Good Food Show 2010
Wow I am SO FULL OF FOOD 
Today Moochy and I have been to the BBC Good Food Show at the Birmingham NEC and it was wonderful ♥ Moochy was so excited at the prospect that he had been awake on and off since 3:30am!
We left at 7:3o this morning and arrived at the NEC at9:50 after travelling through snow bound Stafford. We had booked to see the Masterchef Cook-off at 10:00 and I was convinced we werent going to make it ….but Moochy frog marched me to the arena and we sat down just in time. It was a 20 minute challenge between Matt Follas and Dhruv Baker who were both previous Masterchef winners. It was hosted by John Torode & Greg Wallace with Lisa Faulkner as Dhruv’s sous chef.
Matt made a chocolate fondant with lemon ice-cream (made with dry ice no less) and chocolate tear drops. Dhruv & Lisa made poached plums on brioche with jam & creme anglais – that’s custard to me and you Here is a tiny video of them all in action:
We were sat on the 2nd row and I have to tell you that the smells coming from the chocolate melting were fantastic. Even though Greg and John both seemed to think both dishes were scrummy, Matt’s Chocolate Fondant won.
After that we walzted around the NEC, passing and checking out the hundred’s of stands and stall and we were nothing short of blown away. Because we had arrived early the first couple of hours were great as the level of people was manageable, however after that it went mental as more and more people arrived and got hotter and hotter and much harder to get to see things. However, I’m not a fan of crowds so I think maybe my tolerance of fighting my way through a see of cheese eating people maybe much lower than others 
Moochy and I kind of had a stroke of genius as we took a small red wheelie case that I had when I worked at the (b*stard) St Helens council. It was great actually and even though it was a tad cumbersome in the squashiest crowds, it was great for carrying all the things we bought.. which included:
2 x Vegan Chocolate bars
1 x Bag of Shropshire Granola
1 x Snowdonia Cheese Trio
1 x Cheese bread
1 x Foccacia Bread
1 x White bread
1 xSlice of Carrot cake
2 x Chocolate Fudge Brownie
1 x Piece of Apple Strudel
1 x Slice of Bakewell tart
Lots of Christmas cake toppers
1 x bag of Malteser fudge
1 x packet of Pork sausages
1 x packet of Wild Boar & Apple Sausages
1 x packet of Pork, Venison & Mushroom Sausages
1 x Pork pie
1 x Pork pie with onion marmalade
And at this point in time I can tell you that at least half of them taste amazing as Moochy and I might have had a sneaky taste… the rest are for the Winter Barbecue which we are hosting tomorrow for Moochy’s family.
I can really recommend the whole day as a great experience and if you are a foody then you will think you have died and gone to heaven. Here are our photos, take a look in particular at me trying to eat/sleep on one of the cheeses from the hundreds that had been judged!
Compartmentalise
Hello there everyone!
Today has been a great day and a great distraction from some stress I am currently having. The stress is work related as the funding for my job (that I love) is ending in December and firstly there is still lots of work to do around finishing off my project. The second work stress is that a new tender is out for a sort of continuation of my work from 2011-13, but because of the coalition’s spending cuts, the new proposed method of doing things is very different with a very tight timescale to submit the tender. The third work stress is that with those two things going on, I am still doing all the other periphery training work and basically anything else that is thrown my way.
Don’t get me wrong, I like being busy, but there is a fine line between busy and overloaded. I am not quite overloaded just yet, but I feel a busy few weeks coming up…. better than the dole though either way.
Today was also day 3 of my ILM Level 4 Award in Management and we covered a little about group dynamics, and listening and note taking skills. I am really enjoying the course and even though the thought of doing a Level 4 assignment with Harvard Referencing terrifies me a bit, I am fairly positive I can do a good job.
Moochy has also been back to the Doctors to see about his heart problems… I don’t suppose you will know about that, it was pre-blog…. In a nutshell…
- He ran a 9mile trail race on a Sunday in September 2010
- On Monday night he experienced palpitations
- NHS Direct>Visit to On Call Doctor>A&E>Resus
- Heart Rates from 40 to 155
- Cardiac Care Ward for 3 days
- Very worried Gillibobs & family
On release from the hospital, he was put on Beta Blockers to slow his heart rate down and try to stop the Atrial Fibrillation (rapid heart rate) from occurring again. However, upon a trip to the docs 2 weeks ago our GP told him that his HR was 40 which meant that when he was asleep, it could be as low as 30. Not Good. His meds were reduced and tonight the doc took him off them all together and hopefully that means the end of the terrible tiredy Moochy who has been living with me zombie-like for the past few months.
Ohhh.. did I mention that Moochy and I are going to the Good Food Show at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday. We are also going to see Masterchef live too, so who know what wonderful things there will be on offer? Very excited
xxx xxx
