A whistle-stop tour...

...of the last two months.

I can't believe that it has been over two months since I last wrote anything.  That is terrible, truly terrible.  In my defence it has been a super busy couple of months - I feel like I've hardly had two minutes to sit still.

June was, in the most part, devoted to work.  I was at the NEC for nearly three weeks working on BBC Gardeners' World Live, it is my favourite shows to work on.  I love the transformation that happens, the amazing Floral Marquee and beautiful show gardens.

My first day back was the start of boot camp part II.  This time it was a two week course, I really enjoyed it and am noticeably fitter.  I also managed to lose a few inches!

My youngest sister came home from travelling in South America.  She has been away for over six months and I have really missed her.  It is lovely to have her back.  She arrived home with some amazing presents for us - I think my favourite is this super bright fabric.  I just need to decide what to make with it.

We've seen a lot of friends and family.  I popped over to Madrid for a long weekend to see my best friend C.  We had a lovely few days of tapas, wandering through the scorching streets and roof top cocktails.

And every other second of spare time has been devoted to house hunting.  We are now searching for our own home and have seen the best and the worst that is on offer!  We haven't seen anything that is quite right yet though so the search continues.  Watch this space...

Just another day at the office...

Things have been so busy here that I haven't had two minutes to put pen to paper, or whatever the modern blogging equivalent of that is.  I haven't taken any of the pictures off my camera, shown you my latest charity shop finds or raved about the Hockney exhibition that I finally went to see.

Something that has been responsible for keeping me so busy is also one of the most exciting things I've done in a while.  Last week I left the confines of my desk to do something a little different.  For the last few months I have been working on a brand new show, BBC Good Food Show Spring, and last Friday was the official launch at Bluewater.

We built a mini version of one of the theatres that we have at our main show and spent the day at the shopping centre with James Martin & Olly Smith doing little cookery demonstrations. I worked on the build of the theatre but also got more involved than usual with the actual demos.  I received the recipes in advance and worked out what ingredients and equipment we would need.  I did the shopping and brought most of the equipment from my own kitchen!  On the day I prepared all the ingredients, made sure that they were all set out in the right order and was even in charge of the "here's one I made earlier" dishes that they pulled out of the fridge!

Here are some pictures from the day.  It was long, exhausting but very good fun - I can't wait for the real thing!

 

Before and after...

I have just returned from working away in Glasgow on BBC Good Food Scotland.  The SECC became my home for the last week and it never ceases to amaze me that in just 6 days we can take an empty exhibition hall, fill it with producers, theatres and celebrity chefs, entertain thousands of people and then just as quickly it's gone!
I took some before and after photographs of the theatres.  I think it is pretty impressive but I guess I would say that!
From this...

To this...

And back to this again...

This was the Supertheatre, 500 seats, 5 demos a day and host to the MasterChef boys John Torode and Gregg Wallace and Saturday Kitchen's James Martin.  

We have some smaller theatres that have equally impressive demos:

I love the huge sense of satisfaction I get from seeing something that I have worked on for so long come to life, take shape and be enjoyed by so many people.  It is hard work and long hours but I wouldn't do anything else!

This is me & a colleague enjoying the very glamorous back stage facilities!

And to finish off or very own James Martin opening the show!

Sorry...

It has been an absolute age since my last post and I can only apologise.  There are reasons; I have been super busy at work, I have been travelling again for work and I am rather down in the dumps.

First things first:  work.  My show season is approaching and the office is pretty busy right now.  I have an event in Glasgow in three weeks and then another two before the end of November.  I find work at this time of year all consuming and struggle to think about anything else.  The only silver lining is that I love the shows I work on and it is amazing to see them come together.

In preparation for the shows I have been out and about to various meetings.  This week I flew to Glasgow for the day to taste the menu we will be serving at the MasterChef Restaurant we are running at our show.  The food was super yummy and I totally recommend lunch there and a day at the show for anyone who is nearby!  BBC Good Food Scotland at the SECC 21-23rd October if you are interested?!

So, onto feeling blue.  I am usually a positive person, very much a glass half full kind of girl but lately I have been out of sorts.  You see the thing is the husband and I have a plan, and step one of our plan is selling the flat we live in.  We've tidied and cleaned and de-cluttered and had some lovely photos taken and we've had lots of viewings.  But no second viewings and no offers yet.  It has only been two weeks but it has really affected me, much more than I thought.  I love our home and am disheartened that no one else has loved it enough yet.  And we can't move onto step two of our plan until this one is out of the way.

I have my lovely friend from Madrid staying this weekend and we have lots of nice things planned.  I am hoping that this will cheer me along and that normal service will resume shortly.

In the meantime I shall leave you with a photo of Bingo.  He always cheers me up!

Behind the scenes...

On Monday we received a SOS call from Westfield Shopping Centre.  They had been let down by the team who they were expecting to run their demo theatre at the grand opening.  We managed to get some of the MasterChef finalists to come and cook on stage; they sent over their recipes and we worked out a shopping and equipment list.

Westfield Stratford have a purpose built demo stage in situ as part of their Great Eastern Market so I headed down there on Tuesday morning.  I travel with my own bag of tricks as there are never any measuring spoons, blue plasters or enough tea towels.  The really essential items in life!

We had a great day and made some amazing dishes.  I managed to snap a few behind the scenes photos of the cookery demonstrations.

Apologies for the terrible photos - I only had my iPhone with me!