in the UK…
The other great thing about the burger is the bun it comes in – so many places get this wrong and give you something made out of wood, but this bun is moist and soft and fails to do its job of keeping the juicy burger from trickling up your arm (which is of course the best thing). I’ve tried a few other things off the menu and they’ve all been lovingly prepared and come out of the kitchen really quickly. I can’t fault the place at all, they even have a cute duck pond.
Yes, it’s true, I am still stuffing my face at every opportunity. Since moving to Storrington I haven’t visited many of my old haunts, but there are some great places around here, I may even forgive it for being -6degrees last night!
Two favourites so far are The Fountain in Ashurst and The Swan Inn in Fittleworth. Both are owned by the same family and have really interesting menus of traditional British food very well done. The burger (even though I’ve banned myself from eating a single burger in 2012 which means I’ve eaten one nearly every damned week) in The Fountain is awesome.
Also worth a trip is The White Horse in Storrington itself, excellent staff and a nice Sunday lunch. The only thing lacking is a bit of atmosphere which is common with many restaurants in small hotels, they just always feel a little too quiet. I had the garlic soup last time I visited which was so amazing – but I couldn’t go within 50ft of anyone for 4 days afterwards. Small price to pay if you ask me.
The Chardonnay Restaurant – yes, it really is called that. I am not sure if I should recommend this place as although the food was excellent it was like dining in an old peoples home. The menus were plastic coated and you were given both olives and wait for it… bombay mix as you waited for your table. Olives and Bombay mix are always a favourite combination of mine, like beef stew and ice cream or wood shavings on toast. The food was good though and huge portions. I’m really torn as to whether I recommend it or not!
The Pass at South Lodge Hotel received a well earned Michelin star last year, the restaurant takes special care over the provenance of the food it serves which is always a great touch. It was the first time I’d dined in restaurant inside a kitchen and it was great fun (although when you book you have to make sure you get a table near the action as there are a couple of tables with terrible views). You can even get closer to the action and go and see them prepare your meal itself. It must be *murder* for the staff though knowing they are under constant scrutiny from customers – no shouting or swearing allowed!
I couldn’t find a website for The White Lion in Thakeham but it’s tucked away down a pretty street and is a very traditional, busy local pub that serves great food. The menu is really extensive with lots of specials and they also do some *huge* kobe steak burgers. Not that I’ve had one of course, cof. The only slight issue is the mushroom farm nearby which is pretty intense! Lovely food and service though.
Vintage Rose cafe in Storrington does fantastic sandwiches and cakes if you’re after something lighter. A huge menu and the crayfish tail with rocket sandwiches are excellent
OK so just in case you’re in two minds whether to read When God Was a Rabbit here is a beautiful quote from it where Elly and her brother are out at see and find a buoy with a bell on it…
“‘More than creepy, We shouldn’t be out here,’ I said as I ran my hand across the rough cold metal, and as my brother started the engine, the bell suddenly struck its note and I fell to the floor in tears. I told my brother I had slipped, caught my foot on some rope. But what I never told him was that as the bell chimed, the metal suddenly felt warm; as if it had secretly craved the scanty touch of human contact and the sound it had so suddenly made was actually the sound of its pain.”
I’ve just finished reading the beautiful When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman… it’s an odd book with a very strange and beautiful title (a near perfect title I think). In terms of story – one of growing up with secrets and sadness and love – it’s not actually that great. The problem to me was that there was just too many different characters and themes and timespans… and it was like every character in the book was the central one. But that really leads to the strength of the book in that every person was brilliantly drawn and rich, especially Arthur who had been foretold the time and method of his death (both wrong!). I also loved the nature in the book, beautiful deer, the rabbit in the title and the other surroundings of the family home to name a few. Elly herself was a complicated, interesting character with a few chapters that really jarred with the rest of the book and the whole “disaster turned good” second half of the book was a step too far, arghhh but there were so many good parts! It’s odd to finish an often whimsical book like this then remember that it has child abuse, murder and cancer in it!
Well, it sounds like I really didn’t like this book – but I did, it’s a very worthwhile read but do so for the characters rather than the story and you won’t be disappointed. And just think – god could be a rabbit!
Another great restaurant to try in the Sussex area! First time I ate here I chose really badly off the menu – I think I had something called “lamb nuggets” (a lot posher than you might think!). They were really tasty but quite fatty and I’m a bit of a wuss with fatty food.
However we went back recently for lunch and it was superb. We chose from a selection of items on the menu, tapas style – including a delicious onion ring tower with parmesan, chunky gucamole with endive dippers and some fab smoked chicken and chorizo and 3 mini burgers that were cooked to perfection. There are a lot of other things to try out on this lunch menu and they have an equally interesting evening menu to try as well although it is significantly more expensive as you’d expect. The staff are nice, it’s in a beautiful building and afterwards you can mooch round Petworth and be made to feel inferior to all the antique shops you go into! (What is it with posh antique shops? They always seem so put out to have you wandering around their shops)
So I’d definitely recommend trying out this new restaurant, I’ll definitely be going back (possibly to consider pinching a nice bit of art near the entrance hehe)
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here is a beautiful quote from it where Elly and her brother are out at see and find a buoy with a bell on it…
