Jan Leeming - The Official Website

WALMER CASTLE - THE LYDIAN STRING

23rd July 2010

WALMER CASTLE - THE LYDIAN STRING

I don't often write my blog immediately after a great event but I've got a busy weekend and really do want to write this up whilst it's fresh in my mind.

I'm ashamed to say that for seven years I've lived within easy walking distance of Walmer Castle and have never visited it.  My excuse is that I don't like visiting places tout seul. 

Friends invited me to a picnic on the beach and then to attend A Concert at the Castle - they had no information about the Concert but the tickets were a ridiculously low £5 so what did it matter. 

The Lydian String Quartet were absolutely fabulous.  I'm rather a plebian when it comes to Classical Music - am not deeply entrenched in it but certainly have very catholic taste.  However I do love hearing relatively popular music played by a string quartet - and tonight was exceptional. 

Firstly, the grounds of Walmer Castle are absolutely delightful and I shall certainly be visiting again.  It is owned by English Heritage and I cannot begin to comprehend why they don't advertise their functions more fully.  I can think of half a dozen friends who would have been delighted to attend the concert tonight.

There was no programme, but the mix was, to my taste, absolutely superb.  Let me give you an idea - there was some Vivaldi, Puccini, Handel and at the other end of the scale the theme music from 'Dr. Zhivago', two numbers from 'Fiddler on the Roof', Hoagey Carmichael's 'Stardust' - Edith Piaf's 'La Vie on Rose'; Blue Tango by Leroy Anderson; some Nat King Cole;  Pachelbel's Canon and on and on it went - I was totally enraptured.

Stuart (who designed my website) doesn't like me putting in links to other websites because it takes them away from me - but sorry Stu these guys and girls are so good - and they have raised around £90,000 for Macmillan nurses, so I'm more than happy to give them a plug.  I suppose you would call them a Co-operative of musicians who can be called upon to perform at all sorts of different venues and in differing groups.  Tonight we had a quartet - tomorrow you might just require one musician.  It is always a source of mystery to me (not playing an instrument and unable to read music) how these disparate people come together and meld into a cohesive whole to play the most wonderful music.  Tonight they were deciding as they went along what they would play and at a nod from the lead violin, they were all there playing in unison.

I thought they were wonderful - and apart from the midges who plagued me constantly -the whole setting and ambience were superb.

I really think English Heritage are missing a trick in not better publicising concerts like this one.

If you want to know more about The Lydian String - go to their website - thelydianstring.com

Must go to bed - off early in the morning to watch the Re-enactment lads at Capel and then opening the Tilmanstone Village Fete!!!

Arrivederci,  Jan

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FUTURE BLOGS

22nd July 2010

I've been so busy over the last fortnight I simply haven't had time to keep my blogs up to date.  So, when I've got the time I'll continue the Florence trip, tell you about Rye in Sussex and also about my visit to the Musical 'Hair'.

I must also catch up with photographs in the Gallery.  They have to be entered one at a time and it is quite a lengthy process.

I'm still very curious about how people from all over the world end up on my site - I know it's keywords but last week 35 people from China looked at my Website and I can't think what might have drawn them in.  Stuart - my lovely Website designer - has now added an email link for me so feel free to use it.  I will try to deal with queries etc. but can't always promise a reply.  Even the Blogs are taking me longer and longer - I actually enjoy writing and do try to make the Blogs interesting.

All the best,  Jan

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CHANNEL FOUR - PARALYMPICS 2012

21st July 2010

CHANNEL FOUR -   PARALYMPICS 2012

I had to go to London yesterday for a meeting with a producer at Channel 4 and my friend/agent Simon asked if I would stay on to attend the Press Launch of the Ch. 4 Paralympics.  I was down to attend a Gala Night of the Sandwich Tech production of Les Miserables - produced and choreographed by my friend Josephine Buchan which has had rave reviews and was so good it transferred from Sandwich Tech for a season at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury. 

I chose to go to the Press Night, and though sad to miss Josephine's production, am so glad I was able to experience the excitement and joy at the Press Launch.

Simon has become involved in PR for the Wheelchair Rugby Team who recently played a match on the Woolwich Ferry as it passed under Tower Bridge.  I was introduced to two of the players - both charming and good looking young men, Steve Brown and Mandip Sehmi  - who, through totally freak accidents are paralized from the upper chest down.  You should see them move in their wheelchairs!  And I'm now told that Steve went off to a nightclub in Soho - despite having to film early in the morning - what a guy! Unfortunately I'm not able to bring you the Publicity photographs of these two lovely guys - they are embargoed.  Probably just as well, they'd have a fan club queuing up.

Channel 4 are going to be the Total Paralympic Channel and must have put in a superb bid out-doing the BBC.

