ManicMammy’s Blog

This is the Masterchef I want to see. Forget the amateurs and the celebrities, I don’t want to see mediocre cheffing, I want to see professionals who have passion for food, talent for cooking and can inspire me.

This short series came to a close last night with Derek from Scotland the deserved winner. From his initial appearance it was obvious that he had real talent. Though as the series continued and the contestants were whittled down to the final three, there was a brief moment where I thought that Murray was going to steal the title from him. There was obviously no love lost between them and Murray’s insistance to go solo and not ask for help when the 3 finalists were preparing food for 30 Michelin starred chefs probably was a factor in his downfall - teamwork,  I would think is a major requirement in a professional kitchen.

Overall the series was very enjoyable. The standard of cooking was excellent. In particular the work that went into the meal for the Michelin chefs stood out. It was immense, intricate and a credit to the contestants that they survived! Though I would have preferred more food challenges where the chefs are given a set number of ingredients and have to create a dish.

The replacement of John Torrode by Michel Roux Jr. was definitely a good idea. Though Gregg Wallace seemed to flounder beside Michel. His opinion of any of the food he tasted after Michel tended just to be “what he said”. Michel’s critique tended never to be all negative, he could find something in most dishes to praise and encourage the chefs.

Fingers crossed the BBC will drop the celebrity and amateur masterchefs and continue this series.

Via Blair and Conor, I’m loving this website. Mixes as many cowbells  and as much Christopher Walken dialogue as you desire to the mp3 of your choice.

I went with Kate Bush’s Experiment IV and I’m liking the result. Whatcha think?

So we’re back from the first official proper 2 week family holiday evah. It was fabulous despite the initial mistake we made of presuming the 7 of us would get some decent sleep together in one cabin on Cork-Roscoff ferry. No hope!

Despite this we landed in France all excited at 7am on a Sunday morning and drove to the La Grande Metairie campsite. Thankfully, we arrived there in just under 3 hours. Yep I was driver’s map reader and I blame google maps for our minor diversions. Its located very near the town of Carnac which is on the coast with a lovely beach.

The campsite was brilliant. We had hired a 3 bedroomed mobile home with additional baby cot. It worked out well for us. The decking with seating and table definitely made it more spacious and most nights, depending on the weather, we could sit, read or play cards outside.

The first attraction we encountered was the mini farm. The enclosure held a number of kid goats and goats, a wild pig, some llamas, ducks, geese and swans. Our gang loved the kid goats and feeding them leaves each time we passed.

The swimming pool area was great with a variety of depths to suit us all. The 2 smallies loved splashing around in the very shallow baby area. There was a fountain in this which gave them great amusement. In the indoor pool, the paddling area had a baby slide to keep their interest.
The outdoor pool 2 big slides were loved by Oscar who’s 9 and a good swimmer. He spend most of his time on these or persuading me and Conor to join him on them. Great fun. The middle 2 enjoyed the fun of the water rapids. Anytime we were there, the life guards were visibly keeping an eye on things.

The campsite has a huge number of activities on offer. The middle 3 loved the horse rides. You could hire the horses for 30 minutes and the parent lead the horse and child around the many lanes of the site. We all tried the table tennis, tennis, mini-golf. There was one large playground and one smaller one which had a good range of swings, seesaws, roundabouts etc. I liked the fact that these had sand underfoot. The kid’s disco every evening in the amphitheatre for a half hour was great fun. Each day there were kids’ clubs organised for the 4 year olds and older.

For the adventurous there were zip lines and climbing. Eeek!

The campsite also had the usual practical facilities of a laundry room, onsite mini-market, newsagents/gift shop, bar, cafe and restaurant.

The takeaway was also a welcomed addition for the evenings when neither of us felt like cooking. Pizzas, crepes and more available at reasonable prices. Each evening there was a special. Although hardly authentic French cuisine: lasagne, fish and chips, roast chicken, it tasted good and our gang loved it.

We were impressed with how clean everything was kept. The only minor complaint I would have was that some of the mobile homes were located very close to the campsite internal roads and the individual sites were quite compact. Thankfully we were given one on a quiet cul de sac so didn’t have the immediate worry of the toddler running out into the path of a car.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this campsite as an ideal location for a great family holiday. As its in Brittany, the weather was never too hot or too sunny. Our 5 kids ranging in ages from 9 to 1 year old all loved it.

Politics, religion, conflict, attraction, sex: whats not to like about this tv series which is now in its second season?

I watched a repeated BBC series on Henry VIII and his wives a couple of decades or more ago with my Dad and I was hooked. It was a fascinating time in history and yep, despite this series being historical fiction and not totally accurate, despite Jonathan Rhys Meyers not fitting the stereotypical image of a rotund, ginger haired Henry VIII, I am liking his portrayal of the monarch. He does arrogance and sense of entitlement brilliantly and yet you do have sympathy for the king as he appears to be manipulated by church and reformists. But his power is frightening and one time friends can be expended without much thought or regret it seems.

The support acting of Maria Doyle Kennedy as Katherine of Aragon is excellent. Her initial belief that there was no way she could be replaced as queen begins to wane and you feel her pain when her husband tries desperately to get rid of her again and again for his new love Anne Boleyn. Her steadfast commitment to her Catholic faith and the church is portrayed with quiet dignity and her popularity with the common English public of the time is something I was not aware of.

