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Sunday 17 November 2013

Goodies from Goa!

 Friends coming back from Goa, pack of goodies :)
My mum loves Pascoal's Bakery in Mapusa, picture shows the doce she's bought from there. Usually its the bolinas. They are very fresh and we get a big huge box when she comes or we go to Calangute.
The doce is very good. Conclusion from H who usually doesnt like the standard version.
I went to Pascoal's last year, actually this Jan. Its bang in the middle of Mapusa market, in all the madness, a very small but very busy bakery, staffed by 4-5 even busier women (at the time I went). They dont have a huge selection but what there is, is very good.
Reminded me of St Xavier's Cafe, which I have been going to since I was a year old or younger, been told. Now of course, its jazzed up and a potato chop costs much more than it did. Think a mince samosa is Rs14? Still love going there.
 We arent going to India for a while now, things happening here,
plus both sides of parents have been over a few months ago. I'm going to miss our annual trip and all the shopping/eating my pani puris and meeting friends. Lots to look forward to here though.

Forgot to mention, thats aam papad in the picture, H likes it and my mum remembered to send it. I'm not a fan.
Costa's Bebinca is a fantastic solution to transporting and then gorging on homemade non preservative filled Bebinca before it gets spoilt.
The kids used to love it, still do, but eat less of it now.
And of course, the mandatory cashewnuts.......again in Mapusa market, I was told to only buy drum roasted and nothing else.....never heard of it before but they did taste nicer. Like roasting them in an oven, or better......

Wednesday 13 November 2013

White chocolate bundt cake with strawberries/raspberries

This is H's birthday cake, no chocolate other than white ok for him. Tried adding an element of healthy eating with the fruit added.
The kids loved making the chocolate curls, of course, as is obvious, half the chocolate was eaten while making.
Standard sponge with a bit of white chocolate.
White chocolate, yogurt and butter icing.
White chocolate shards made by spreading melted chocolate on parchment, putting in fridge and then breaking up.
Love my bundt tin bought in Bombay for Rs120 (£1.20) Where is the rupee going........

Friday 8 November 2013

Majorca in October half term for around £700 for 5 of us

 Cheap ish getaways in school holidays are possible. To my initial disbelief.

My previous post has a few pictures of beautiful Majorca, we only went to Cala D'Or and a little bit of Playa De Palma. Speaking to people who've been there many times, Cala D'Or is probably the nicest place there (no clue of comparisons).
Given the beautiful beaches, lovely salads and better weather than England, all of Majorca would have been lovely for us I think.
We were told to avoid Magaluf and Arenal........

Starting with H saying we needed to go away, bit surprised because he does.not.like.travelling.at all. At all. Anyway, this was a few weeks before half term. Anyway, we decided on Scotland - Loch Ness etc and decided to drive there and stop at hotels on the way. Pricing it up made more sense to stay at home, so I began looking at Ryanair flights to Spain. Greece came up as an option - Corfu, for the 5 of us for £420 return, I was excited and began to look at hotels, by which time the fares had gone up. Never mind.
Randomly entering Spain in the search, found this Ryanair flight to Majorca half term Monday to Monday (Teacher training day bonus) for £330 for the 5 of us.
Spoke to H.
Booked.
On travel republic, booked 6 nights at Hotel Cala Gran half board for £240 and a night at the Iberostar Royal Cristina for roughly the same price. Less than £300 for half board. The Iberostar, we just got lucky, its usually much more expensive and I'd found the Helios which was the same price.
Booked, after seeing the reviews of the hotel.
Booked an airport transfer for £43 and came back by bus for £20. For the 5 of us again.
Half board meant no lunch, we bought nice bread, a huge jar of olives, mussels and sardines every couple of days and had  the mandatory ice cream/water bottles - around 25 Euros. Oh and a 2 Euro bottle of lovely Sangria included.

And thats it - around £700. 

Yes, we did spend 5 Euros on phone calls, 6 Euros on a towel, 8 Euros on little treats for the children and not including tips which were at each meal in the hotel etc but didnt bring back much stuff, other than a few turron packs for friends. Chorizo is cheaper in Sainsburys as I have found out after carrying 10 packs from the Canaries.

So whats the point of my post - expensive half term doesnt have to be so, the only caveat is that you have to keep looking and keep looking until the last minute.
And be prepared to sit at home with day trips out if nothing materialises (else there's always our good old Holiday Inn)
£700 was what it was going to cost us for hotels and meals going to Scotland. Plus the driving and the cold. We will go someday of course, but Majorca was a lovely bargain break and I hope hope hope we get a similar deal again.

Lastly, we were apprehensive about flying Ryanair, too many stories of how they fleece people. Happy that we had a very pleasant flight both ways, spoke to some lovely co-passengers and overall had a good experience. As long as you stick to their rules (eg print boarding passes at home, luggage right size and weight), everything's fine.

How many bags did we go with? 4 rucksacks and a trunki, each weighing less than 5 kgs. Seriously.
:)

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Majorca Oct 2013...to be completed....

We've been away in Majorca for a week, a week before booking and planning and the week before that a bit mad. Anyway, back refreshed but freezing in the horrible early British winter. Early as in 2-3 degrees for early Nov......too soon.
Majorca was not Goa weather, the temperature was 22-23 degrees, too cold to swim in the sea but for us, fine.
 This is the Balearic Sea, from Cala Esmeralda. We walked to look for the beach, but ended up at this rocky path which led to a diving station. Sat there for a bit and enjoyed the stunning views.

Lots happened, there was a storm with our hotel apartment flooded, as a result of which we were given this gorgeous room/suite overlooking the beach. Below is the view from the children's bedroom window.



This is another view of the beach a minute from our hotel, Cala Gran, from the icecream shop. Majorca is expensive, like the Canaries, I assume its because its an island, or maybe just touristy prices. Never been to mainland Spain to compare.


Our hotel in Cala D'Or shut for the season end Oct so we moved to Playa De Palma Iberostar for a bit. This is the stunning Playa de Palma, the length reminded me of the Caandolim-Calangute-Baga stretch, but a deep green/bright blue sea and white sand. 100 m from our hotel.
Another beach pic, there are loads more but need to block out the kids faces before I put them on.

Very beautiful, very scenic, very touristy, very lovely salads and a must see!

Next post on just how cheap it was for us :)