Masterchef
There are two people who own the company - both have nice big houses which they use to put up teenage Pot Noodle eaters. The house I was in was awesome - a load of bedrooms, nice new kitchen, just by loads of fields - great view. The man of the house is a hotel owner, chef & caterer, land owner & shooter. He owns 15,000 acres. Dude. That's 45,000 times the plot of my house or somethin'. So yeah, pretty well off. It's his wife that runs the CookAbility side of things though. There were 2 other guys & 4 gals on the course - here's the group photo:
The two on your left hand side are at school together in Taunton (where the course was), and were constantly flirting & denying anything & everything. The two 17 year old gals in the middle are 'all girl school goers', and yeah, they were... pretty close... :P Nah they both have older boyfriends - one is with her 29 year old boss! Lol and the other blonde, on the right, phoned me while I was on the train back home, withheld her number & read a page of erotic literature to me then hung up :S She was very bored... Ahem... The Frodo lookalike at the back used to go to Holmwood House & knows a load of Felsted people - & he's applying to Newcastle, so might see him in a while. Both the guys were smokers, unfortunately, but they were kewl.
Ugh... they have a hot tub in the back garden... Mmm... damn that's good, always improved by the company of the two bikini clad blondes ;) So spent a good hour or two in there most nights. Went down the local pub a few nights, a karaoke night included, in which we all participated - 'twas a good laugh. One son of the hosts came along & sang 'Combine Harvester' by The Wurvels, in his wellies - in true Somerset farmer style:P He's 23, runs his own 60k-a-year fencing company (as in putting up fences), and is going out with a 35yr old University lecturer. The other son is a navy bomb disposal officer, so quite a varied & successful family, eh?
Anyway - the cooking. Cooked a whole load of starters, mains & desserts, including pâtés, roulades, pizzas, pastas, curries, roasts, cakes, tarts, cookies, brownies & a gorgeous banoffee pie. We didn't all get to do everything, but still learnt a lot. Here's my self-made pizza (didn't get to it with the camera before it was cut in two:P):
And here's a delicious pudding we all made:
If you aren't drooling yet, you should be:P So had a good time, & can now put my skills to use at home... maybe... Coz my dad's even more disabled than he previously was - he's still on crutches after a knee op, a month or two later got diagnosed with diabetes, then rheumatoid arthritis in his hands, accelerated by using crutches, so he now uses a wheelchair around the house. So I have plenty to do at the moment, including driving him to Springfield almost as many times as I needed. Which reminds me - think I need to book my monthly checkup. Have just started on some heart pills - one a day for 6 months or more, but nothing too serious. Heh the side effects are listed to be the same as chemotherapy & more, but luckily aren't very common:) Hopefully I'll be allowed to scuba dive later on in the year - fingers crossed. My next trip will be to Nice on my French language course in mid-April :D can't wait. Anyway, that'll do for now, you all know my email address for any catering requirements ;)
Eat lots.
