I must admit, I didn’t sleep well. I felt anxious; small room, jetlag, thirsty, just generally daunted by such a foreign country.
But, hallelujah, my usually positive attitude shone through, and I woke up feeling energised and eager to see what breakfast oddness awaited me…
After stumbling from bed to shower, I prepared the worlds most troublesome hairstyle, and then went to breakfast.
A hard boiled egg, seems innocent. It’s cold, right, okay.. I’ll have that as part of my buffet selection, alongside some skinned salmon, sweet bread rolls, mushroom-ish stir fry and broccoli. Turns out the egg was soft boiled, and cold, and I had no idea what to do with it. I want an app which I can point at Japanese food, and it tells me what it is…!
I was collected by my gardener host, Andy, and taken to Barakura, the fabled English garden. What an adorable place it is! I met creator, Kay Yamada, and was given a tour. I haven’t taken any photos at all yet though, so you’ll have to wait to see for yourselves, sorry!
I met 15 or so people, whose names I instantly forgot (I wish people introduced themselves after about 10 sentences, I’m sure I’d take it in better!)..
The rest of the day was spent orientating myself, preparing what I’d plant into the containers for the demos (they’re gonna look so cool!), test running my slide shows with my translator, Yoshi, and- strangely- giving some of the crew a cooking lesson..!
It seems Ms Westhorpe from The English Garden mag has told Barakura I am a good cook!! So they asked me for my recommendation for tomorrow’s lunch. Argh!! I usually cook very haphazardly, and couldn’t possibly show anyone what I did, or how much of something I used! But, I managed to show the head chef my twist on Mediterranean chicken, with a ground almond dusting. Ta-dah!
I’ve since learnt you can’t iron shirts in a trouser press, and I now sit in reception awaiting my 7.30pm dinner slot.
See you for now!
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