The Channel 4 'Café' was last night cleared of everything except throngs of people - some in wheelchairs, some with guide dogs and many with no obvious outward signs of disability.  David Abrahams gave us an outline of how they will be approaching their coverage and there was a brief address by the Minister for Sport. We were shown a short and succinct video of some of the aspects of the Paralympics (there was a short clip of our Rugby players) and then were invited to watch an abbreviated Basketball match.  Those of you who might have been reading my blogs for the last few years will know that I'm lousy at all sport and really have no interest in much other than ski-ing.  Well, all that changed last night.  I would never even think of watching a Basketball match - American anyway!  But watching them play in their wheelchairs was nothing short of miraculous.  One chap was constantly tipping over his chair and righting it again with consummate ease.  It was so exciting, I found myself cheering and thoroughly enjoying the whole event.  I have never ever watched the Olympics but I will be glued to the set in 2012 for the Paralympics.

We've come a long way since 1993 when I was asked by the British Legion if I would do the narration for Challenge 93 - The First International Ex-Service Wheelchair Games. (ITV and the BBC were not interested in doing a full documentary)  The event was held in the grounds of Stoke Mandeville Hospital.  187 Athletes attended from 21 countries.

When I arrived, someone in charge commented on the fact that I wasn't wearing a hat and gloves - I'd come to work for heaven's sake!  What none of us knew was that the late King Hussein of Jordan was coming to present the awards.  (As I was hatless, I was put in the back row for the presentations,  but felt a certain one upmanship when Queen Noor shook my hand and commented on how wise I was not to wear a hat on such a windy day.)

I remember being very moved by the whole event and very impressed that King Hussein gave the same time, care and attention to the Israeli team as he did to the Jordanians and all the other participants.)

It was only a short Video - which I found the other day.  I watched it and had the same feeling of wonderment for those people so badly afflicted by war and yet so positive and courageous. 

It's great that Bejing did so much for the disabled cause and I can't wait for 2012 - when I will be routing for all but particularly for our Wheelchair Rugby team. 

Having had a full, eventful and enjoyable day, it was made for me by meeting Jon Snow as I exited. I don't watch much news but when I do it's usually Channel 4 - I find it one of the best and I really admire Jon as a presenter.   I've met him before at Charity events and I'm not sure if he knew who I was last night but I asked him if I could have a photo taken with him.  I'd not thought to bring my camera and Simon only had his mobile.  I don't yet have any photos of Steve and Mandeep (the Rugby wheelchair players) so for the time being you can look at Jon and myself. (Not the most flattering of either of us)

What do you think? Send your feedback to contact@jan-leeming.com.

GENOA - SACLA - AND ITALIAN FOOD

18th July 2010

GENOA- SACLA - AND ITALIAN FOOD

What a fabulous couple of days I've just had with the Sacla people in Liguria and I am a total convert to Italian food.  I don't think I've ever really had “Good and authentic” Italian food.  In the UK one expects the ubiquitous pizza and then there are the meat dishes but rarely fish (mind you I don't usually eat fish if I'm too far from the sea as it cannot possibly be fresh and unless you eat frozen fish quite soon after freezing there is always a slightly oily taste and smell to it).

The party comprised Clare Blampied, the delightful MD of Sacla UK Ltd.; her equally lovely PR Sue Wilkins and Marketing controller Katherine Carter.  From the Press were the Editors of Delicious Magazine (Karen Barnes) as well as the publisher (Seamus Geohegan) ; the Editor of the Grocer (Anna-Marie Julyan) and Food Writer and Deputy Editor of Spectator/Scoff Magazine (Tilly Culme-Seymour); and Aggie Mackenzie of TV Fame.

We landed in Genoa and hit the ground running.  Our first trip was to some Basil Fields and a late al fresco lunch where I saw the largest chunk of Parmesan I've ever clapped eyes on and learned that there is Eating Parmesan and Grating Parmesan - so don't be a snob over the length of maturation of the cheese - 9 months leads to a good Eater and 20 months gives you the harder Grating variety.

I love Basil (the herb !)!  I make my own Pesto and I love to see it growing  in a pot on my windowsill.  Now I no longer have a garden, there's a limit to what I can grow and Basil is a pleasure to have in the kitchen.  I've often wondered why it is that the Basil plants I buy in the Spring and Summer will grow again if cut correctly, yet the Winter purchases rarely re-grow - well the answer is that Basil is seasonal and it needs the warmth and sunshine to encourage re-growth.

The Basil fields (grown in rotation with Corn and Wheat) are cropped several times and as I stood surveying Basil as far as the eye could see, I did a mental tot-up of how many £2.59 pots of Waitrose Basil could be gleaned from the crop.  I was looking at a field worth millions - but it doesn't work like that!  The Basil in the fields has tougher leaves than those on the plant you purchase in the supermarket and they are cropped in rotation.

Below I'll post a picture of me surrounded by Basil.

I won't get technical but they harvest 300 tons of Basil per year!!!  No that is not a typing error.

After we'd savoured the aroma of the Basil and ooh'd and aah'd at the peaches and nectarines growing on the trees near the farm, we were treated to our Al fresco lunch of Parmesan, tomatoes, melon, peaches and nectarines and cold meats - delicious.

Back into the coach and transfer to our hotel Locando del Sant'Uffizio - and as the name suggests it was an old monastery beautifully converted into a luxury hotel.  Unfortunately there was hardly time to enjoy the very large swimming pool because of our Dinner Date with Lorenzo Ercole, son of the founders and President of Sacla along with his daughter Chiara and his niece Lucia and the Chairman and MD of La Cucina Italiana Magazine.

