Speedier Ferret

As a reward for spending the Easter weekend decorating, we treated ourselves by using our Christmas presents at the Jaguar Heritage Driving experience up in Warwickshire just after the Bank Holiday.

As it’s a little way to travel we went up on Thursday after work and spent a night at Mallory Court again. The journey took a bit longer than expected, so less relaxation time when we got there, which was a great pity as we found we’d been upgraded to a room two levels above the one we’d booked in the main house. The Snowhill room was the size of the footprint of our house, I jest not, and could have been comfortably converted into a one bedroom flat! As well as the bed and built in wardrobe it had a sofa with coffee table, an upholstered bench, two easy chairs with their own table, a third lounge chair, an armoire containing the AV kit and 'fridge, then the dressing table and chair - I'm not sure we own that much furniture! The easy chairs were in the bay window overlooking the kitchen garden and we could have happily spent the evening there imbibing the complementary bevvies and nibbles and watching the LBJs fly round the parterre.

It was such a gorgeous evening that it really was a shame that we’d arrived too late to fit in a stroll around the gardens before dinner, but we had eating to do and although it’s lost its Michelin star since our last visit (the chef has moved) we couldn’t discern any difference in the food; it was excellent and I think the cheese selection was even better than last time. Breakfast was lovely too – I always look forward to the homemade yoghurts that we get at the hotels in the Eden Group, yes, I am that sad.

Then off on the half hour drive to Jaguar’s new testing facility at Fen End, a former RAF base recently purchased from Prodrive - although I believe that the site has historical links to Jaguar. Apparently, Norman Dewiss went round after JLR bought the site last year and said he thought the surface was the same that he drove on 50 years ago so, as one of the instructors said, we would be driving period vehicles on a period surface. Not a scary thought at all… To complete the experience last year Jaguar also bought Dr James Hull’s complete collection of five hundred and odd British cars for approximately £100 million and decided to let members of the general public with more money than sense (i.e. me) drive them. To be fair, I think the cost is pretty reasonable given the hardware you’re using and compares favourably with the track driving we’ve done at Castle Combe. The site itself is very interesting and is home to the JLR Special Operations unit (I think someone got carried away with the James Bond associations there) - we drove past camouflaged testing vehicles on the way to the track and of course, from the look of the carpark, it seemed like everyone else had a much more interesting car than us! From the number of F-Types that drew up we were beginning to wonder if JLR had started to give this out as a freebie to anyone who bought a new one.

I’d bought Jon a passenger ride in an XK150 an hour before my session so it gave us an excuse to arrive early. The reception is in a temporary building whilst they get planning permission for a permanent structure, but it’s a brilliant plate-glass structure in itself. It houses the obligatory merchandising, free refreshments and the 'Jaguar Perfect Ten' as selected by Lord March, Ian Callum and Brian Johnson (that’s the rock star not the cricket commentator) – I tried not to leave drool marks on the XK13... So, plenty to look at as you wait for your session and that’s only inside the building. Outside there are the cars being used for the track sessions and seeing that those include C-, D- and E-Types, an XKSS plus current models, as well as historic cars being used to shuttle instructors around the site, it was difficult to know what to look at first!

Everyone gets a safety briefing then it’s out on track. The XK150 was very cute in British Racing Green and Jon enjoyed his chauffeur-driven laps talking about cars. Then it was my turn. Jon had bought me the D-Type driving experience (which includes the F-Type R as well ‘cos all the driving experiences seem to have to end with an F-Type – never miss a selling opportunity!). I love D- (and C) Types, to me they are just the most beautiful cars ever made and their racing pedigree is the icing on the cake. I never thought I’d touch one or sit in one, let alone drive one, so I think I did pretty well not to run across the tarmac screaming ‘aaaaaaaahhhhhhh, it’s MINE’ when my time came. I held it all together quite well I thought.

There was none of this being driven round the track first by the expert malarkey, oh no, it was straight into the driver’s seat; which was probably a good thing as the passenger side had no door. We’d been told that getting into the D-Type was a bit of an art and, even with a door on the driver’s side, I had to stand on the seat before shimmying down into the cockpit (very glad it was a nice dry day!). Of course the seats don’t move so a cushion was found to push me forward a bit but I was still pretty much horizontal to reach the clutch pedal.

Given the calibre of the instructors I think Jaguar should make more of them on their website but, on the other hand, had I known that my instructor Rob Newall was a Monaco Historic and Le Mans Classic race winner I may not have got into the car! He was lovely and very reassuring. There was a full race harness, but no crash helmet, just headphones so that I could hear Rob’s instructions as we went round the track.

I’ve read some motoring journos on the review day referring to the D-Type as having a ‘difficult’ clutch but perhaps they had a different car to me because it was no more difficult to use than the Spridget’s – no double de clutching needed, just press the pedal all the way and don’t rush the gears, and if you can’t get into a gear just go back to the one you were in and have another go. The only difficult thing was that the gear lever is virtually horizontal, like a handbrake lever, so it was easy to forget what gear you were in (well, that’s my excuse anyway; that and the pheasant watching me from trackside just after Lorry Corner put me off). Start it up, pop it into first and pull away – yes! I didn’t stall!

It was pretty exhilarating bounding along the concrete track – proper wind in your hair and flies in the teeth stuff. After a couple of laps I was getting the hang of the gears and was, according to Rob, taking ‘Stirling Moss lines’ through the chicane at the end of the long straight - I think that meant I was flattening it off. The overtaking was fun and I did manage to get a (VERY unintentional) power over-steer coming out of the last corner, which was mainly down to enthusiasm and a touch of overconfidence (but it still felt good! :0) ). Jon was convinced that I was going faster than the other people he’d seen out on track but the needle was a bit bouncy, plus I didn’t want to take my eyes off the track, so it was difficult to tell what speed I was doing - but it was bouncing between 80 and 100 mph down the long straight at one point. I wasn’t being told to slow down (just the opposite!) and I was meeting all the braking points so I think Rob kept us well within the car and driver’s capabilities. Towards the end of the session when we were haring down the straight it was a nice touch for him to tell me to take the chance to look down the bonnet of the car, just enjoy being there and imagine what it would be like driving this at Le Mans in the 1950s. You don't get an opportunity to do this sort of thing very often so it's nice to take a moment to savour it. There was no-one else due to drive in that session so I think I may have been given a couple of extra laps, but I was possibly ready to come in when we finally came off track – despite being easy to drive it's still a heavy old car with no power steering and needed more weight on the pedals than we're used to these days - although I’d have been ready to charge back out again after a quick de-brief!

Without getting soppy about it, it's such a brilliant idea of JLRs to buy these iconic cars and let us drive them. It was a fantastic experience and well worth doing for anyone with an interest in classic cars. Every time I come off a track I think, ‘I wouldn’t mind having a go at this classic racing game’ but, luckily, I don’t have the finances! And I’m under no illusion that going round a track with 20 other lunatics is very different to going round on your own with an instructor. Still, I can dream… The D-Type’s bodywork is quite soft and it may take a while to tap out the dents my fingertips made as they tried to drag me out of the car. I’m not sure that saline is terribly good for the paintwork either…

Into the F-Type R coupe next. Very nice to look at but I was a bit nervous ‘cos I’ve very rarely driven an automatic. The first impression was that it all seemed a bit overcrowded, it felt like these expensive cars are becoming a bit like an aeroplane cockpit with the number of buttons, switches and dials - but it was nice to be able to adjust the seat to get closer to the pedals! A press of the big gold button to start (no silly start up phrases here) and it did sound good. I got used to not changing gear quite quickly but it did take a bit of nerve to put my foot down and find out just how much acceleration it had - and it really did have quite a lot! It sounded brilliant with the exhaust crackling away down the back straight. Hopefully I didn't break it when I found the bump on the exit of the last corner that I'd managed to avoid on all my laps in the D-Type, after that I had to make it hit the rev limiter before it would change gear - which made it sound even better! The new instructor seemed to think that some of my lines round the track were good and said 'Oh, have you done much circuit driving then?' - I didn't confess that I'd been listening very attentively to Rob as he'd been pointing out apexes on my previous run!

But I have to say that driving the F-Type immediately after the D-Type just made the word 'unengaging' spring to mind. It was a lovely car (the coupe looks SO much better than the soft top) and it felt like you could get it a bit wrong and throw it into a corner and still have a pretty good chance of coming out safely at the other side. The power was very impressive, especially for someone whose normal drive is a 15 year old 1.6 small family hatchback. But it just didn't compare to the older kit and just left me feeling a bit, well, 'meh'. Perhaps it was not having to change gear that left me feeling uninvolved, but I won't be putting it on my Christmas present list. I did like the way that, when you switched the engine off, the steering wheel moved out of the way to make it easier for you to get out and all the pop-up air vents decended gracefully into the dashboard!

