Bumbag Motel

We went to watch Morri play football for the third time – 3 games, 3 wins and this time they won the cup too!

5 minute drive from Chideock brings us to Lyme Regis, a gorgeous town on the coast where Mary Anning found some of the first dinosaur bones! Valerie recommended reading ‘Remarkable Creatures’ before going, which was an excellent suggestion as it’s all about those discoveries and the impact that it had on society.

Pretty sweet coastline, looking down to the ‘Golden Cap’.

Cam finding us some fossils. The coast is full of this black exposed rock with all the lines of history peering out of it and seeping with water.

Our attempt at group photo and search for the ‘golden cap’. Emma is pretty happy here, midway through eating a ‘gazillionaire’ – SO much chocolate and caramel, big sugar high happening right now.

Final dinn dinns in the only pub in town ‘the George Inn’ – massive tasty mains, great service and delicious beverages to finish off an excellent weekend of UK exploration!

Today is was farewell to the Shoe Inn, in the car and off to explore…

The Dorset countryside, as seen from Corfe castle.

The adorable small village that surrounds said castle. This area is the inspiration for Enid Blyton’s Famous five tales, she is also well known for creating old mate ‘Noddy’.

Smaill and I getting amongst the castle ruins. pretty premium location here, great to read about its history (mostly dire). After Corfe castle we ventured to the coast, to stay in our own cottage in Chideock.

Easter weekend was an exploration of Dorset, starting in the New Forest where animals such as the horses above roam freely about. Interesting concept known as ‘commoning’. Slower speed limits as they roam about the roads too.

Going to the wildlife park was definitely a highlight, with the otters above going crazy as their feeding time was changed by half an hour – and then we saw them fed (dead) baby chickens – nice treat for the kids to see at Easter. Got to see a lot of spectacular owls here, as well as wolves (for real!!), an albino wallaby and bison plus more. Never knew I would enjoy a wildlife park so much!

There was a lot of adorable thatched house observations going on.

We also inspected some fine establishments through the New Forest, the ‘Waterloo Arms’ being number one, followed by the ‘Montague Arms’ in a town called ‘Beaulieu’.

Pub number 3 was ‘the Trusty Servant’ in Minstead, which had wonderful food – pea and leek pie and wild mushroom and spinach pate were most excellent. From here we called into ‘the Red Rover’ and finished up at our lodgings ‘the shoe inn’. Busy explorational first day!

Above is one of the best feasts we have served up at the people’s kitchen, from left to right we have John’s vegie burgers with an amazing dark caper sauce, the best ratatouille I’ve had, spinach risotto, roast vegie, fried plantain (just learnt about these in the past year – they’re a cross between a banana and potato and are sensational!) especially dipped in the herb and pepper sauce. Hot dang they were good eats!

We were also treated to a fine performance from ‘the lion and his cub’, they had to play in the storage area as it was s-n-o-w-i-n-g!! Their humourous and tuneful tales were very well received.

This saturday was very busy, snowy and cold. My early afternoon was spent biking through the snow, collecting food for the people’s kitchen, then it was off to see the Streatham Redskins play ice hockey in Brixton. First live experience with this game, and it was pretty intense, the slamming against the perspex and spectator enthusiasm making for an entertaining evening.

The somewhat agressive title of this post refers to the NZ band ‘Die!Die!Die!’ who we saw play at the Hoxton Sqaure Bar and Kitchen. So excellent to hear their familiar, energetic and raucous sounds, and have some catch up bevvies with Ryan above.

Braved the cold and the sodden fields to watch Morri’s semi final for the Southern Amateur League Cup! Cam, Wakefield and Simba braving it well above.

Morri’s team is in the red ‘Poly’ – and they won! Second time as spectators, second win – think there’s a theme.

I helped cook this Monday night as a fundraiser with the Brixton People’s Kitchen. We cooked a fine feast (if I do say so myself) with roast tomato soup and cucumber chilli bruschetta for starters, borlotti beans with roast vege and carrot and rice balls in a pepper sauce for the mains then banana sour cream pie and plum crumble for dessert! Best of all it’s mostly made from surplus food donated from shops in South London!!! Fan did a great write up on the blog, on what was a very busy and rewarding evening.