We were lucky enough to get tickets for the 40 Years of Williams F1 celebrations last week, so spent a fantastic day at Silverstone seeing some of the classic Williams cars being driven around the circuit, including the 6-wheeler and the FW14B. Karun Chandhok was like a kid in a sweetshop when he got the opportunity to drive the latter. This weekend has been our school’s annual reunion lunch, and since it’s 30 years since we left school, we decided to get a table of us together. Somehow, we managed to be the most badly behaved group there and the celebrations continued well into the evening. We even managed to drink one of the local pubs out of both white and pink Prosecco in the space of 5 hours …. oops! We now have a rapid turnaround before we head to Le Mans on Wednesday. I’m really not sure my liver will be recovered in time ….

Due to holidays and events, the deadline for ordering Father’s Day chocolates will be 5pm on Tuesday 13 June. Any orders placed after this time will not be dispatched until Tuesday 20 June.

This weekend we are spending the weekend in Filey. We set the date aside a while ago to scatter Dad’s ashes on Filey Brigg, which is where we scattered Mum six years ago. We’ve had a lot of run reminiscing over family holidays and enjoyed some fabulous weather, and on Saturday we managed to walk the section of the Cleveland Way from Scarborough to Filey. Last night we indulged in some Pornstar Martinis, which set my creative juices going. Watch out for a Pornstar Martini Choctail in the not too distant future.

Pah! Struck down with a stinky cold all week has meant that production had to be halted for the most part. Luckily the order book has been manageable, allowing me the chance to recover reasonably quickly. Frustrating that I haven’t been able to get out for a run all week – I did attempt a slow, short run, which wasn’t one of my best. Fingers crossed the germs will be gone next week so that I can get back to the kitchen.

This weekend we were exhibiting at the inaugural Essex Fine Food Festival at Chelmsford Racecourse. Despite a lot of advertising and promotion on social media, the public turnout was a little disappointing, and the traders didn’t do as well as we’d hoped. There were some wonderful food stalls at the show, and I managed to have a demonstration of a Thermomix, which I’ve been hanging my nose over for a while, although more for personal use than for the business! Over the last week we’ve been working on some new ideas for seasonal specials as well as restocking our standard lines. Keep your eyes open for some themed ranges over the next few months.

On Thursday, it was our fifth birthday. It seems hardly any time at all since we pushed the button to incorporate the business, but here we are, five years later, growing steadily year on year and still loving every minute of it. We’d hardly finished the champagne before we had to board another plane, this time a short hop to Dublin and a wedding. It was a full on weekend event, beginning with a Friday evening barbecue. The wedding itself was not until 3pm on the Saturday, so Mr D and I managed an early morning run around the hotel golf course before a late breakfast, still giving us plenty of time to primp and pamper before launching ourselves into the party, where we enjoyed plenty of food and drink and a substantial amount of dancing. I feel recovery will be a slow process ….

We’re back on the road. This weekend we are at the Essex Craft And Design Show at RHS Hyde Hall and the weather has been great so far with plenty of sunshine. Most of the week has been spent getting stock ready for the event, but we’ve also had to prepare wedding favours for a wedding next weekend, so it’s been a busy first week back. The Hyde Hall event is a four day event. Friday was a members day, and fairly quiet, but the weekend has been busy with people enjoying the local craft stalls, live music, and great food. It’s been sunny for the most part, although fairly windy, with a chill in the breeze. We’ve avoided rain so far, so fingers crossed the weather holds up tomorrow as well.

So we’re now at the end of our holidays. I’m looking forward to getting back to the kitchen tomorrow, but it’s been great to have a couple of weeks break. Monday was my birthday, and was spent travelling for the most part. We flew from Bahrain to Dubai with a 2 hour stopover, which allowed us enough time for some birthday bubbles and sushi for lunch, before our UK flight. We’d booked an airport cab home, so we managed to enjoy a few drinks on the plane as well. Tuesday was our wedding anniversary, and having spent the weekend eating far too much and exercising far too little, we both needed to get out for a run in the morning. We had lunch at the Boathouse in Dedham and also hired a boat for half an hour. Wednesday was zoo day. It’s been a while since we visited Colchester Zoo, and it was great to see the new developments since we last went, as well as seeing some of our old favourites. Thursday I was invited to the launch of a new business coaching venture set up by a very good friend of mine. I really hope Your Bright Horizons is the success it deserves to be. Friday I was allowed a brief moment of R&R whilst Mr D went to Rye House for the next round of karting, although not much, as by now I had an extraordinary amount of washing and cleaning to catch up on …. Saturday we took part in an 80’s Popmaster Live with the lovely Ken Bruce, and whilst we didn’t win, we could hold our heads up reasonably high. Today, being St George’s Day, we wanted to so something terribly English, so this morning we had a Full English Breakfast, and this afternoon we had an English cream tea. The only thing we’ve not managed to do is queue. All in all, we’ve had a rather splendid and extremely action-packed couple of weeks!