Home in Time for Tea

Great Intermediate Ski Pistes at La Pinilla, near Madrid And the Award for Most Unlikely Ski Location Goes to... Madrid! Skiing, Shopping and Sightseeing in Madrid... Oh Yes, and Delicious Breakfast Buffets! For our last ski break before the season ends, we decided to book somewhere different from our road trips to the French Vosges or the Alps. This was partly to save money (Richard had seen a fantastic all-inclusive deal to Bulgaria), but partly to try something new... After the Bulgaria trip seemed to be adding more costs the more windows we went through on the PC, we did a good old skyscanner search to 'anywhere' and found some cheap flights to Madrid. I originally overlooked them - It didn't even cross my mind that you could ski anywhere near Madrid, but the deal was so good I considered driving to the Pyrenees from there. I went onto j2ski.com and after looking at a map of Spain, low and behold, the nearest ski resort was about an hour's drive from ...

A Weekend Stay in London, and the Purpose? ...Food! Who said that England isn't renowned for its world-class cuisine? With such an intensely diverse variety of food, cooking and culture - and Jamie Oliver - how can London possibly disappoint?  After booking Richard in for a cooking class at Jamie Oliver's Notting Hill 'Recipease' store (Richard's Christmas present), we headed off to London for a deliciously fun food-packed weekend... Best Affordable French Cuisine in London! Once we found our hotel on Friday night (Novotel at Heathrow), we drove a little way into the town towards White City and found a Cafe Rouge . I was so impressed with the waitress, she certainly knew her stuff. I ordered a Bavette steak cooked medium but she told me quite honestly that it would be too tough unless I had it quite rare. I had a 'minute' steak instead (cooked medium-rare) and it was top notch. The creamy, eggy Diane sauce only added to its awesomeness. F...