We hung around for nearly an hour after my last session, savouring the atmosphere and the coffee in reception and wandering around the exhibits again - in fact we had to wait a while because after a morning of glorious sunshine it suddenly started hammering down and as we'd left our brollies in the car we didn't want to get soaked. We'd been very lucky with the weather and felt sorry for all of those turning up to do their laps in the wet.

Then off for a drive home that was a lot less interesting. And, yes, I have put a D-Type on my birthday present list!

These are a couple of nice articles done after the launch of the experience days at the back end of last year:

http://www.xclusively-jaguar.co.uk/xclusively-jaguar-news/view/400-jaguar-heritage-drive-day

http://www.historicracer.com/editors-diary/jaguar-heritage-driving-experience-goes-live/

Dorset Dalliance

Taking a break from decorating (dining room done, living room scheduled in for Easter weekend) we spent last weekend in Dorset. We were booked in to look around some archaeological stuff with Devizes Museum on Saturday and, as we didn’t want to get up at the crack of crow-sh!t on a Saturday morning we thought we’d use the trip as an excuse to make a weekend of it (you may remember that we went to Wroughton with them in 2011).

The weather was due to be awful but it really brightened up on Friday and by the time we left work it was actually sunny. First stop was the Sixpenny Brewery at Manor Farm in Sixpenny Handley. Their ‘pub’ which doubles as the off-sales office has very restricted opening hours – closing at 6.30 on a Friday evening – would we be able to find it? Would it really be open? As we couldn’t imagine much passing trade in this area of the country so we thought the opening hours might be more erratic than those published. But we arrived in good time just before 6 and was it ever open; the farmyard was packed with cars and people coming and going all the time. I managed to squeeze into a gap next to a barn and we grabbed gloves and mufflers before tottering off to the ‘nano-bar’ - their very accurate description not ours – I think they must have used a fisheye lens for the photo on the website ‘cos it looks 3 times the size of the actual bar!

After fighting our way through the crowded bar we stood outside with our beers. It was the most gorgeous crisp and clear (and freezing) March evening – we could have done with grabbing our coats as well as the gloves and mufflers. We could hardly wipe the grins off our faces as it really was an idyllic setting (well, as idyllic as any working farmyard can be on a lovely evening with a pint in your hand). We’d come well prepared so Jon filled up our bottle basket with take-outs for sampling next weekend at home (luckily they do 6 brews and our bottle basket has six spaces) and we returned to the car (with envious men making sotto voce comments as we passed like ‘That’s what I call a shopping trip!’).

Then off down the road to our hotel, the Castleman at Chettle. A lovely country house hotel with rooms that only cost the same as the ones in the pubs in the surrounding villages. In fact our room was so big – even with the sofa at the end of the bed in front of the fireplace the room didn’t look cramped or over-stuffed - that we thought we’d been put in one of the large doubles by mistake but no, they were all like that.

The lovely panelled bar and the lounge did have cosy fires burning all the time, but it’s definitely a real country house (still owned and run by the family) rather than a sanitized corporate makeover so putting an extra layer on before going downstairs was a good idea. I do hope we find the opportunity to go back sometime because the food was great and the hospitality unfaultable.

The core of the building is possibly Tudor but most of the bits you see now were built in the 1700s or later. The staircase was great and one of the overmantels was very good. I don’t want to get too feudal or deferential about this but it is a bit amazing for us lower middle class types who were brought up, and still live, in modern boxes to have the chance to stay fleetingly in the type of houses that we usually pay the National Trust to be able to wander around for an hour on a Sunday afternoon. To be able to spend as much time as I wanted in front of the Jacobean fireplace (not as much time as I should have spent) or sitting in the Georgian lounge with plasterwork so delicate it might have been on a Wedgewood vase is very special. Someone has a good eye for 20th century art because, whilst most of the paintings looked like old family pieces, the Jessica Brown still lifes in the dining room and the small (alabaster? marble? I’m not very good on stones!) horse in the lounge were lovely (I really should have asked who’d done it).

Anyway, Saturday was a trip back to Sixpenny Handley to see farmer/archaeologist Martin Green’s museum and some of the excavations he’d undertaken on his land. The weather was beautiful when we went into the museum but, sadly, grey and blustery when we came out to start our walk around Martin’s reconstructed excavations – and there’s not much to stop the wind whipping across the Cranborne Chase! If anyone is interested there are details of a couple of things we saw, the pond barrow and the shaft at http://digitaldigging.net/cranborne-chase-archaeology/. The shaft is amazing – Martin got 13 metres down it before being stopped by the water table, but it’s been augured to be twice as deep. It can now be viewed from a bridge above and we can confirm that it’s definitely a bloody big hole…

Lunch at the Inn at Cranborne then off to the Ancient Technology Centre. We’d been to a lecture at Devizes Museum by Luke Winter just before Christmas that was brill and he was just as informative and funny showing us around the reconstructions on site. It’s an experimental archaeology centre where they try to recreate ancient buildings using ancient techniques and materials but using children to do the work. It’s fascinating; with a reconstructed Viking longhouse, Isle of Man earthhouse, Iron Age roundhouse, Roman forge and more, recreated from the archaeological evidence. Most children come to visit on a regular basis to help with the builds, but when groups of children come to stay overnight in the longhouse they have to butcher their own meat, make bread, chop vegetables and cook on the open firepit – they claim never to have lost a child, or a bit of a child, yet (but many parents must still send theirs’ along in hope…)!

If you like Time Team you may remember the Special in which they recreated a Roman water wheel based on pieces that had been excavated in London at the start of the millennium. The Museum of London donated it to the ACT so many of our group had fun trying it out!

Then back to the hotel for a beer and a soak in the bath to get the smell of wood smoke out before dinner. All-in-all a brilliant way to spend a weekend.

Devizes Museum put on a great range of lectures and events throughout the year, details of which can be found here.

Southern 100

We're recently back from a week in the Isle of Man watching the Southern 100 motorbike road races with my Dad. The weather was lovely all week – who'd have expected that? - we've come back sunburned and there was only one brief rain shower during a support race on the Wednesday evening, which caused it to be shortened to 4 laps (but the sidecar practice after it went ahead). We went over on the Sunday evening ferry from Liverpool, which was absolutely heaving with IoM residents heading back after their 4-day bank holiday weekend. We stayed at the Sefton Express airport hotel in Ballasalla – along the lines of a Travelodge but the staff were lovely, it was very handy for the racing and public transport, plus they had lots of Okells beers... well, slightly less by the time we left. Practice was Monday and Tuesday evenings with some racing also on Tues but the main racing starting on Wednesday evening and all day Thursday. So that left most of each day for sight-seeing. See lots of photos in the album over on the right =>

Monday

Monday we went to the Laxey Wheel 'cos bits of it were made in Wigan and it's also a pretty impressive mine water-pumping mechanism. As I've mentioned before, I love these ex-industrial areas because they show how quickly nature re-establishes itself once the industry stops; from a polluted wasteland 100 years ago the wheel is now set in a lovely valley and you can walk along the stream, which has trout in it once again, watching the dragonflies flit along over the waterfall. The abandoned and derelict mine buildings only seem to add to the picturesqueness of it for me as, I suppose, the ruined monastic buildings did for the Romantics 200 years ago. Or am I getting too poncey?

We had lunch in a great pub in Laxey, the Mines Tavern, which was right next to the electric tramway station (the trams go from Douglas up to the top of the Snaefell mountain). The bar is brill., not only because it stocks lots of local beers, but 'cos it looks like a tram! We also loved the café at the tram ticket office because it was so old-fashioned. After lunch we took the tram up to The Bungalow (on the TT Circuit) not realising that the motorcycle museum that had been up there was now closed. We had a wander around for an hour, looking at Joey Dunlop's statue and the fantastic view before heading back down in the tram and back to Castletown for the first evening's practice.

