Day 5 - FFE - Cakes, Colleagues and Curry

Another overcast day hinting at sunshine greeted me this morning in Surbiton.  Piccola also greeted me, she is in charge of sleep monitoring and was very very busy last night.

My first order of the day was to ice my chocolate fudge cupcakes that I'd baked last night after our rain-soaked day in Brighton.  After the previous cupcake challenge I knew I had to step up my game a bit in the actual icing and decorating phase of the competition. 

I opted to do both a chocolate buttercream and an almond butter cream, piped in a delicate alp style and adorned with white chocolate accents, chocolate cake star cut outs, mini gold stars and gold cereal balls.  I wasn't going to receive lesser marks in the decorating department, not this time Mister!  After a few mishaps in the kitchen, really who says icing inside the toaster is a bad thing?, I managed to complete the process.  Meanwhile my competitor was cursing and swearing and wringing her hands in dismay.  She was peering through the oven door as her cupcakes both overflowed, and then sank in defeat.

Leaving her worries behind, we headed off to meet a few friends for lunch at Dish, a quaint eatery in Hampton Court Village. 



I had the traditional blt sandwich on lush seldom-seen white bread, my competitor had a salad, obviously still too upset about the cupcake fiasco to eat a proper meal.

After our meal, we went down the block to visit a place called Beanos.  If you have a dog, or a cat, or if you are the Aunt of a dog or a cat, or if you are the friend of a dog or a cat, or if you aspire to have or be had by a dog or a cat, you must visit this store.  The proprietor's name is Beano (obviously) and she is a regal beagle.  She rules the shop with a calm, refined demeanour and has hired excellent staff to do the heavy lifting and dexterous tasks. 



There were many many items to see, and we were short on time so we had to rush a bit.  The fortunate part is that this shop is located very close to Tiggy and Holly's Auntie's place of employment so she can easily pop back and pick up anything that we may need in the future.  In my quick visit I managed to find an adorable black muscle tshirt for Tiggy with a union jack flag in the shape of a dog bone, a fancy man style tie in a retro type striped pattern, and a sought-after pink polka dot knapsack/purse for Holly that came with a matching leash.  Shopping success!



We then hurried back to Hampton Court Palace so that Grace (my competitor and Tig's and Holly's Auntie) could attend a meeting.  Judging by Cathy's messy desk, this must have been a VERY important meeting.  Note, she has an industrial Henry vacuum cleaner on the corner of her desk.



Unfortunately by this time it was raining, so my photo walk was cancelled and instead I came in to update my blog.  I did manage to take a few pictures indoors while I was waiting to meet with some royal staff regarding Tiggy's application to be the 'Breed of Britain and the Look of London 2012'.

After the Queen, I managed to get an audience with King Henry VIII and a friend of his:

And as the rain had stopped I managed to have a look around.

I even saw one of the Queen's corgis at work:



Next on our agenda, was cupcake distribution, and then we left to head off to a garden store and a grocery.  My driver missed the turn off for the garden store, so instead we detoured to check out Pets At Home.

And then we went to the grocery store to pick up provisions for this evening's cooking challenge, Red Thai Curry ala Sarah.

Then we stopped in for tea at Liz's place, had a short visit, then had to leave to go home to cook dinner.  Poor Liz.

And that was our busy day.  





Day 4 of my FFE - Road trip to Brighton

We awoke to an overcast day and drove over to collect our driver Liz for our journey down to Brighton.  We made a brief stop Pease Pottage to pick up snacks for the trip:

A flat white for me and an Americano for our driver.

White Maltesers, not available in Canada.

An Apple.

And, then finally we arrived to pick up our tour guide in Brighton, after many trips in circles trying to find her street.

Our next challenge was to find a place to park the car, as the rain started to fall....We made our way to Bill's for brunch.

And found many items to our liking:

Next we were ready to commence our walking tour in the torrential downpour.  We saw many many interesting shops and encountered many interesting characters:

and then we had a fright:

So we decided to head home.

We were enjoying the scenery so much that we got lost just so that we could see more of it.







Day 3 - Fisher Family Experience (FFE) - Dogs, Hogs, and Rugby

Today in pictures:

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This is Gus, my surrogate dog while I am in England.

We met up with him and his HuMum Sharon, and his HuBro James for a walk this cloudy morning in Home Park.

This is Gus (on the left) and James (on the right) they both had a lot of energy, and liked to run.

and run

until I insisted on a stop for a photo op

and from a distance we saw Hampton Court Palace, and the seldom seen fountains, commissioned for her golden Jubilee, in 2002.

Me (on the left) and Gus (on the right).

And then we headed off to the game in Richmond, to see Jon's team

(Bedford Blues) in the semi-finals.

I opted for ice cream

 
That's Jon, my nephew, on the right, the tall one in front of the man in the solid blue top.

It was a beautiful day both in the sky and in the stands

Jon (without the black eye) and Sacha (with the black eye) in a serious (Jon) and a happy (Sacha) state after the match, which they won!

and this made his Fisher Family proud.

Day 2 - Fisher Family Experience (FFE)

I awoke to a dark and cool morning, of course it was only 4am (clearly jet-lagged) and looked forward to the day ahead.  Several hours later once the sun was up, (Grace NEEDS her beauty sleep) we ventured out sans vehicle on a walking tour to Surbition.

