Nairn to Oban via Loch Ness

 

Celia Brooks Food Tour

Last weekend I went on a food tour around the Belgravia and South Kensington area, with a chef/author Celia Brooks the tour started in a chocolate shop called Rococo which some very tasty chocolates. 

Over the road, the second stop was a cheese shop for a short cheese tasting. I did think about getting one cheese but s I am away next week, didn't seem like a good plan however tasty.

Lunch was at a Lebanese restaurant and then to Harrods food hall for a quick trip around and to pick up some macaroons. The food hall is very impressive but after seeing some the prices I wasn't so impressed. £5 for a punt of Strawberries. Insane. 

Harrods macaroons.

They do impressive cakes

Only for the rich

 The last stop was wine tasting. The shop was very cool with a lot of variety.

And they cater to some very rich clients apparently.  This Cristal is worth over £8000. I dared not get any closer, but the feet give some perspective.

After we grabs some bottles and went to a cook shop for a drink and chat. I was very restrained and did not purchase any cooking gadgets. (I refused too look - my kitchen is way too small for anything else and I am saving the last little bit of room for a blender.)

The tour came with some discounts at the shops so I got some chocolate and some gin. They didn't have the one I have been looking for but this one was intriguing. 

new bottle in my gin collection.

Wine and cheese

I went to a cheese and wine course this weekend, hoping to make more friends in the area. As usual I was the youngest by about 20 years. (I need to rethink my event selection!) I got there early and found it was a house. So waited outside for some time int he freezing cold - I am not just going into someone house on my own. (I have seen Criminal Minds!) There were about 18 others and lots of cheese and wine.

Cheeses

We were usually given 2-3 wines and 2-3 cheeses and decided which combinations we like the best. But to be honest after 10+ cheeses and wines, I just lost track and enjoyed. (We had about 18 different wines I think.)

Some favourites

There was also a light lunch provided which was a very good thing by this point. Lots of fun but required a nap when I got home! 

VT Cheese Festival

One of the best things about Blacksburg in the summer is the number of festivals. There seems to be one pretty much every weekend. This weekend was the first Virginia Tech Cheese Festival. Thankfully it was held indoors at the Moss Art's Centre as the weather this week has really heated up - 90 F with ~80-90% humidity (I wish I was joking about the humidity level). I have been working from home as much as possible as my office is generally in the summer 10-20 F hotter than outside and like a sauna.
I decided to go to this one on my own as it was easy than trying to organize people so I got the bus down there.

Outside the Arts Center

With the ticket, you get a free drink. Someone warned me that I should get a drink first as the queues inside were long and it would be more pleasant with a glass of wine. You don't have to tell me twice. So I grabbed a glass of Riesling and a bottle of Sprite (which turned out to be an excellent decision). Unfortunately the lady was right about the queues and the wine didn't make it to the first tasting!

Cheese

My favorite (they even gave me extra free cheese later!)

 Overall it was not very well organized. They had about 15 vendors split over 3 floors. But each floor only had one queue, so you had to wait in that one queue to try any of them. Even if you didn't want to try some. And they only had 2 drinks vendors, both on the ground floor. Hence why I was very happy to have the extra drink. If you are in a group, you can send someone on a drink run, but I would have lost my space in line and have to start again. Not going to happen.

Very long queues.

Also a lot had bread or crackers with the cheese on, which makes sense. But for someone who can't eat wheat, it sucked!

Looks good

 At least VT can make fun of itself. That the only explanation I have for the amount of cheese related merchandise.

Cheese everything

Cheese hat anyone?

 The Moss Arts Centre is very nice and though I was standing in line for a long time, the view was pretty good at times. And, when not so pretty I had my book. That is when not eavesdropping on the sometimes bizarre conversations around me.

Cathedral style windows

They also had live music outside which was good (though they must have been melting), but as everyone was inside and couldn't hear it, I was a little confused as to why.

Music

 And they had a little petting zoo. Well, some cows and sheep. The calves were so cute. :-)

Chilling in the sun

So cute.

teenagers!

On the way home, I stopped by the UPS store to buy boxes. I am starting to organize my packing. However it was not fun getting them home on the bus!
On the evening, I cooked dinner (the cheese and broccoli bakes sort of worked) with a cheese platter of my recent acquisitions for dessert.

Gouda, Fetina and cubes of horseradish cheese.

Sadly I was woken up in the middle of the night by a bug bite on my leg. It didn't seem bad during the day. Now it is roughly the size of my palm. :-( And the itching is driving me crazy!!!!

 On Sunday I attempt to sell some of my clothes at a consignment store. Apparently my style is too old. Very insulted. But they only want clothes for teens and considering the clothes they had, I think I should be happy to say I don't have any of those. But I did have a nice meal at a friends house on his deck to end the day, so not a complete loss.

Whale Watching

Sunday we intended to be up and out and either at the beach or science centre in the morning. That didn't happen. We slept in instead! I was exhausted after the drive and late night so it was very needed.
In the afternoon, we drove down to Long Beach to go whale watching. We didn't get much time to look around the area before getting on the boat but it looked fun. There were some cute little building. I would have liked to spend a bit more time there. Maybe next time I am in LA.

Lighthouse

Along Long Beach Marina

Long beach

Music theatre 

Once we got on the boat, we grabbed some seats and some drinks. Though I had to drink my wine quickly when the boat started off as it was a little windy and rocky.

Enjoying a drink on the boat

While still warm

Trying to keep my top down - breezy!

Once out of the harbor, we found a pod of common dolphins.

Dolphin!

Momma and baby!

After watching the dolphins for a while, we moved off to find doe whales. We didn't see any Blue whales, which were the ones we were looking for but we did see some (or maybe just one moving about a lot) fin Whales. They are the second largest animal on the planet and still cool.

Always see the spurt first

Diving down

Most of my photos are of the whales back as it dove under. But I was so excited I managed to get a picture of its face. They are odd looking whales. But you can see the mouth and blow hole.

Fin whale just coming up

We were hoping to see a tail flick. But apparently it is rare so see them with Fin whales as they are so big, it is usually just too much enough to flick their tail up. So I need to go see humpback whales so see the tail flick. 

We were really lucky with the weather (given the last few days). It was cold enough with the wind and we were very glad we had brought our jackets with us.

Sunny ride

Crane ride

When we got home we celebrated seeing whales by opening the $75 bottle of wine (it really was worth every cent) and a selection of cheeses followed by the chocolates form last weekend. So good!

Yummy dinner!