The costumes of the cast are sumptuous. The banqueting scenes are wonderful, the opulence and luxury of the court shown off.

There is something about this series that make the issues of that time seem as relevant today as they were then: corruption of the church, frustration of many with the church’s wealth, political wheeling, dealing and backstabbing for personal gain. It makes for great viewing and I, for one, am looking forward to watching the story unfold.

On Saturday myself and Fionn took ourselves off from the mayhem and into town for a couple of hours to pick up a few last minute items needed before we head on holidays this weekend.  He was in great form, we had our cafe stop which he relished, but as the time passed he got tired so we decided to head to Formative Fun in Maylor Street as I thought I’d get him a new jigsaw.

However, once inside the door of the toyshop he immediately spotted the assembled train set and could not be drawn away from it for love or money. In the end it was only my buying him a train set of his own that worked.

He hugged the box the whole way home and couldn’t wait to assemble it to show his siblings and daddy.

It’s fabulous. Really simple parts that are easy for him to put together. He can arrange and re-arrange the wooden track in many different ways, its very versatile. The ramp and soft tunnel stragetically placed at intervals.  The small train is battery run but is powerful enough to pull the three carriages and also the additional Thomas the tank engine ones that were re-discovered in our playroom and added to the fun.

He really loves it. Its robust: the tracks are manufactured from wood as is most of the train and carriage. I especially like the fact that track pieces, tunnels, bridges, cranes and more accessories can be purchased separately so that the whole ensemble can grow with him and become more intricate as he becomes more accustomed to it.

Happy days.

Was Vanessa Mae born a violin prodigy or did she become one through blood, sweat, tears and hours upon hours of practice?

By all accounts, it appears that her mother was a major force in driving her success. From the age of 4 when Vanessa began learning to play the violin, her mother urged her to strive for perfection by telling her daughter that her love was conditional on how well Vanessa played. Thus ensued an extraordinary childhood and adolescence where the violin was the most important focus.

During this programme Vanessa underwent a brain scan, personality tests, hearing exams and more. The results showed that her brain had honed the areas used when she played the violin with her normal hand but when she changed hands it was comparable to any other novice beginning to learn the instrument.

She calculated the number of hours spent practising from 4 to 16 years old and came up with a number greater than 7,000. This was expected from the expert who had studied gifted musicans and noted that they all had spent from 5,000 to 10,000 hours of practice in their youth.

So far it was looking like her talent was in the majority down to her hard work and diligence.

Then the psychologist entered. He subjected her to a range of personality tests. The conclusions drawn were that she’s an extrovert with above normal risk taking, perfectionismand thrill seeking characteristics. Her hearing was also determined to be excellent and well above average. It was discovered that her mother had the same personality characteristics as she agreed to undergo the same tests. These personality traits are apparently conducive to becoming an exceptional musican.

So it would seem that yes, her genes went a long way to making her what she is today but the hard work and dedication was also required. She ended the programme saying she thought it was probably 50/50 in the nature/nurture split of contributing to her success. She did seem saddened that her relationship with her mother wasn’t more conventional. She acknowledged the fact that she knew her mother did love her and that her drive had a huge impact on getting her to where she is careerwise, she just wished it could have been done differently.

I found the programme very interesting. As a parent, it is often difficult to know what to do for the best for your kids. Should they be encouraged and pushed towards developing a talent or should they just meander along at their own pace? It would have be very interesting if Vanessa’s estranged mother had taken part in the programme. Unfortunately she declined to do so.

So Wimbledon was in progress, I was in my local bookshop and this novel caught my eye.

Its the story of Willy, a low ranking tennis professional on the way up when we first encounter her. She’s been playing tennis since aged four and is now in her mid twenties so time is running out for her to make it big.  She is obviously very driven, tennis is “her life”, her reason for being and she can’t seem to define herself without the game. She meets and falls in love with Eric, who took up the game at eighteen and is fast improving his ranking. Unlike her, he has other interests and talents and his not being as all consumed with tennis seems to irk her.

This book deals with their subsequent marriage and the rivalry between them as his career blossoms and her’s deteriorates. She resents the ease at which he excels and becomes very jealous of his success. Its a bleak book on relationships to be honest and the rivalry that may exist within a marriage. Her rage, jealousy and envy as pretty unrelenting can make uncomfortable reading.  None of the characters are particularly likeable and whilst this isn’t a huge problem, I found it very difficult to empathise with them or to find their actions credible. The same point is driven home again and again and as result I found persevering with reading this novel tough at times as the repetition grated.

Today myself and Oisín had a day out to ourselves. It was very enjoyable as he’s a highly entertaining fellow and was in top chatty form.  We ambled about Cork city centre and inevitably visited O’Conaill’s Chocolate shop on French church Street.

As I’ve mentioned before this place is a chocolate lover’s heaven. This time my purchases included 2 milk chocolate bars: one with chilli flakes and one with pink peppercorns. I haven’t tried these yet.

But my firm favourites of the moment are the milk chocolate and white chocolate chips. Wow, these are delicious.

Fabulous on their own or used to make some hot chocolate, they’re irresistable. Go buy some.