I’m back!

‘Where has she been?’ I hear you say, but quite honestly ‘I’ve been everywhere man, I’ve been everywhere… ’

Now, that man in uniform was actually a helicopter pilot on the Dawn to Dusk challenge collecting products that have won 3 gold stars at this year’s Great Taste Awards from all over the country. Well, it was all very exciting as our Cheddar Wafers won the coveted award. The whole bakery emptied out to watch the two helicopters land in our car park (no biscuits were burnt!!!) Watch the video for yourselves here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dwoUO6ka6I

The biscuits were then taken with other award-winning foods to a special place where they were to cook a wonderful meal for invited guests.

Fudges has won eight gold stars this year in total – wow!!

Six of us Fudges had a wonderful (and well deserved) rest in Portugal. Reading became top priority, as was cooling off in the pool and of course soaking up the vino (… or was that the sun?!) A fine time was had by all, arriving back at Bristol refreshed and looking as if we had had a holiday!!

While we were away, my lovely friends stoically spread the Fudges word at our local village Food Festival at Leigh. The gorgeous Valentine Warner opened the show and I’m led to believe my friends made sure the dashing Valentine visited the stand, made him eat Florentines and pose for photos – they tell me he enjoyed every minute. I believe them – the photos were all a bit shaky though!!! What does that tell you?

There was hardly time to put the cases down, so as soon as the washing was dry we were packing them again and off up to the International Cheese Festival at Nantwich. This is a two-day event held in what is said to be the largest temporary building (tent!!) in Europe. It was HUGE!!!! I have never seen so many cheeses (over 3000) and they came from all over the world.

It was a wonderful event. We had no idea what to expect, and as we were one of the sponsors we were well looked after. The first day was spent chatting to cheese purveyors and cheese makers, having lunch (of course) which was fantastic with over 800 people sat down. I had never seen anything quite like it. James Martin and his dog Fudge were there as was Gino D’Acampo, both cooking – they were extremely popular, very approachable and great fun. One of the best things about this show was the amount of pairing we could do with the cheese and, of course, our biscuits.

Once the show was over, Graham and I drove to North Yorkshire to see the girls and Steve drove the van back toDorset. We spent a lovely few sunny days (it usually rains I’m told) exploringRichmond and the Dales. It is so lovely up there and the locals are very friendly. So many places to walk and take a bicnic, enjoying far reaching views across Wensleydale and Swaledale.

One of the reasons we went further north was to support our youngest daughter (you know the fit one). She was taking part in the Ironman challenge in Bolton. Well she did it, bless her, and made us so proud and emotional watching her run up the final stretch on the big screen with everyone cheering – I’ve got a lump just thinking about it. She did it in 11hrs 23mins and just missed out on qualifying for Ironman in Hawaii. But wow, what a thing to do.

The next challenge was on Friday when we installed our Bicnic Bench at Lickey Hills in Birmingham. Up we went with the car laden with biscuits, a rug or two and flasks – it was a fantastic day and the bench looks fab!

The scaffolding went up the other day – the lorry arrived with one man and his dog just as I was leaving to come to the bakery – not sure how the dog will help!!! Hope the cats don’t see him.

The knee is no better so a little operation next week will have me running again in no time. I’m frustrated because the rest of the family are already in training for the Great South Run. I jolly well will do it even if I walk round on crutches. Just you wait and see!! More about that next week.

Have a great week!

Sue x

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