The hotel proved even handier for the Southern 100 circuit than we'd expected as a short-ish (mile?) walk across the fields behind the hotel (taking care not to get run over by a steam train when crossing the track!) brought us out just below Church Bends, which we'd heard was a good viewing spot. We settled down amongst the graves in Malew churchyard and waited for the practice to begin. The roads closed at 6.05pm and once the travelling marshals had checked the route was clear the session began. The Southern 100's 'Billown Circuit' is about 4 and a half miles long. The start/finish straight is on the Castletown by-pass and from there it follows a rough square going via Ballakeighan, Ballabeg and Malew.
View Southern 100 in a larger map
If I can get the map to work correctly, the rough square in blue is the circuit with the single blue line wobbling off to the right being the route we walked from the hotel to the circuit. This was my first experience of road racing because, although I've been to the TT before, the weather was too bad for racing (well, that was until they cancelled the day's session and then the sun decided to come out!). I knew that the lads got close to the wall but I was just amazed at how close you actually get to them. We were standing behind the churchyard wall at the apex of the corner and we could have patted them on the back as they went past (had they not been going at 100 mph that is, 'cos I think you'd be patting thin air as they streaked away!) and their heads were brushing the wall. There were better places to stand if you wanted to get good photos – like on the opposite side of the road in the overspill churchyard – but to get the pure atmosphere of road racing I'm not sure that the apex of Church Bends could be bettered.

Guy Martin (pictured) led the first practice sessions for the 1000s and 600s but you could see how hard Michael Dunlop was trying and you could tell he had it hooked up and was just going faster and faster; so by the end of the evening he was topping the timings sheets. Ian Lougher and local boy Conor Cummins (see his horrendous crash at the TT a couple of years ago here) were up there too. There was a short break whilst a sidecar crew were airlifted to hospital, but I understand that it wasn't too serious. There were no serious hold-ups and the roads were re-opened before the scheduled 9.40pm.

We walked back to Ballasalla town and had a couple of pints in The Whitestones (to be recommended, we went back and ate there twice later in the week).

Tuesday

At breakfast two chaps were just booking in after catching the 'plane over from Ireland with some slick tyres for one of the riders. I thought they'd have been for someone we'd never heard of but when we got chatting to them it turned out that they were for Michael Dunlop. He was using, appropriately enough, Dunlops but the tyre suppliers in the paddock were Pirelli so he'd 'phoned the chaps to ask them to collect the tyres for him and bring them over – familiar story for Dad who used to be asked to bring a new exhaust, etc, with him when he came over to support the Porters' riders for the TT. They said that the text explaining where they'd find the tyres was brilliant, along the lines of 'turn left at the blue garage, go a couple of miles up the road and after the farm turn right and at the third gate of the left you'll find two tyres behind the hedge' and there they were at 5.30 that morning touring the country roads of Antrim looking for the tyres!

We kept it local for day two and stayed quite close to Ballasalla. After a look round Castletown we drove around the circuit to see if there was anywhere else we fancied viewing from that evening, but nowhere really caught our attention. We dropped in at Rushen Abbey to look round the ruins and for some nostalgia by the older sections of our party – Dad could remember it being the place to go for cream teas and dancing when the family used to go over in the '50s and '60s. The Abbey's owners had fruit trees planted on the land and made their own famous preserves and held tea dances.

Back to Church Bends that evening, in the car this time - note the eager crowd waiting for the racing to begin... Unfortunately, the only accident of the evening happened here 15 mins before the roads were due to close, when a bike came round the corner only to find a van on his side of the road maneuvering to get through a narrow gate entrance. Luckily it was a low speed hit, although it made a heck of a noise, and he was taken to hospital complaining of arm and neck pain – fingers crossed he was OK and managed to see the rest of the week's racing. The marshals were fantastic; they swung into action directing traffic whilst the course medic treated him before the emergency services arrived. The roads opened less than 20 mins later than expected and by the end of the evening the timing was back on track.

We tried to go to The Sidings in Castletown after the practice but it was absolutely heaving – four deep at the bar – so we went back to the hotel and sampled Okells Maclir and 1907(brewed to commemorate the TT and a slightly excessive 6.1%!) and can pronounce them both excellent - but we kept trying them throughout the week, just to make sure...

Wednesday

Off to Peel today to see the castle. I was happy 'cos almost the first structure through the gate was a garderobe. So, ancient toilet fetish satisfied, I could concentrate on taking nice pictures of the castle! Seriously though, I don't think I've seen as many garderobes in one castle before, the residents were extremely well provided for. By the way, that blue stuff at the top of the photo is what the sky is supposed to look like in summer, rather than the grey we've been used to for the last 3 months...

Lovely lunch at The Creek public house – Jon's kippers (smoked less than 100 yards away) came piled up and in hindsight the side-order of chips may have been a mistake. Bushy's Oyster Stout (made with real oysters apparently) washed it down a treat. Apparently some of the riders were mackerel fishing on the harbour wall, but we didn't spot them.

In the evening we thought we'd try a different viewing spot and chose Stadium Bends at the beginning of the start/finish straight. We caught the steam train at Ronaldsway Halt, just behind the hotel, into Castletown – it stops by The Sidings pub. There are grandstands at Stadium Bends and also up by the start line, but we sat just a little bit further up from the corner. From there you can walk all the way along the start/finish straight, around the paddock, see the riders as they come in to the podium and the first corner.

It was the first proper night of racing with just a sidecar practice at the end. The closest race of the evening was Ryan Farquhar and Jamie Hamilton in the 650 class – team mates on Ryan's own bikes and they were swapping the lead throughout the race with Ryan using a 'wide elbow technique' to discourage Jamie from passing him! Farquhar won by a fraction of a second.

Those tyres of Michael Dunlop's got well-used in his races and he was dominant during the evening. He didn't always get away first but he sooner or later fought his way to the front and streaked away. He looked so relaxed during the sighting laps, arm resting on the tank, foot peddling along the pavement - on one occasion his bike actually was on the pavement! When racing he just seemed so smooth and in control. Guy Martin was second in the races he finished, but had a DNF in the 600 race. His Tyco team-mate Conor Cummins and Ian Lougher were usually dicing for third – very close racing – with Conor getting the best of it by the end. He came second in the races Guy didn't finish. You can find all the results here.

A short shower meant that the last race of the evening, the 125/400s, was shortened to 4 laps, but the sidecar practice ended the session as planned. Caught the bus back to the hotel (it stops just opposite at the airport) and sampled more of the Okells.

Thursday

A full day of racing today, so we drove over to Church Bends and staked our place at the apex of the corner again. The Irish gentlemen from the hotel were there - very happy that their man was doing so well. It was a lovely day but there was a chilly breeze - well, that's my excuse for wearing shades and a sun hat with a mac and walking socks!

Mr Dunlop started where he'd left off the previous evening and won everything he entered. Conor Cummins came second in the races that Guy Martin DNF'd. The racing was great in all the classes. To be honest some of the riders were, to paraphrase Howlin' Wolf, built for comfort rather than speed but they were all heroes as far as I was concerned - look at the photos in the album to see how close to the wall they got. This isn't circuit racing with nice big run-offs if you get it wrong (although that's dangerous enough); the thing you hit here is a house, a garden wall, a tree. Paul Shoesmith (pictured) provided some light relief by turning out in the Evel Knievel leathers that he wore at the TT - complete with tassels!

The church at Malew is lovely, with original box-pews, balcony and a very unusual banked aisle. Members of the church opened the kitchen today and did drinks, burgers, sausages, etc to raise money for the church funds. I hope they did very well. The church is well worth a visit if you're on your way back from Castletown or Ports Erin or St Mary.

After a fantastic day's racing it was off to Castletown Square in the evening for the prize-giving. Everyone received a plaque for taking part was well as those who were up there to collect cheques and silverware. It was nice to stand in the Square next to world famous and not so famous riders, all of whom seemed happy to sign autographs or shake hands with the fans. Unfortunately, all riders look the same with their helmets on so I didn't recognise most of them until Jon pointed them out! Except Conor Cummins, of course, 'cos he's ten foot tall and even though I was standing on the Smelt Monument he still blocked my view of the stage!

Michael Dunlop's clean sweep of wins and 4 new lap records, including an absolute track record, meant that for his final trip to the stage the organisers had to give him a very unglamorous large cardboard box to take all his trophies away in! Local boy Conor Cummins got the loudest cheers every time he went to the stage - as did his Dad when he collected his winner's trophy for the Junior Support Consolation Race. Guy Martin was conspicuous by his absence to collect the first 2 of his 2nd place trophies - I think he was at the back of the bar in the George Hotel and couldn't get out (well, that's my charitable interpretation anyway!) - but he made it out at the third attempt and went off with an armful of trophies.

Friday/Saturday

We started the day with a trip to the steam museum at Port Erin which is quite literally at the end of the line on the most southerly stop on the Isle of Man Steam Railway. So you get to see the trains coming in and out of the shed as well as the static ones displayed in the museum.