It was a superb meal at Il Cascinale Nuovo in Asti -  splendidly prepared by the chef  Roberto Ferretto.  Course after course arrived - but all small and wonderfully tasty portions.  I like it when someone else chooses the menu - can't bear wading through a huge Carte and changing my mind several times over.  I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and Mr. Ferretto kindly sent me a run down of what we'd eaten.  Sadly I discovered that what I'd been told was Beef was actually Veal - a meat I haven't wittingly eaten in 40 years.  In Australia it was one of my favourites but, on arriving back in the UK, the RSPCA were conducting a campaign against the way Veal Calves were raised and that put me off for life.  I'm not a great meat eater but I like to think that what I am eating had a life - and Veal Calves do not unless they've changed the method.  I won't go into it.  But it was a superb meal and the Risotto course was out of this world - I'd love the recipe.  In fact at the Airport, instead of buying perfume, I bought bags of prepared Risotto and some Trofiette - a pasta I'd never experienced before.  You can probably purchase it in London and big cities but I've never seen it in my part of Kent.  So guess what Leeming is going to be eating for the forseeable future?

The next morning we were taken to Asti and the Sacla factory.  This is where it all began and a very large proportion of the Asti population works at Sacla (similar to Phizer at Sandwich which is a town in its own right)  The original home of the Ercole family is now being refurbished and will be turned into a Museum.

We were garbed in special shoes with steel caps, heads covered in the most unflattering white caps (you know the sort of thing I mean - you see staff wearing them in supermarket deli, meat and fish counters) and white cover-alls.   We had to take off all jewellery and then proceeded to the factory. 

Pesto is only mixed - there is no cooking involved - and it comes out a vivid Hunter's Green colour which then changes slightly after sterilization.  There are no short cuts taken in the making of the Sacla Pesto - in addition to the Basil they use genuine pine nuts and parmesan.

Our guide then told us he would take us to the kitchen to show us where other sauces were prepared.  I stupidly expected a huge kitchen with Tubs of Ingredients rather than saucepans and actual people doing the mixing.  Wrong - The 'Kitchen' looked like the pristine boiler room of a ship! - all pipes and Vats.

Our next stop was to be a drive to a little port and then a Rubber dinghy ride to the cove of San Fruttuoso for lunch.  Unfortunately the drive which should have taken an hour and a half took three hours.  There is only one way in and out of Genoa and it was absolutely solid with traffic.  (They have no way of expanding the road being squeezed between the mountains and the sea).  However, despite being out of schedule Clare decided that we would still make our trip to San Fruttuoso and we were all so glad that she did.  The Dinghy ride was wonderfully exhilarating as we skimmed over the surface of the sea.  Again the hub of the tiny cove was the de-commissioned Monastery - well the monks certainly got away from it all at San Fruttuoso because the only way to it was by sea and in the old days, that journey must have taken a couple of hours.  We didn't see it but there is a huge crucifix 17 metres down in the sea to the right of the cove (as you approach from the sea) fishermen and others (with good lungs)  dive down and  kiss Il Christo degli Abissi.  The Crucifix is 2.5 metres high and was placed in the sea in 1954.

We had a splendid seafood lunch at Da Giorgio.  I love mussels but am very wary of them as I've had food poisoning so often - but as we were literally on the ocean I reckoned that I'd be OK and I was.  The setting was lovely, the company great and bonding further.

Our hotel for that night was the Excelsior in Rapallo - a lovely hotel in a superb location.  I was a trifle curious as to the name of the dining room - The Lord Byron.  We were not dining in though and after a very quick shower and change, we were back in the bus and on to Portofino - how stunning a place that is.  It reminded me of Honfleur in France - except that Portofino is even more picturesque.  There was a concert in progress in the square and people were perambulating  - as one does in the Mediterranean with the lovely weather and the gentle sea breeze.  As someone who doesn't eat great quantities of food, I wondered how I was going to make my way through another 3 - 4 course meal at the O Magazin Restaurant.   But I have to say every course was light and delicious and I so love seafood.  There was a castle on the hills above the little Port and we were told it had belonged to Lord Byron - but I've been unable to substantiate this claim.  I think he may have visited it but he does not appear to have been an owner.  However, as the light faded and the castle was lit up, it fed my romantic nature to believe that indeed it had belonged to Byron - especially as I'm currently reading a book about Lady Caroline Lamb with whom he had a brief affair - the effect of which lasted Lady Caroline a lifetime albeit a brief one.

I can't think when I've enjoyed a couple of days as much as my brief visit to Italy.  It was educational and fun - we saw beautiful scenery and ate delicious food - so, once again, many many thanks to Clare for an exceptional experience.  I can well understand why Sacla is so successful with the longevity and experience of the Ercole family and the dedication and drive of Clare Blampied in the UK who says she 'just happened to be in the right place at the right time'.  Lucky for both of them.

What do you think? Send your feedback to contact@jan-leeming.com.

BATTLE OF BRITAIN MEMORIAL DAY - CAPEL-LE-FERNE

11th July 2010

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