I have largely stopped making To Do lists, relying solely on my memory to attend the various appointments I have to fit in daily. Over the past weeks friends have counselled that I must not take on too much, since I am returning to Kuala Lumpur soon to look after my mother.
Everyone is so kind. I always say that since I am nearly 60 with a suitcase or two crammed with life’s experiences, I usually manage to carry the weight of whatever I have decided to fill the bags with. If I cannot fit it in, I just don’t add it to the bag.
Occasionally, what I include is something really fun and memorable.
Last weekend, along with the children, we planned an 80th birthday bash (the noun – meaning a party or celebration – and not the verb) for my mother-in-law. Renting two lodges on the Bovey Estate counts as one of my best ideas this year. From the time of reservation to the check-out, I cannot praise the staff and team at Bovey Castle highly enough. Thanks to the extensive grounds, we did not run into many other guests despite the hotel rooms and lodges being fully occupied that weekend. Everyone should come here to experience what it must be like to live in Downton Abbey, or maybe Dartmoor Abbey, as the castle is located within Dartmoor National Park.
As there were 12 of us in the party, with various dietary requirements, we cooked all meals in-house. If you want a complete rest, the hotel has several restaurants and a wonderful service where you can pre-order your groceries and meals to be delivered to the lodge.
I took over a hundred photos and many were of our family. Here is a selection of non-people photos to give an idea of the hotel, lodge and grounds. At the end of our stay everyone agreed it was a a fabulous weekend. We are already planning our next trip away together.
Entrance to Bovey Castle
View of the back of the castle
A warm welcome at the lodge
You can never go wrong with flowers and bubbles for a celebration
Views of the grounds
Views of the lodges
One of the on-site activities is an entertaining falconry display
We got through a lot of food over the weekend and it took three supermarket shops to cater for all the meals. Fortunately everyone loves cooking so there was never a shortage of help in the kitchen. We had the use of two machine dishwashers and several human dishwashers. However the verdict at the end of the weekend was that next time, pre-cooking some of the dishes would be ideal as there was a lack of workable counter top space.
Cake Deliveries:
I have been a Konditor (previously Konditor and Cook) customer for 30 years. For this weekend, I ordered a vegan chocolate and raspberry cake, a gluten-free noisette (hazelnut) cake and a pecan pie. An alternative for the Thanksgiving dinner dessert would have been the pumpkin and pecan pies from Sally Clarke.
The weekend before we had a vanilla funfetti cake from Flavourtown to celebrate D-i-L’s birthday. The cake says it all i.e. we want you to have a wonderful life, and eating our cake makes for a good start to this journey.
This coming weekend I have ordered some special mince pies from Konditor and The Newt, for a very early family Christmas lunch. People ask Mr Gochugaru and I what we will eat on Christmas Day in KL. This is the first time we will not be with our children over the Christmas and New Year period so I think it’s best to keep things low-key and eat what we would eat on any regular day in my hometown.
Flavourtown’s Vanilla Funfetti Cake
