We Won!

The World Marmalade Awards happen every year at Dalemain outside Penrith, at the top of England’s Lake District.

We heard a couple of weeks back that we’d won 2 prestigious Gold Awards and so we were invited over to the Presentation

Mum came with me, sailed Stenaplus from Belfast to Cairnryan, it was lovely and our Avocado & Bacon Salad was delicious, but we both agreed it’s just not as good as it used to be and the free wifi is next to useless, however, the tiny caramel squares are as delicious as ever!

I’d booked a quadruple room at Premier Inn Penrith on booking.com, I couldn’t book breakfast for 2 online with that room, but it was no problem, we just bought it for £8.99 each the next morning.

We had a big line of beds in the room but the staff quickly took away the third bed, a word of warning though, the double bed is extremely high in these rooms as the spare bed fits under it, Mum ended up making a little step out of the folded up bed to climb up onto her bed and she’s not an overly small person!

I’d driven a lot, so we took a great local taxi out to Dalemain where the warmth and hospitality was exceptional, we enjoyed free flowing Buck’s Fizz and canapés and the raspberry shortcakes were just delicious

I was amazed at the small number of Artisan Producer Golds awarded, I honestly thought there’d be hundreds, so I really felt that we’d achieved something

This isn’t a business blog, just my travel blog but I have to say we won 2 Golds for Mango Marmalade (which the judge later told me was so close to double gold) and also Vodka & Orange Marmalade.  We also won 2 Silvers for our Gin & Tonic Marmalade and Mojito Marmalade.

We certainly weren’t the furthest travelled to the awards, people had flown in from Japan & Cyprus to collect theirs!

Back at the hotel we didn’t fancy the menu & Mum wanted to find a Wetherspoons, to be fair it was likely to be the only place serving at that time of night and like something out of a comedy program we walked a good mile or more before finding it right at the back of the hotel

The following day we had a free stall at the market, this turned out to be in a back street but we still did quite well.  The organisers and the people of Penrith are just lovely, so welcoming and helpful and I got a hug from Paddington to boot!

Home was a quick drive, about an hour and a half, down the M6 to Heysham as we’d booked the freight ferry Seatruck to Warrenpoint.  We were the only passenger car on board so boarding & I boarding was quite confusing as we’d no idea where we were going, the steps up to the cabins were steep & slightly over the side of the boat so not for the faint hearted!

There’s a maximum of 12 passengers on board, the rest were lorry drivers and the fare included dinner with 2 cans of beer or cider, there was an option of a soft drink but I didn’t see anybody take that, and breakfast, though I can never face a 5am fry!

Single ensuite cabins with great showers, bring shampoo & there’s no hairdryer, I’d definitely sail on this boat again, it’s a smaller boat & I’ve heard it can be rough but into bed with my sea bands on, I slept like a log!

And that was us home and reversing off the boat shortly after 6am, I made it home then up to Derry for breakfast before the Legenderry Food Festival – what a busy weekend!

 

  

        

 

   
Hideko on the left has been head pastry chef for both Gordon Ramsay & Heston Blumenthal, the other lady flew in from Japan for the awards