Twenty minutes later we arrived at our ddestination "The French Tarte"; a trendy suburban coffee stop with a french flavour which I can say for certain because I enjoyed my carrot and walnut cake :)  I also enjoyed a steaming cup of full-leaf Earl Grey tea, while my walking companion opted for blonde Americano and a petite baquette avec beurre et fraises.  We had a visit and a short while later we were joined by Liz of London for a brainstorming and marketing meeting, although I must say she was dressed rather casually for such an event.  Lastly Mister Barista joined us to finance the event.

After our meeting, Liz and I headed to Waitrose for a bit of shopping, and then home because someone needed a nap. 

The shoe recycling stop at Waitrose:

After nap time, we had our Vita Coco product testing, and then moved on to commence our bake off challenge.

Gracie Cakes is a known, trained and experienced baker and cupcake decorator.  Me, her opponent, never bakes but is highly competitive.  Of course Gracie Cakes did try to sabotage my efforts by giving me an unsuitable icing tip, but yet I persevered.  Once we had our final products, we enlisted Mister Barista for judging.  He donned his blindfold, and glasses, and tried the baked delights.  In the end it was a split decision, he preferred my cake both for quality and genuine chocolatey taste.  He favoured Gracie Cakes (because he has to) version for the boozy icing, and design.

Next stop was bed, someone was VERY sleepy.

Fisher Family Experience (FFE) - Product Testing - Vita CoCo

Today I assembled a spirited panel of experts to test a product that has piqued my curiosity in recent days/hours.

Our product of the day is Vita Coco, and according to the packaging it is like 'sticking a straw in a coconut'.  We'll see about that, mind you, I've never actually stuck a straw in a coconut, perhaps these means I won't have to.

We decided to try four available varieties, starting most logically with the plain 100% pure coconut water.  And our reactions? well, let's go to our tasters:

Liz in London - "disgusting" (clearly not one to mince words)
Graciecakes - "very sweet, lacking taste" (hey, just like, oh, um, never mind)
Martz, Mista Barista - well, we'll let the picture tell the story:

I was quickly deducing that this was a bit of a difficult crowd that maybe needed a bit of flavour so our next sample sip came from the Vita Coco with acai and pomegranate, sadly with similar reactions.  Here's Graciecakes striking a pensive pose and she ponders the berry blend:

Next I offered up Vita Coco - with pineapple, and well the results moved some of our testers to tears, happy tears at that.

Overcome with emotion, we took a moment to regroup and moved on to try the final type which was Vita Coco - 'natural' coconut water with peach and mango.  The general consensus was that this flavour was a thumbs down.

In conclusion the panels members agreed, Vita Coco with pineapple was the best of the bunch and as noted is an excellent hydration alternative to water and is packed with naturally occurring electrolytes with 20 times the potassium of the leading sports drink.

Day 1 - Fisher Family Experience (FFE)

My eventful journey came to an end as the plane touched down 40 minutes early at Gatwick airport. I'd survived an overweight carry on bag, an overly friendly seatmate, and witnessed a very vocal traveller complaining about someone's smelly feet negatively impacting her day (no it was not me she was complaining about). In any event, I was here and ready to immerse myself in Fisher Family cultural by way of the FFE 2012.

Sis picked me up and after a frightful highway drive, we arrived a Chateau Fish. Some changes since I'd been here last included, tree sculpting, fridge slimming, and a guest room makeover.

I settled in and began the difficult task of staying awake. Jon made me a designer latte, and the first commotion of the day occurred when I asked what I thought was an innocuous question, 'Do you have any sugar?'. Jon glanced at Grace, Grace glanced at Jon, cupboards were opened, drawers inspected, shrugs, and general confusion and eventually a crusty dated ceramic pot was retrieved from the depths of the kitchen and I bravely crunched through with my teaspoon. Note to self, sugar appears to have gone the way of the tree branches.

After my latte I succumbed to the duvet and had a luxurious nap. Wake up service roused me two hours later, and I was quickly jolted back to reality when I attempted to brush my teeth in very hot water. Note to self, remember that the taps are reversed in England.

Grace and I headed into Kingston to rendezvous with Liz. We stopped for a sugar free Red Bull and then went on to see her fantastically cool apartment. After a brief visit and retrievable of coffee syrups, we headed back to Chateau Fish to prepare dinner and partake of a typical Fisher Family Friday. Snacking on pakoras and onion bhajis, I had the resident barista Martz froth me up a vanilla latte.

Next Jon and Alex (not Britain's manliest man, but more on that later) stopped over, Matt joined us and travelling stylist Aaron entered the realm. Three haircuts and ready made (not available in Canada) Caramel Macciato later we sat down to enjoy our dinner of Jamie Oliver's chicken curry.

Tomorrow's agenda, includes pseudo-exercising, or at least dressing the part, a trip to the french tarte and adventures beyond.

I'm back! Stay tuned to follow my latest adventure!

Tomorrow I begin my journey to London, England to spend ten days in May living the Fisher Family Experience.

I'm aware that an agenda has been prepared, but details have been scarce. I am taking a deep breath and plunging into the experience wherever it may lead me, kale, guiness and all!