Holy land or danger zone?

Evening, how are you?

I'm doing well. It's one of those quiet posting months, however. This time, like most previous times, I am blaming work for my absence. I returned from a week in Israel on Friday and am shattered. The week was tough physically and mentally. Not only was I visiting a minimum of 2 clients a day (resulting in me giving ~22 presentations), I was surviving on significantly reduced sleep. By now you may have gathered that I travel quite frequently. Usually for business, sometimes for fun. My travels can usually be divided into two categories; long haul, usually to America and short haul, usually to Germany, France, Sweden, or somewhere similar. Israel rather breaks the mould though. It is a 5 hour flight which results in the loss of an entire day as opposed to just a morning, but it is only 2 hours ahead of the UK. This results in a body clock that is not completely confused as with travels to the US, just out of synch by a little bit.

I had a great time in Israel. I had my concerns prior to the trip but, as usual, the anticipation far outweighed the reality. Most of my meetings and presentations went very well and I got to see a huge amount of the country. We had to venture north of Haifa to get to one client, which meant we were a mere 45 minutes from the Lebanese border. In itself not a very scary thing but my typically bravado Israeli colleague made sure I felt uneasy even when, in actuality, I was perfectly safe. He pointed out exactly where the Lebanese missiles landed and where they were aimed, during the last "difficult times". I was looking forward to returning to my Tel Aviv hotel until he informed me that the latest Lebanese missiles can reach Tel Aviv without a problem. It is a different world!

Israeli food is amazing. I ate very well all week and look forward to taking some inspiration in my daily cooking. The freshest vegetables, perfect balance of fragrant and hot spices, fresh seafood, grilled meat, amazing bread and lemon everywhere. Alas Mrs P and lemons don't get on very well, but the citrus tang is usually from the juice squeezed over the finished dish so it should be relatively simple for me to enhance my dinner without upsetting the marital bliss. If you are ever in that neck of the woods I would highly recommend eating at Mantaray on the south Tel Aviv seafront and Big Itzik in a crazy back street of Jaffa.

So, moral dilemma of indirectly contributing to the death of innocent people aside, trip to Israel was a good one.

RIP Keith Floyd

When I was younger, I aspired to be the next Keith Floyd. I took a great deal of inspiration from him and thank him for the passion he helped to instil in me.

RIP Keith Floyd, you were an inspiration to many.

Happy Fridays

My most recent happy Friday was spent being a servant.

Last Friday Mrs P was lucky enough to attend a course at Perch Hill Farm, the beautiful location at which Sarah Raven teaches people a variety of wonderful skills. After an early rise for a day off work, we set on our way towards the south coast.

While Mrs P was learning the skills that are going to help turn our garden into the flowery oasis it wants to be, I spent the day working with head gardener at The Cutting Garden, Beata Burke. I learnt a few things from the chores I performed but infinitely more from chatting to Beata. There's nothing better than learning from the expert!

If you happen to visit Sarah Raven's establishment at Perch Hill Farm and see the particularly resplendent wallflowers or taste the fresh mizuna, spare me a thought as it is just possible that I am partly responsible...

Bienvenue...

... a Septembre.

You know by now that I tend to start my posting months slowly. Old dogs....

The ninth month of 2009 has been pretty good thus far. Managed a trip down to Wiltshire to see Grandpa Cyril. Was great to see him again. Despite the slightly drizzly weather, we visited Stourhead for the first time. It is a delightful place to visit and the walk certainly did us all some good.




Got a little time away from work to indulge myself in hobbies, business ideas, chores and all things therapeutic.

Will post some pics of my progress...