The Fabulous Baking Boys...

After a couple of weeks of travelling, this weekend I have curled my exhausted body up on the couch and caught up with some of my fave telly. This has included a dip into The Best of Saturday Kitchen - with Tom Kitchin making an amazing mallard and cabbage roll and James Martin pulling together a mouth-watering monkfish curry, all in the time it took me to have a couple of crumpets with peanut butter and a coffee. 

But I digress - easy to do when there's food involved.

The piece d'resistance of my comfy couch-based catch-up has been the quarter- and semi-finals of my favourite bastion of Britishness, The Great British Bake-Off.

Clever clogs: one of the contestants this series actually made this
(For the life of me I cannot remember who...sorry!)

I LOVE this show. There is something so quintessentially British about a bunch of baking boffins wielding their spatulas and icing bags in a big white tent in the middle of the English countryside. Having had a little go at baking myself, I can completely appreciate how skilled, clever and brave these men and women are, much more so than me. 

While I have, quite literally, not been in a position to experience the flavours and textures of scrumptious scones, donuts and petit fours, watching the critique from GBBO duo Mary Berry (great baking surname) and Paul Hollywood (super showbiz moniker) brings a smile to my dial every time. The contestants' trials and tribulations also make for many highs and lows in the baking rollercoaster. In the meantime, hosts Mel and Sue meander around the marquee revealing the human side of baking, providing words of encouragement, shoulders to cry on and a 'Mel and Sue' sandwich for each week's evicted baker.

L to R: Sue, Mary, Paul and Mel

After last year's all female final, this series has been ambushed by the men and Tuesday's Final will see Brendan, James and John battle it out for line honours. It has been a generational joust with the experience and exactitude of Brendan's years going head to head each week with 21 year old James' experimentation with form and flavour. And John - well 22 year old John has ridden the rollercoaster in between the two, producing both the awe-inspiring (like his gingerbread Colosseum in the quarter-final) and occasionally abysmal. He has also been the source of the greatest drama with a bloody injury mid-series saving all bakers from the usual weekly eviction (only for them all to face a double eviction the following week). I always knew puddings were not for the faint-hearted.

L to R: Finalists John, James and Brendan await news of their fate with Semi Final evictee, Danny

So on Tuesday we will see the back end of this season's BBC baking bonanza and after a joyful - and delightfully pastel coloured - romp through cakes, breads, biscuits and pastries, one of GBBO's fabulous baking boys will wear the crown. And it's really anyone's race - any one of these runners could snatch the winning bake by a nose. So I'm not sure who to put my money on.

What a shame it's too late for a trifecta.

Valencia...Que?

This blogging lark is a strange caper. We online literary hopefuls tap-tap-tap away in the hopes that people (that's you - in case you were wondering) will read all about our passions, woes and little foibles, whilst wondering what the perfect recipe will be to whet your appetite.


Anyhow for those of you uninitiated in the delights of blogging oneself happy, I think I speak for the majority when I say we bloggers love a stat or two. How many visitors pop in to check things out, where they come from (geographically and virtually) and which posts they read can add an elated squeal, a puzzled frown or, more often than not, a combination of both.  

A little while back, I decided to add my Top 5 Posts for the Week to the Gidday From The UK home page. It was a little experiment to see what Gidday-ers were reading each week and also designed to offer anyone with a little reading time on their hands, a quickie guide to my most popular posts.  

As you would expect, the most recent posts appear. Of late, both Did Somebody Mention Christmas? and 3 Sleeps To Go...A Little Pre-Christmas Cheer (from 2010 and 2011 respectively) have popped up. 

(Let's face it, the man in the red suit arrives in 74 sleeps and Gidday has probably appeared in a few early - rather too early for my liking - festive searches.)

But there are times when I find myself at a loss to understand why a particular post suddenly appears. 

I mean what's with the sudden surge of interest in Valencia?

Is there something happening over there that, being the Metro-less traveller that I've been this week, has passed me by? 

Is it football? Spanish flu? Last minute holiday deals? Or a sudden political scandal?

Can anyone shed a little light on this conundrum?

Travel Broadens The Mind...Let's Play!

I've been travelling of late so it's time for another dip into BA's business:life magazine for a few fascinating facts to top up your dinner party conversation. And in the spirit of all work and no play making for a rather dull life (as the saying goes), I thought we'd delve into the subject of play and what makes a Brit get 'social'.

First it has to be said that the divide between work and play is ever-blurred with 1 in 3 Britons meeting most of their friends through work. I concur heartily with this generalisation, my own personal experience being that much of this friend-making occurs after work. And with one year in the life of the average Briton spent drinking in the pub, I'd suggest that if you are feeling 'lonesome tonight', the best advice would appear to be polish up your drinking boots.

Speaking of drinking boots, did you know that £2.5bn is spent annually by British women on uncomfortable shoes? Me neither. (Although now that Seattle-A has departed these shores, that figure may come down a bit.)

Drinking boots come in many different shapes and sizes...

Another £1bn a year is donated lost by British gamblers in slot machines - perhaps these are the same people - the 44% of Britons - who don't consider pensions to be a source of retirement funding. Hmmm sounds to me like there'll be no more Choo Shoes for Granny.... 

But there's still plenty of fun to be had on the cheap  All you need to do is listen to the voice within, 58 mintues a week being the average time Britons have a catchy song stuck in their heads - probably from listening to the tune some ear-plugged and oblivious dude is availing everyone else of in the train carriage/bus/general vicinity. Or you could hang out down at the farm. Yes, 77% of farmers play music to their livestock - although I would not suggest getting jiggy with...well anything...while you're down there.

And finally let me astound you with a little bit of amazing arithmetic. There are 28.5 million cars on British roads and 10 million fixed penalty notices were issued to British motorists in the last 12 months. That's...um...*screws up face*...erm...*counts on fingers*...er...*resorts to calculator*...a little less than 1 in 3 vehicles that earned themselves a little special attention for speeding, having a broken headlight, not wearing a seatbelt (that'd be the occupants of said vehicle) or parking in the vicinity of a really confusing sign.

And if you find yourself a little short of paying, you can ask your retired parents or grandparents to release a little equity from their bricks and mortar - 31% will do it to help their nearest and dearest.

I wonder what the percentage is Down Under?

Mum? Dad?

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Travel Broadens The Mind - Back Catalogue
...It's A Virtual Life
...The Euro Zone
...All About The Readies
...Flights Of Fancy
...Or So They Say

Your 2012 Five A Day - October

Here we are in October and Violent Veg is paying tribute to everyone's favourite Fright Night...

But Halloween is not the only source of fear and trepidation this month.

Lil Chicky will celebrate the last birthday of her thirties in just 18 sleeps. I don't know quite where all the years have gone and quite frankly, I'm a little perturbed that next year, my 'baby sister' will enter the Naughty 40's.
 
The year is now 75% through and the shorter days on this side of the planet herald the end of British Summer Time on October 28th.

And let's not forget in 12 weeks time, we'll all be lying in bed listening for the rooftop patter of eight tiny reindeer...yes I'm afraid Christmas will be on us before we know it.

But in the words of Usman B. Asif:

'Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop.'

So fear not and let's face the month ahead with an anticipation about what unexpected curiosities and delights it might bring.
 
And I hope this month's Halloween thrills don't prove too hair-raising for you.

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Five A Day Back catalogue

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