Then we had a trip up to Douglas to have a mooch around the shops. We didn't buy much today but bought loads when we were waiting for the ferry on Saturday! We had a nice afternoon tea at the Alpine Cafe on Regent Street and on Saturday we enjoyed our lunch at The Velvet Lobster on North Quay

We popped into the Tourist Info Office to find out where the bikes from Murray's Motorcycle Museum at the Bungalow had ended up and were told that Peter Murray now has them at a museum at his home in Santon. The lady gave us the details but suggested that we ring first because the opening times could be somewhat erratic. So, we headed back to the hotel and, as we went through Santon, we noticed that for the first time that week the museum's sign was out so we decided to pay a visit. To find it, take the A5 towards Castletown. When you see the house (pictured) seemingly in the middle of the road, the museum is through a farm gate on the left of the house. If you get to Fairy Bridge ('Hello fairies') you've gone too far. It's an amazing collection, all the more interesting because it's now just in a large two story garage - it reminded us of the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum near us in Calne.

Mr Murray was on hand to provide teas and coffees and lots of information. Whilst we were there one of the riders from the Southern 100 and his wife were looking round (possibly Chris Palmer, but I didn't like to let on that I didn't recognise him - see my comments above about all riders looking the same...), plus a TT marshal, so I think it gets the more knowledgeable type of bike enthusiasts. There were some brilliant bits of engine on the bench with melted bits to illustrate what happens when a piston lets go, etc. We'd not meant to stay long but it was almost 2 hours later when we made our escape.

Dinner in the evening was with friends of my parents at The Garrison - again very generous portions and I had to give my side dishes away, sob.

Back home on the Saturday after a shopping trip to Douglas, thankfully the ferry was a little quieter!

It looks like the races are on Eurosport2 over the weekend of the 4th August and into next week - look out for 'Motorcycling: Southern 100' and 'Motorcycling: Billown Races' each day.

Arrivederci Roma

We're recently back from a week in the 'Eternal City' having finally managed to go away with the company that we've been trying to go to Syria with for the last year. After looking forward to a trip for so long we were a bit worried that we might be disappointed but we had a fantastic time. Our guide, Oliver, is a proper working archaeologist and was brilliant - knowledgeable, approachable, flexible.

We thought that the Ferret Holiday Curse had struck again because, as well as the Italian economy being f**ked, it snowed in Rome for the first time in over twenty years the week before we arrived! They even closed the Colosseum to visitors on health and safety grounds (yes, who knew that they have health and safety on the continent?). I'm not sure that this picture actually shows just how cold it was at 9am!

We took our own flights from Brizzle 'cos we couldn't be bothered trying to get to Gatwick - life's too short. Luckily, our flight arrived only 20 mins after the main group's did and we spotted them in the arrivals hall which meant that we were able to get a lift in the coach rather than having to find our own way to the hotel - admittedly that wouldn't have been difficult, but it was nice to meet Oliver and the rest of the group early on.

The hotel, Pace Helvezia, was really handy for the Forum and lots of other sites. We liked it but there is some criticism on Trip Advisor of its small bedrooms. Ours was at the back of the hotel, so reasonably quiet for a room in the middle of a busy city, the bedroom size was fine and the bathroom was huge. The public areas did need some updating and the bar was never open, but there are lots of other places to go, who wants to spend the evening in their hotel in Rome? The roof terrace was wonderful and I spent a very happy morning on our 'day off' reading in the sun whilst Jon hired a scooter (yes, he did, and survived!).

We had some lovely dinners, although we had to get used to all our meat arriving looking like it'd been run over, as the Romans seemed to flatten all meat for some reason. Oh, and you've got to order your veggies as a side dish. We tried Le Lanterne just over the road from the hotel and I had a fantastic minestrone at La Taverna dei Monti which was bursting with absolutely fresh vegetables and must have been at least 3 of my '5 a day'! We also liked The Glass bar and restaurant just off Piazza Venezia. But we found the drinks everywhere to be really expensive at 5+ Euros for very uninteresting lagers. We finally found the Theatre Café Bar just up the road from our hotel on the roundabout where Via 4 Novembre, Largo Magnanpolis and Via Nazionale meet. The interior has large mirrors with 'Only Bass' on, but sadly no Bass on tap, but they did have Affligem and Erdinger which were cheaper and had more flavour than the gassy local beers. The food was great too - and came with vegetables! We get a bit enthusiastic (greedy) and ordered a starter of antipasti for me and a soup for Jon (which was a proper rustic job, thickened with bread). Then I had a lovely Gateau di Patate which came with a salad and more tiny mozzarella balls than you could shake a stick at and Jon had saltimbocca with lots of roasted peppers and courgettes - which we could hardly finish.

We loved Rome - it was far less intimidating than Naples. In Naples there were streets that I definitely wouldn't have wanted to walk down without being accompanied by someone who knew it was safe, but we didn't find anywhere like that in Rome. All our preconceptions of the traffic, the car horns blaring, etc were completely over-turned, but it may have been because of the time of year we were there as other people have said it's very manic in summer. It did feel rather provincial though; no big theatre district like in London, no fancy cars. On the car front, we saw more Porsches parked in Chippenham town centre at 10.30 on a very quiet Sunday morning when we got home than we'd seen all week in Rome (i.e. two). The locals seemed to go in for large-ish family/executive saloons, especially BMWs and Merc C and E Classes - but no CLS. They often seemed to have a driver which I suppose means that the chauffeured were politicians of some sort (Rome is home to the provincial as well as national government, plus UN buildings, EU offices, etc). We saw a couple of Jag XFs but no larger Jags, Ferraris, Astons or Bentleys, like we usually see on a walk down Piccadilly in London (to be honest, like I see on my commute to work in Bath on a good morning). But, what we did see were 4 Maserati Quattroportes - or possibly just the same two, as they were all police Massers (note the blue lights on this one - there's a second photo in the album on the right) and seemed to be used to carry the more important politicians around. Jealous? Pah!

Day one
Saw us start close to the hotel with Trajan's column (there's a cast of it in the V&A in London if you can't make it to Rome) which was erected in 113AD and tells the story of his victory against the Dacians and the Imperial Forum. Crikey, it was cold! And there was still snow around but the sky was crystal clear and it was beautiful. Down the road we could see the Colosseum - honestly, you can't turn a corner without tripping over archaeology - but we were going across the road to the Forum Romana which is a fascinating jumble of political and religious buildings and monuments. Like the Arch of Titus, pictured here, which commemorates the sack of Jerusalem and depicts Roman soldiers carrying away the menorah and other sacred relics from the Temple. Then up to the Palatine Hill where Rome's elite built their palaces and on which was discovered a hut that

formed part of the earliest Bronze Age settlement. After lunch we headed to the Colosseum but, can you believe it, it was closed for two days whilst they did some assessments after the previous week's bad weather. Our tickets would still be valid later in the week, so instead we went to San Clemente. This is a lovely church run by the Irish Dominicans which contains some exquisite 12th century mosaics. BUT go downstairs and there is the 4th century church with frescos from the 4th-11th centuries. BUT below that are Roman buildings, some with foundations which pre-date the fire of Nero (64AD), the temple of Mithras and 6th century catacombs. These are about 9m below the street level and include drains and springs but Oliver said that in some areas the Roman remains go as deep as 35m. Absolutely fascinating and well worth a visit.

Day Two
We headed out of the city to Hadrian's villa at Tivoli. It was much colder (as this gentleman illustrates) with more snow on the ground and some pools actually had over an inch of ice on them! After lunch we had intended to visit the Villa d'Este (which I was really looking forward to) but unfortunately, as some of the paths are rather precipitous, it was closed due to the ice and snow. So we came back into the city and went to the Capitoline Museum.

As well as holding treasures that you'll have seen thousands of times in reproduction (like this massive statue of Constantine II), it also has a splendid view over the Forum - which was almost empty at that time of the early evening. And, like everywhere else in Rome, it has bits of ancient architecture sticking out occasionally.

Day Three
Was a walk through the Field of Mars, the Stadium of Domitian (now Piazza Navona - the buildings are where the seating would have been but the Piazza preserves the shape of the Stadium), past the column of Marcus Aurelius to the Pantheon. This visit to the Pantheon was what I was most looking forward to and after studying it and seeing pictures and plans for so long I've got to admit that I was a little over-come at standing inside it at last. It is awe-inspiring that it's still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world despite being built in 128AD and that the world saw nothing that even came close to it until Brunelleschi got his hands on Florence cathedral in the 1400s. With all works of art and architecture no reproduction in a book does justice to the actual thing itself: the portico is so much deeper than I imagined; the doors and portico roof are the same that were put there almost 2000 years ago; the brightness of the marble interior. One of the few ancient structures to have actually been protected by Christianity rather than destroyed by it.

