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Reaching the final of Masterchef 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotion, with huge highs and lows, but I loved every minute and learnt a huge amount. I owe a great deal to John and Gregg who had faith in my ability when I did not believe in myself. Since competing on the programme my life has changed considerably. I now write cookery columns for two magazines, give cookery demonstrations and am just working on my 13th cook book - unlucky number for some but not for me!!! I love all forms of country cooking, using seasonal and locally sourced produce. This blog is to enable me to share with you a few of my recipes and baking ideas. Enjoy Hannah xxxx

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Lawyering has been getting in the way of the niceties of life this week! On Monday I attended a mediation in London to try to settle a case - we started at 9am on Monday and finally reached an agreement at 4.30am the following morning - no breaks and being in the same room for 19 1/2 hours non stop can't be good for you! As we left the building the dawn chorus had started and the sun was rising in the distance. It was a surreal experience, believe me! Yesterday was a write off - I finally made it back from London by lunchtime - trying desperately hard not to fall asleep on the train and miss my stop and then spent the rest of the day talking gibberish - definitely not fit for writing on a blog! I am still tired today even though I have had a good nights sleep. Who would be a lawyer eh?

Anyway, to nicer things...On Sunday we celebrated Mike's birthday at the Inn at Woburn. Woburn is one of my favourite places and definitely worth a visit if you are in Bedforshire. Aside from the Safari Park (we loved this as kids), it has some nice shops (if you are female!), a nice tea room and an antique centre. It has an annual Oyster Festival in September which is definitely worth a visit. My favourite place is the sewing shop although sadly I was banned from going in on Sunday. Having shown Susan my stash cupboard on Saturday I realised that I really, really don't need to buy any more sewing things for a LONG while.

These are the delicious puddings we had at the Inn at Woburn - an artists palette of ice cream, gooey chocolate brownie and a blackberry and apple pie with real custard. All were delicious, as were the Happy Birthday petite fours. Happy Birthday Mike!

7 comments:

Celia Hart said...

Crikey - didn't know you could get 'jet-lag' from working as a lawyer!!!

Hope you have had chance to re-adjust your body clock and have spent time chatting with your hens (my under-gardeners are great for calming things down).
The City at dawn must have been so different from a working weekday.

Love that Happy Birthday writing!!!!!

Celia
x

Sylvie said...

What a lovely birthday treat!

Elke said...

You poor soul.Hope you recovered. Just put your feet up, have a lovely cup of tea and enjoy a lovely scone with jam and cream...the world is a better place already (works everytime for me ;-)

Marie Rayner said...

I know how you must have felt Hannah, as I frequently have to pull all nighter's at work. You feel like crap for quite a few days afterwards! Looks like a wonderfully delicious array of desserts you had at the Birthday celebrations. And that plate of petit fours, well, that takes the cake!

Anonymous said...

I am of the opinion that you need to jack in the lawyer stuff and just concentrate on being a foodie from now on ;) You certainly have the talent! I've also been still up at dawn, not through any choice of my own though. It's very strange and surreal, I really enjoy in a weird sort of way.

I know the Inn at Woburn, I live not 10 minutes down the road from it and love Woburn so much. As kids we'd cycle there and even now, despite passing through a million and one times over 25 years, I still love the deer park.

I also know of the sewing shop there too, she's a lovely lady that runs it. There's a gorgeous new yarn shop in Woburn Sands called the Knitting Hut, if yarns are your thing.

Angie said...

As a 'new' girl Ive been reading a few of your earlier posts. What a talented lady you are. I don't know how you find time for lawyering. Your cakes look sublime. Are you dowelling such as Grandma's birthday cake?
love, Angie, xx

JennyMac said...

Must be extremely good pay to keep those hours! Life is too short for that level of stress.