The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Spending time with friends and family is important, in sad times and happier ones
Well, I hope you have all found me on this new page by now. I’ve had a few of you thinking I’m no longer doing a column and some who said they knew I’d be here somewhere, but they had to search me out.
A change is as good as a rest, as they say! I quite like being at the back of the magazine now.
People often previously said to me: “You are the first thing I read.” Well, they didn’t have much choice as I was the first thing they saw. Now I’m the last, so if you have got as far as here, you must be enjoying the new-look magazine.
This week we have all been up in Turriff for my Auntie Margaret’s funeral.
As the only child of four sisters, I’m used to a bit of responsibility as they have grown older. However, I’m now at that wonderfully proud time in life where I can lean on my grown-up children.
We all came together as a family, with some close friends joining us, and gave Margaret a very fitting send-off.
I’m now back to work in London, spending the week here in a hotel while working in the recording studio.
It’s nice to be back at work full-time as the summer is always a bit sporadic work-wise for me, with singers off at music festivals and the like.
I can’t believe it’s back-to-school time for Scottish children now.
I’m not ready to give up on the summer yet. Down in England the schools don’t go back until the end of the month.
We always used to love to leave our holiday till now when the children were small because we had it to look forward to all summer.
Half the fun of holidays is the anticipation, the packing of your case and ticking the days off on the calendar.
Ollie has been on holiday with his mates for the last month. He flew home to Aberdeen and then flew back to Warsaw.
However, he is not holidaying in the way I would enjoy.
For me it’s quality not quantity. A week in a posh hotel makes me happy. Ollie and his mates are seeing much of Europe, but they are staying in hostels.
So far, he has been to Berlin, Krakow, Prague, Lake Bled and Sarajevo, and he is off to Warsaw now and then on to Cologne, Frankfurt and Belgium before heading back to Amsterdam. I would need a holiday after all that, I can tell you.
Maybe I’m just showing my age, though. Maybe you are thinking: “How exciting!” All I’m thinking is: “How exhausting!”
Even though I’m working long hours in the studio this week, it will feel very relaxing to have my bed made for me every day, and I quite like the idea that I have planned a week’s wardrobe and just have to wear what I’ve brought with me. Sometimes too much choice is not such a good thing.
I forgot to tell you that I was on Cooking With The Stars on ITV this week.
I missed it myself.
I was on with my friend Jules as part of Carol Vorderman’s friends and family.
It was such an enjoyable experience to hang out on set a few months ago when it was filmed.
Having never watched the show before, I was shocked by how hard the cooking tasks are.
Carol would be the first to admit that if a group of us are away together it wouldn’t be her who would be volunteering to do the cooking. All that has changed now, though. She won’t be given the choice – she will be forced to prepare us a gourmet meal!
She has now been coached by the wonderful Scots chef Tony Singh and we want to taste all those recipes, especially the spicy lamb Scotch pie she made on this week’s show.
I thought when tasting it I would be politely saying: “Ooh very nice,” but it was stunning. One of the best things I’ve tasted.
All the crew were saying: “Oooh, have you tasted that pie, it’s fabulous.”
Tony Singh runs a supper club in Edinburgh where he cooks for people in his own home. How brilliant would that be!
Meeting Tony was an added bonus – what a great guy he is.
I was sent a clip of the show, which did make me laugh.
The celebrity chefs who vote on the dishes said Carol’s pie was slightly underdone, and I didn’t think the bit where I disagreed with them and said: “I’m Scottish, I know better and it was perfect to me,” would be shown!
The lesson is watch what you say when you have a microphone on.
Have a good week,