Then on to the Ara Pacis and the Tomb of Augustus and finishing up at the Trevi Fountain.

Day Four
I spent the morning on the roof terrace reading whilst Jon took a scooter out - yes, that's him heading out into the Roman traffic. He actually went out beyond the city walls to do some exploring and found a quiet little café (espressos were a lot cheaper than inside the walls!). In the afternoon we made our postponed trip to the Colosseum. We got to the front of the queue with our group and found the turnstiles being erratically 'controlled' by this laptop - the password is on the post-it note sellotaped to the keyboard! Just after our group got through it seemed to give up altogether and the turnstiles jammed; there were a lot of disgruntled people in the queue!

After seeing the ice on some of the closed areas I'm not surprised that it was closed for a few days.

Day Five
Was coming home day and there was a trip to Ostia booked in on the way to the airport. The rest of the group had an entire day there but our flights were a little earlier than theirs so we had to leave about 2pm. Very kindly Oliver got the coach to take us rather than us having to get a cab. On the way to Ostia we stopped off at the fascinating but freezing Museo della Civilta Romana in EUR. Yes, it really was built without heating! The wardens were all wearing winter coats and gloves inside and kept nipping to the hot drink vending machines!. Everything here is a copy or a model but it's all great. The architecture in EUR is modernist and I loved it, although it does give you mixed feelings admiring something planned and begun by the fascists, but it was finished by Giovanni Agnelli so I guess that makes it OK!

Ostia began life as Rome's port and the most wonderful town now survives with some houses/shops extant up to three stories high. You enter the site down the Avenue of Tombs which leads to the theatre. Part way along I asked Oliver whether the bits of broken pot and tile that we were walking over were actually Roman and passed him a larger bit that I'd just found; he confirmed that it was, indeed, a sherd of 1st century Roman pot which led to everyone walking with their eyes fixed to the ground for the next few minutes! But the architecture was so good that you couldn't look down for long. After Oliver had demonstrated the acoustics in the theatre we looked round the market you can see behind it in the photo, where the shipping merchants had their shops - with mosaics on the floor outside to show the wares they imported (see the photos in the album link on the right). I couldn't really believe that these mosaics were still in the open, unprotected from the elements, it's great.

We saw a bar with a beer garden however, as it was over 1800 years old, unfortunately it was closed. But the highlight of my day (and up there with the Pantheon as experience of the week for me) came just before lunch when we reached the forum and, just along from it was a bath house and opposite that... using the water from the baths for flushing... was a public latrine. Look at it! It even had marble seats! Admittedly a bit chilly in winter and up on Hadrian's Wall you'd definitely rather risk a splinter from a wooden loo seat, but I bet it was nice and cooling in summer or if you'd eaten a dodgy botulus! It even had a marble sink. Oooo, the perfect way to end our holiday! If you've been watching Mary Beard's BBC2 series you'll have seen her sitting on the very same loo.

Basically, we loved Rome and can't wait to go back. In the meantime, I brought back a more authentic carbonara recipe than the one I put on here a couple of years ago:

6oz pasta
2 egg yolks
4oz chopped pancetta or streaky bacon
3 tablespoons cheese (parmesan, pecorino or paduano)
lots of black pepper
Cook the pasta and drain. In the pan fry the bacon in butter. When it's cooked add the pasta to the pan and stir to re-heat. Beat the cheese, pepper and eggs together. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the egg/cheese mix. Serve.

Festivities

This is where we spent Christmas, Mallory Court in Warwickshire. Dad, Jon and I arrived to afternoon tea on Christmas Eve and left the day after Boxing Day. On Christmas Eve we had a carol concert by the boys and men of St Mary's Collegiate Church in Warwick, which was lovely and included some interesting newer stuff alongside the traditional carols. We were looked after fantastically and loved it, especially the food. Given how much we over-research things, can you believe that we missed the fact that the restaurant was Michelin starred? We began to get an inkling at dinner on Chistmas Eve though! The food was wonderful, but so was the service, the hotel, everything really. I couldn't recommend it high enough - we even got a gift hamper when we arrived and a 'care pack' of water, nibbles, fruit, etc for the journey on leaving. More photos in the photo album on the right. Also managed to nip into Leamington Spa to have a quick look at the sales on Boxing Day!

We've had a nice peaceful uneventful week off work since then. I could really get used to not working for a living! The New Year began with soup making to use up a few things from the freezer and one or two things that were lurking ominously at the back of the 'fridge. I'm typing the recipe here 'cos it's actually an amalgam of several recipes and at least if it's here I'll know where to find it again!

Bacon and lentil Soup
Serves 12 (makes 6 pints) at 22p per 250ml serving (excluding the wine and parsley). Each portion is at least one of your '5 A Day'.

200g lentils (I prefer red, but you can use any)
200g bacon (I prefer to use smoked, but again...) finely chopped, with the fat cut off (leave it out of you just want a vegetarian soup)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped finely
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped finely
2 sticks celery, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
400g tin tomatoes, or 4-6 ripe fresh tomatoes (those at the back of the 'fridge that are about to turn to water...), chopped finely
1 glass red wine (optional)
1 tsp fennel seeds
Half tsp dried ground coriander
Ground black pepper (taste the soup before salting as the bacon and stock will probably make it salty enough)
Pinch Cayenne pepper
3 pints vegetable or chicken stock
2 tbs chopped parsley stirred in to serve (optional).

Put all the ingredients except the parsley in a large pan. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down and simmer for an hour until the lentils are soft.

Allow it to cool a little and then, if you like a slightly lumpy consistency, liquidize half the soup and return it to the pan. If you like it smooth then liquidize it all. Add more stock or water if the soup is too thick. Reheat and then stir in the parsley just before serving. Can be frozen.

As it's New Year's Day I thought I'd review the goals I set this time last year http://lazyferret.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

Goals for 2011:
1. Get more exercise
Nah, was never going to happen was it?
2. Do some track days/driving 'experiences' at local motor racing circuit
No, I must do this in 2012.
3. Cook a new recipe each month
Yes, I think I managed 12 new recipes and posted them throughout the year
4. Get a hair cut - sounds easy but I've always hated going to the hairdressers and the last time I went was Sept 2009!
Yes! And have been several times since. Shocked all my colleagues who hadn't known me with short stripey hair!
5. Worry less
Nah, was never going to happen was it?
6. Sort out a new boiler
Yes, and Michel is great and was blogged about.

I'm not sure I want to set any goals this year. We'll just see how it goes!

Happy 2012!

Food

I've been trying out some more new recipes recently - salmon, coconut and lime parcels from the Tesco magazine. Extremely easy and very tasty, although I'm not sure they came out looking quite like this picture!

I gave their Asian salmon with stir-fried noodles a go too - again easy and yummie.

I've also made these stuffed aubergines from the BBC site a couple of times, which were brilliant and looked much better than the photo that accompanies the recipe!

Dad came down to visit over the first Bank Holiday weekend in May so we took the chance to go to the rhododendron walk at Bowood, which is only a couple of miles up the road from us but which we've never managed to visit in the 21 years we've lived here! Although it was so early in the season it was really very impressive. And yes, I did take a picture of almost every bloom in the garden!

Had the usual trip to Lacock, only a couple of days after we'd been there for lunch (ooo, my birthday meal At The Sign of the Angel was fabbie. It was a lovely day so we finished the wine off in their back garden). We also made it to the Motors TV Live Raceday at Castle Combe on the Monday. We also recorded it (to see the crashes that you miss when you're actually there) and could see me and Dad pogging about in the Paddock in one shot! Oooo, fame at last...

Oh, and May's new recipe was Potatoes Boulangere. Very nice but I had loads left so it's in the freezer and will no doubt be turned into Nigel Slater's smoked mackrel dauphinoise, with the addition of cream, mustard and the fish. Or maybe his stove-top dauphinoise.

Food

I managed to cook several new recipes recently, as per one of my goals that I set at the beginning of the year. In February we had Goulash Soup based on a recipe which first appeared in Delia's Frugal Food back in the '70s. This is a book that I got two of for Christmas, so obviously rumours of my tightwaddery are spreading! I've loved goulash since we first ate it in a Hungarian restaurant in Ross-on-Wye almost 25 years ago, although one of my favourites was in Prague when it was served in a hollowed out loaf. Anyway, we had goulash soup a couple of times in Austria and Germany, so I thought I'd try cooking it and it was extremely good. I made a couple of changes to the above recipe: I added a carrot, I used pork rather than beef and I added a bit of celery.

March's new recipe was Jamie Oliver's Cheat's Pizza which was great. I seem to recall cooking an similar Elizabeth David pizza base (without yeast) and it came out tasting like pastry, but Jamie's version tasted like a thin pizza dough. Our toppings were ancvhovies, olives and chilli. I've got to say that I've enjoyed watching back-to-back re-runs of his Jamie's 30-Minute Meals on Sunday afternoons whilst I've been doing the ironing. I may have to invest in the book.

April's new recipe was Simon Hopkinson's version of Janssen's Temptation from Week in Week Out, but this one by Jane Grigson isn't too different.

Instead of going to Syria we went to one of our favourite hotels, Northcote Manor in Devon. This time in Jon's Dad's MX5 rather than George's Morgan - one day we'll go in our own car! The food was as wondeful as last time. And for my birthday we're off to At the Sign of the Angel in Lacock. I can't believe that we've lived 5 miles away for 22 years and have never been there yet - I hope I'm not disappointed!

Goals update

I'm doing quite well at knocking a few of my goals for the year over:

3. Cook a new recipe each month January's new recipe was yet another stuffed pepper/tomato one - when I've visited Greece I've just lived off these for a week or more, only picking other dishes every few nights just so I don't seem wierd (OK, make that TOO wierd. Anyway, this has been lurking in my recipe file for many years and may have been cut out of Woman and Home magazine. This must be the most expensive stuffed pepper/tom recipe I have; because of the cheese, lamb and eggs, but it was very nice. I noticed that my supermarket now does a value brand feta-style 'salad cheese', so that might help bring the price down a bit.

Greek stuffed tomatoes

Serves 4

Note: I used peppers and, as they tend to be larger than beef tomatoes, I added an onion with the garlic and added the chopped sliced flesh from the stalk end when I cut off the tops. Peppers don't always sit nicely on their bases so lie them on their flatest side and slice the upper side off - that way they still keep the stalk for aesthetic effects. If you're using largeish peppers you may need to add some rice when you put the wine in for extra bulk, or perhaps use twice as much feta. Instead of breadcrumbs you can use a plain unsweetened breakfast cereal like bran flakes or Weetabix. If you're using peppers then finely chop 8 tomatoes (or a tin of them).

Oil for frying and drizzling
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
4 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves (or 1 tablespoon of dried - try marjoram or parsley if you're out of oregano)
500g minced lamb
150ml dry white wine
8 ripe beef tomatoes
salt and ground black pepper
50g breadcrumbs
2 medium eggs
100g feta cheese, crumbled or diced

Heat the oil and fry the garlic (and onion and pepper 'lid', if used) for a few moments.
Add the oregano and stir.
Add the mince, break it up with a fork and stir until it changes colour.
Add the wine, turn up the heat and bubble until the liquid evaporates.
Turn the heat off and leave to cool.
Remove the tops from the tomatoes and carefully scoop out the insides, being very careful not to puncture the tamato.
Cut the woody bitter core from the tomato innards and chop them and the lids very finely (or puree in a food processor).
Stir the eggs, breadcrumbs, seasoning and feta into the meat mixture (I put the tomato innards in too, but read on for a different option).
Stuff the meat mixture into the tomatoes.
Put the tomatoes into a shallow casserole dish, tightly packing them in will help stop them splitting.
Pour the tomato puree around them.
Cook covered in a medium oven (gas 5-ish/190c) for an hour.
Uncover and cook for a further 30 mins to become golden on top.
Remove from the oven and let them stand for 15 mins.
Serve at room temp drizzled with a little olive oil and scattered with some chopped parsley.

4. Get a hair cut - sounds easy but I've always hated going to the hairdressers and the last time I went was Sept 2009! Done - the hair is once again short and has blond highlights. It's the first time it's been short since April 2007. The hairdresser thought it was very funny when she asked why I was getting it all cut off and I replied, 'Cos it's blocking the hoover!'. Other reasons are: will cost less in gas to heat the water to wash it; will take less time to wash; will cost less in shampoo and conditioner; will take less time to try to comb the knots out after washing it; etc etc etc

The Reckoning

When we went on our 'trip of a lifetime' to Egypt in January 2009, we were chatting to the taxi driver who had taken us to Deir el-Medina and he was asking, "Where are all the tourists?". We thought that there were lots of tourists around, but he said no, that there were usually many more and that the Egyptians were earning much less as a result. We heard the same question from a tout later in the week. We explained that we had been 'credit crunched' and that people were afraid of losing their jobs and were saving their money.

This sparked a conversation about food prices, as wheat was beginning to rise in price and at home the 500g of pasta that had cost 33p the January before was now 75p, the 70p loaf was now £1.34 and cheese had risen by 20%. These price rises were something that most of us in Britain could shrug off, but in countries where such staples make up a fair proportion of the diet and where most ordinary people had 2 or 3 jobs to try to make ends meet; what would happen, we wondered, when these price rises hit whilst coupled with less income coming in?

Well, 2 years later, I think we just found out.

Food, glorious food...

This is the result of a rather slow-burn rant and yes, it's going to be long and preachy.

About a month ago, The Guardian published some recipe ideas for students heading off to university under the headline, "Cheap and delicious recipes for student gourmets from some of the country's top chefs, including Gordon Ramsay, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver". Well, whilst some of the lesser known chefs managed to bring meals in at about £1 a head, Hugh F-W provided a fish recipe that cost £22 and served 4, yes that's £5.50 per serving (Jamie's offering also cost £5.50 a head), and how, by all that is holy, did Gordon Ramsay manage to do macaroni cheese that cost £9.50 (£2.37 a head)? It should only cost £2.50 to make macaroni cheese for 4 people, leaving £7 to spend on beer (we are cooking for students here after all)!

I get really, REALLY, pissed off by some of the commentators who, under the guise of encouraging you to cook from scratch, are actually saying, "Oh but if you can't be bothered to do it properly, with locally sourced organic ingredients, bought from your local farm shop every day, it just isn't real food." So, you might as well not bother and just go back to buying a ready meal to pop in the microwave.

They do the same with ingredients that real people use, because we have real lives going on and can't spend all day tracking down the 'right' soy sauce. Take dried herbs and spices: I've heard 'celebrity' chefs say that if you don't use fresh spices then you really ought not to bother making your own curry because the dried ones (and, even worse, the dried pre-crushed ones) just ruin the flavour. Bollocks. That's fine if you have an Asian food shop on your doorstep, but here in deepest Wiltshire I can't always get even a bunch of fresh coriander in my local supermarket, let alone more exotic things like fenugreek. So instead the chefs try to get you to use one of their own branded bottles of curry paste that cost a fortune and don't last a quarter as long as dried spices in bottles. The only reactions I've ever had to my home-made curries cooked with dried pre-ground cumin, etc, is, "God, that was good, is there enough for seconds?".

Some daft home economist on Woman's Hour a couple of years back was trying to encourage people to avoid the credit crunch by taking their own lunches to work. A very laudable aim, until she said that making your own tuna mayo sarnie would cost about 85p. Wot? So, only about 15p less than a basic supermarket one then? Again, absolute rubbish and seems more intended to put people off making their own rather than encouraging them. For the record, I make 3 rounds of tuna mayo sandwiches for under 90p.

So, although I know virtually no-one with children at university, and those that I do know certainly don't read this blog, for my own satisfaction I'm going to cost up some more sensibly priced student meals. And if any browsing student (or anyone cooking on a budget) happens to come across them, I hope they find them useful. But remember, these are the tips of a 43 year old woman and not necessarily what I actually did when I was at uni! Although we did cook each night for ourselves and if I'd thought I'd be leaving uni with £20k+ of debt I think I'd have been even more careful.

In the beginning...

Right then, let's start at the beginning. ALWAYS have breakfast at home before you leave for the day. Buying stuff on the way to class is expensive, or leaving it 'til mid-morning when you're so starving that you pig out on crisps and chocolate bars is a really bad idea, costly and not healthy. Having brekkie at home saves you money and ensures you can concentrate in class. There are lots of options: cereals (try to avoid ones that turn the milk a different colour or are covered in sugar - but even they are better than nothing); yoghurt and fruit; toast and spreadable topping of your choice; toast and an egg; beans on toast; bacon or sausage sarnie (yeh, like you're going to be up early enough to cook that!). Also, a glass of juice in the morning counts as one of your 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. If you are up too late to eat in the house then grab some fruit to eat on the bus.

Take things for mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks: fruit, crisps, a re-fillable bottle of water. The most popular branded crisps bought in a multi-bag from the supermarket can cost as little as 9p per bag, compare that to the 45p+ prices of single bags bought from the shop at uni. If you buy just one coffee a day at uni for £2 that's about £360 a year - so just add up what your mid-morning snacks, lunch then mid-afternoon snacks cost you.

Lunch

Yes, I've had the rant about sandwiches above. Making your own lunch will cost less than one third what a shop bought sandwich will (much less, as the campus on which I work does not sell sandwiches for less than £1.50 and most are above £2). You don't have to stop at sandwiches, try wraps, soups or leftovers kept hot in a food flask, salads (tabbouleh, pasta salad, noodle or rice salad using last night's stir fry).

OK, realistically, you're not going to have time to make these in the morning are you? So make them the night before - it'll take 5 mins and save you a fortune. You can even freeze sandwiches (don't put anything on that'll go soggy like tomatoes or cucumber) individually wrapped or in a plastic sandwich box, that you can just take out of the freezer and pop into the 'fridge the night before. Or freeze things when they're on special offer or RFQS (reduced for quick sale) like pasties and pork pies, again just transfer them to the 'fridge the night before.

Any veg you can cram into your lunch will help towards your five a day, even just tomato or celery on your cheese sandwich, cucumber, celery or sweetcorn with tuna, etc.

Dinner

Our culinary bible at uni was Cas Clarke's seminal "Grub on a Grant", but we also had the odd St. Delia and I think I even had a Ken Hom - stirfrys can be very cheap and will use up almost anything in the 'fridge. Don't buy cookery books new; charity shops are full of them, your public library has them by the armful, buy them for a penny on Amazon, surf the web for recipe ideas. Oh, and don't be afraid of ruining your food and wasting money: in the last 25 years I've only made 2 dishes that I considered inedible - one was a potato soup that had the look and consistency of wallpaper paste (that went straight on the compost heap but probably only cost £1 to make) and the other was some pasta/smoked salmon/curry thing using leftovers that I think was supposed to be like kedgeree - it was foul but Jon ate my share before saying, "Please don't make that again".

OK, 7 basic dinner recipes that will feature pasta quite heavily, 'cos it's cheap and filling. I've put 'serves 2' on most of the recipes but just double the ingredients for 4 people, or, if you're cooking for one then just pop half the meal on a plastic box and either freeze it or put into the 'fridge and eat within a couple of days. You can add more rice or pasta if you're hungry and you won't break the bank – you could eat the whole lot yourself without sharing and it won't exactly be expensive! It's easy to think that you can buy a pasta ready-meal in the supermarket for not much more than some of these recipes cost, but you should find that you're making twice as much as you'll get in the supermarket's plastic tray and you also know what's going into your food, so there's no hidden salt, sugar, etc. The only piece of kitchen equipment that you might have to buy is a 'balloon whisk', although if you find that you enjoy cooking (or at least don't hate it) you could buy a cheap liquidiser or hand blender so that you can make soups (from as little as 15p per pint), smoothies, houmous (you can make a vat of this for the price of those little supermarket pots), and so on - supermarkets and Argos sell liquidizers for less than £10 and hand-blenders for under a fiver.

Pasta with tomato sauce - serves 2 - approx cost (depending on how much cheese you have) 75p - that's 37.5p per head.

An extremely simple and cheap recipe for when there's very little in the cupboard. Taken from Elisabeth Luard's wonderful autobiography "Family Life", which also has other great budget recipes as well as being a fantastic read.

150g / 6oz pasta
1 tin tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
half teaspoon dried thyme
salt and milled black pepper
grated cheese (cheddar will do, it doesn't have to be posh Italian stuff)

Fry the garlic in a tablespoon of oil for a moment without it changing colour. Add the tomatoes and thyme and let the mixture bubble until you have a nice thick sauce (about 15 minutes). Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the pasta as directed on the packet. Season the sauce with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Drain the pasta, toss it in the sauce and serve topped with the grated cheese.

This can be adapted by:

1. Putting the pasta and sauce in a shallow oven dish, covering with the cheese and popping in the oven (gas 4, about 180c) until the cheese is bubbly (about 15 mins).
2. Adding some veg to fry with the garlic at the beginning (e.g. any or all of these: half an onion or a celery stick finely chopped, sliced green pepper, sliced mushrooms)
3. Add a couple of slices of chopped bacon to the garlic
4. Add some tinned or frozen sweetcorn and/or a tin of tuna to the tomatoes when they start to bubble.

Pasta bake - this is an unusual recipe in that I only put in it enough ingredients for 2 people but it seems to magically multiply and will serve 3-4, so we always freeze half (take out of the freezer the night before and reheat in a microwave or put into a casserole dish with the lid on in the oven for about 45mins or until piping hot all the way through - gas 5). The price for the tuna and sweetcorn version is around £2.10, so 52.5p per head.

150g / 6oz pasta
185g tin tuna chunks, drained (if they're in oil, drain it into a cup and use it to fry the onion).
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tin sweetcorn, drained
2 oz/ 55g butter/margarine
2 oz/ 55g plain flour
1 level tsp mustard powder (optional)
large pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
pinch ground nutmeg (optional)
Large pinch salt
1 pint / 460 ml milk (or half milk and half water)
50g - 100g cheddar cheese or similar, grated plus extra for sprinkling on top
Freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta as directed on the pack but drain it a couple of minutes before it's completely cooked. Fry the onion in a tablespoon of oil until translucent, not browned. Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter, flour, spices, salt, pepper and milk. Put back on a medium heat and stir with a balloon whisk until the sauce goes thick and glossy and has no lumps in it. Remove from the heat and stir in the majority of the cheese.

In a casserole dish mix together the tuna, sweetcorn, pasta and sauce. Sprinkle the reminder of the cheese over it and cook for about 30 mins in the oven at 200C/Gas 7 until the top is golden and bubbling. Serve with a veg like frozen peas.

This can be adapted by:

1. If you have some old, but not yet blue, bread rub it in your hands (or put into a blender) to make breadcrumbs and mix with the cheese to sprinkle on top - it will make a nice crunchy topping (if you have a breakfast cereal like bran flakes or Weetabix you can use a couple of tablespoons of the crumbs at the bottom of the pack instead of breadcrumbs).
2. For bacon and mushroom bake chop 4 rashers of bacon and fry with the onion - remove them from the pan and put them in the casserole dish before making the sauce. Then slice about 4oz/100g mushrooms and stir into the sauce with the cheese.
3. For chicken add about 6-8 oz/150-200g cooked chicken to the sauce instead of the tuna (or fry raw chicken with the onion and then remove from the pan and put into the casserole dish before making the sauce). Use either mushrooms or sweetcorn.
4. For ham and mushroom, chop about 4 slices of ham and add them and the mushrooms to the sauce with the cheese.

You can now make a cheese sauce (also called roux, Béchamel or white sauce) so things like cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese, leeks in cheese sauce, lasagne, mornay, proper croque Monsieur should be a doddle.

Stuffed Peppers/Tomatoes - OK, so this one's looking a bit pricey with single peppers currently at 68p and beef tomatoes 57p each, but if you buy a multipack of peppers you could get them down to about 45p each. If you're using peppers then it's best cooked with red, yellow or orange bell peppers and I allow 2 peppers/tomatoes per person. Approx. cost £2.73, so about £1.36 per head, but may be cheaper to make in summer when tomatoes and peppers are plentiful.

4 large peppers or beef tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
half a cup of rice
1 tablespoon tomato purée
100g/4 oz cheddar cheese, chopped into cubes, plus a little for sprinkling on the top
basil leaves, torn or 1 teaspoon dried basil
half a pint vegetable stock or water (if you don't have any stock cubes use a level teaspoon of Bovril or Marmite)
Salt and pepper

Slice the top off the pepper, chop it and fry gently with the onion and garlic, until the onion is soft. Add the rice, stock, salt and pepper and, if you're using dried basil, add that too. Simmer gently until the rice is cooked, stirring it towards the end of cooking to ensure that the rice doesn't stick. Remove from the heat and stir in most of the cheese and all the basil leaves (if you're using fresh basil). Spoon into the peppers and top each pepper with the remaining cheese. Cover with foil and cook for 30 mins at Gas 6/200c, uncover and cook at Gas 4/180c for about 30 mins until the cheese is golden.

This can be adapted by:

Trying Simon Hopkinson's brilliant recipe for tomatoes stuffed with rice and lamb taken from The Independent, 7/10/2000

Baked stuffed tomatoes with rice and leftover lamb - Roman style. Serves 4
8 large ripe tomatoes
100g arborio rice
4-5tbsp leftover cooked lamb, finely diced
2tbsp chopped parsley
1 heaped tbsp chopped mint leaves
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
salt and pepper
100-120ml olive oil
Preheat the oven to 400F/ 200C/gas mark 6. Slice off the tops of each of the tomatoes - effectively to form lids. Using a teaspoon, scoop out the insides from the tomatoes (try not to pierce their skins) and place the pulp in a colander or sieve suspended over a bowl. Roughly move this pulp about with a spoon so as to drain off most of the liquid. Coarsely chop the flesh, place in a bowl, and mix with the rice, lamb, herbs, onions, garlic, seasoning and half the olive oil. Place the tomatoes in a deep baking dish and then spoon this slop into each of the tomatoes, filling them almost to the brim (there may be a little left over). Now add the collected tomato juice to each tomato until all is used up; it matters not that some might overflow into the dish. Pop their lids back on, anoint each tomato with the remaining olive oil and finish with a light flurry of further seasoning. Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350F/180C/gas mark 4, remove foil and continue to cook for a further 25-30 minutes, or until the tomatoes have become well blistered and the rice has swollen to a glistening tenderness. Serve at room temperature.

Tart's Pasta - Serves 2. Pasta 'puttanesca' was apparently named after Neapolitan ladies of the night, although I bet they didn't do much trade after eating this! The ingredients look expensive, but it actually works out at about £1.70, so 85p a head. Vegetarians could leave out the anchovies. I rarely get chance to put olives in this 'cos Jon gets to them first!

150g/6oz pasta
1 x 400g tin tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 x 50g tin anchovies
100g pitted black olives, chopped
1 fresh red chilli, de-seeded and chopped finely - or use half a teaspoon crushed dried chillies
1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
1 heaped teaspoon dried basil - or 1 dessert spoon chopped fresh basil leaves
freshly ground black pepper

Drain the oil from the anchovies into a pan and in it fry the garlic and chilli until the garlic begins to brown at the edges. Add all the other ingredients, put the lid on the pan and turn the heat down. Simmer until the sauce is very thick - about 40 mins. Cook the pasta as directed on the packet, drain, then toss it in the sauce. Serve with grated cheese, preferably parmesan, Grana Padano or Pecorino Romano - but cheddar is fine.

Cheat's Carbonara - serves 2 for about £1.44 if using Italian cheese (72p a head) but would cost less if you used cheddar. You can leave out either the bacon, or the mushrooms, depending on what you have in the 'fridge. Ham can be substituted for the bacon.

150g/6oz pasta
2 rashers of bacon, chopped
4 or 5 mushrooms, sliced
4 tablespoons (approx 40g) of Italian cheese like parmesan, Grana Padano or Pecorino Romano - but cheddar is also fine - grated
1 egg
4 tablespoons (approx 60ml) single cream or crème fraiche (or double/whipping cream or cream cheese)
freshly milled black pepper

Cook the pasta as directed on the packed and drop the mushrooms into the water to cook with the pasta. Mix the cheese, egg, cream and pepper together. Drain the pasta and mushrooms into a colander and in the pan heat a tablespoon of oil or butter and fry the bacon until cooked (about 5 mins). Put the pasta and mushrooms back into the pan and stir them around for a couple of minutes to come back up to temperature. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sauce. Return the pan to the lowest possible heat and keep stirring until the cheese has melted. Serve with extra grated cheese to sprinkle over.

Dahi Murghi - a pretty easy curry recipe. Putting meat in a recipe immediately pushes up the price, but luckily more economical cuts of meat are usually much tastier than the more expensive ones! Exotic things like ginger keep for ages in the 'fridge and can be used in stirfrys. Serves 4 and costs approximately £4.80, so £1.20 a head, including rice..

400g / 1lb skinless chicken thigh fillets, chopped
150g pot of plain/natural yoghurt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2.5 cm piece root ginger, peeled and grated or finely chopped
2 red chillies and 2 green chillies, chopped finely, or half a teaspoon (more if you like it hotter) of dried chilli flakes.
Half a teaspoon of ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 large onion sliced into half-moon slices
(1 green or red pepper, sliced - optional)
Salt & ground black pepper
Half a teaspoon of garam masala
2 tablespoons (1 small pack) fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Curries are best marinated for a few hours or overnight to let the flavours develop, but if you forget don't worry, just start the recipe from 'Heat the oil...'. To be honest, if I remember to marinate it the night before then I'll cook the onions as well, add them to the marinade when they've cooled and then the following evening everything just goes into a casserole dish in the oven for 1 hour at gas 4.

Put the chicken in a large non-metallic bowl with the yoghurt, garlic, chillies, ginger, turmeric and ground coriander. Mix thoroughly, cover and leave in the 'fridge for 6 hours, or overnight. When you're ready to cook the curry heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions until browned. Remove the chicken from the marinade, reserve the marinated and add the chicken to the pan. Cook the chicken for 5 mins until starting to brown. Add the marinade (and green pepper, if you're using it), cover and cook gently for 30 mins until the chicken is tender. Add the salt and pepper, garam masala and cook for a further 5 mins. Stir in the coriander leaves and serve with boiled rice.

Green fettuccine with tuna - well, actually, you can use whatever pasta you like and the recipe originally said 'salmon'. Serves 2. The wine bumps the cost of this up to about £1.84, so 92p a head. Buy the cheapest resealable bottle/carton of white wine possible and it'll keep for ages - you probably wouldn't want to drink a glass of it, but it will be fine for cooking with.

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon tomato puree
pinch cayenne pepper
200ml/7 fl oz white wine
140ml/5fl oz single cream or crème fraiche
185g tin tuna chunks, drained (if it's in oil, use the oil to fry the onion)

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and soften the onion and garlic. Add the tomato purée, cayenne and wine and simmer for 5 mins until reduced by half. Cook the pasta as directed on the packet. Add the cream and tuna to the onion mixture and simmer for a couple of minutes. Drain the pasta and toss it on the hot sauce and serve.

In conclusion...

So, that's two people fed for 7 nights for £11.91. I could go on with the recipes, but I'm sure I've made my point: cooking for yourself is cheaper than ready meals, let alone take aways, and you shouldn't be put off by poncy chefs feeding you duff infromation.

Shopping carefully and a little forward planning are probably the keys to cheap eating:

* never going shopping without a shopping list. Check out what's in the 'fridge, freezer and cupboards as you write it so that you avoid waste. Do a rough list of the meals you can make with the ingredients as you go.

* be open to special offers and RFQS bargains and be prepared to change your meal ideas if you can find cheaper ingredients.

* supermarkets are not always the cheapest place to shop: the green grocer may have cheaper fruit and veg; the market (and we're talking traditional markets here, not farmers' markets) may have cheaper veg, cheese, meat, fish; and ethnic food shops (Asian/Chinese/etc) cheaper spices, sauces, veg, rice, and so on. A good butcher may not be more expensive than the supermarket, and may also be selling locally raised meat. And people are often happy to tell you the best ways to cook what you buy, advise you on amounts to cook, and so on. Turn food shopping into a social experience rather than a chore.

* don't be addicted to brands – the supermarket's 'value' ranges are often just as good but are a fraction of the price, for example the leading brand of bran flakes is £2.29 for 750g, whilst the supermarket's value brand is 78p for 750g and even their regular bran flakes are £1.58 for 1kg. They all taste the same so are the branded ones really 3 times better? The same goes for cleaning products, kitchen roll, etc. Read Martin Lewis's 'Down-Shift Challenge' on supermarket shopping. All the recipes above were costed using non-branded goods where possible. If you're label conscious, just buy a plastic box to decant the product into - you'll be saving so much money that buying the odd Tupperware box won't even register on your budget.

* avoid waste by not buying more than you need and by using up items that are about to spoil – make soups or stirfrys from those dodgy veggies in the bottom of the 'fridge, add them to a stew, make smoothies from fruit that's over-ripe, or chop them and freeze them – lots of websites have ideas for using up things lurking at the back of the 'fridge, try this forum.

* you don't have to spend every night slaving over a hot stove: several of these meals can be assembled in advance (with the pasta bake, just make sure that all the cooked ingredients and sauce are cold before you assemble it) and either frozen or put in the 'fridge ready to go into the oven when you get home, for example the stuffed peppers/tomatoes, pasta bake, curry and the tart's pasta sauce (just reheat that in a saucepan whilst the pasta is cooking). So an hour's preparation on an afternoon when you have the time to spend could give you 4 meals that will barely need any time spending on them later - just the cooking of rice, pasta or a veg to go with some of them.

Right, I think I'm ranted out now, and I never even got onto smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels or tiger prawn linguine! Well, perhaps next time...