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End of Part One

My out of office helpfully informs me that it was 138 days since my sabbatical leave started. It’s certainly been a busy, interesting and fulfilling start to my year away from DHL. How did I ever find the time to work?

Time at home, doing those jobs I’ve been putting off for years. Quality time with friends and family. Day trips and long weekends with Lynne and the family. A fantastic holiday in Florida. Lots of cooking at home and a good few shifts under my belt at Dickies Farm Dining. And I’ve grown a beard!

I’ve enjoyed every minute. I feel great, healthier, relaxed and happier. I can recommend it.

  • The long route home through the corn fields after walking Lynne to work.
  • A visit to Market Bosworth Festival with the Butlers to watch Phil and the Stoneage Mushrooms.
  • Perfecting my sour dough making ahead of cookery school.
  • Catch up with the A-team to team celebrate Alan and Paul joining the 50 club.
  • My first time in Lincoln. A beautiful and historic place to visit and a good walk up Steep Hill.
  • Very proud of our daughter. Prom night after Lucy successfully completed her A-Levels and confirmed her place at Birmingham City University.
  • Miami! The first stop on our Florida tour.
  • Aligator hunting in the Everglades.
  • Bumping into the Wilsons at Epcot.
  • The kitchen Crew at Dickies Farm Dining ahead of a wedding party.
  • Extended family BBQ.
  • A polar bear at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. What an amazing place, well worth a visit.
  • A few trips to see the mighty reds with Dad and the Legend Lounge Crew.
  • Ebor Day at York Races. We didn’t win!
  • The finish post at York Races.

If my sabbatical leave was a play we would be reaching the end of Part One (of what I think will be a four parter). The next week will see Part Two quickly taking shape.

Joe starts his final year at University after a years work placement, how quickly have those three years gone. A year of working 9-5 has prepared him for the final year and his aim of getting better results than his Dad at every level of his education. Good luck in your final year son, we are very proud of you, go for it!

And on Saturday our little girl is heading off for her first year at University. To Birmingham City to study marketing. She is all packed and ready to go and, assuming we can fit everything in the car, should be settled in by Saturday lunchtime. Excited is an understatement and armed with her freshers week schedule (which includes a trip to Cadbury World) she has a busy few weeks ahead. Good luck Lucy, go grab the opportunities in front of you, I know you will xx

  • A couple of exploration trips to Brimingham. Lucy in front of her year one accommodation block.

And then on Tuesday, Lynne and I take the ferry across to Ireland for a weeks holiday on the coast in County Cork before I move into my new digs ready to start the 12-week certificate course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School on the 23rd September.

  • A surprise send off from the Dirty Dozen with Irish night hosted by Donna and Rob (I told you I’d grown a beard).

Chef’s whites purchased, knives sharpened, wellies and raincoat packed I’m ready to be immersed in the Ballymaloe food bubble for 12-weeks to learn and experience as much as I can possibly cram in during this precious time. The cookery school is based on a 100 acre farm in the South of Ireland affording the opportunity to use fresh produce from Ireland‘s luscious land and vast seas.

Spare a though for my lovely wife and best friend Lynne who will fly home from Cork to an empty house having seen both Lucy and I off in the space of a week. But don’t feel too sorry for her with offers from all angles (swimming with Rob and daily coffee with PES) and trips to Dubai, Lincolnshire, Harrogate, Ireland (alone and with others to visit me) and elsewhere planned I’m sure she’ll have a ball and enjoy a little peace and quiet in a tidy house!

Ballymaloe will, I am sure, give me lots of opportunities to blog but follow me on instagram where I will be posting lots of pictures (timsl_25).

Here’s to an exciting Part 2

The 65,000 step weekend

I’m not sure when I headed out on sabbatical leave that I expected to be working 14 hour shifts, all weekend, doing 20,000+ steps each day, for no financial gain (just in case HR are reading the blog) and loving every second of it. But that, in summary, was this last amazing weekend.

It started Friday with a full day at Dickies Farm Dining. Brunch, picking vegetables and herbs from the garden, mise en place and a busy dinner service. I have learnt so much from my time at Dickies and I am very grateful to Richard and the team for their patience and support. Hopefully I am adding some value now!

Full house at Dickies on Saturday night

Saturday and Sunday were spent working with the amazing food demonstrator and friend Andrea (thank you for letting me attend) at the Rutland Food, Drink and Craft Festival. Working behind the scenes setting up (and washing up) for the food demonstrations that took place during the two days. After Andrea and Johnny (more of him later) the big draw on Saturday was Phil Vickery – what a lovely, kind, relaxed and down to earth man, it was such a pleasure to meet him. The recipes in his two demonstrations were Gluten Free so lots to learn as well including a delicious gluten free pasta recipe, made in a few minutes, containing Custard Powder!

Setting up with Phil and Andrea

A full day at the food festival, a Saturday dinner service at Dickies and a few hours sleep and then back at Rutland for day 2. The main act ……… Levi Roots of Reggae Reggae Sauce and Dragon’s Den fame, did you realise it was 12-years ago since he appeared in the Den!

Armed with his guitar and a few scotch bonnet chillies Levi entertained the crowd and shared, in song form, his amazing rags to riches story. Some tasty Caribbean food was then knocked up including Rice and Peas (not peas at all but red beans), some spicy chicken dishes and a strangely delicious Guinness Punch made by mixing Guinness with condensed milk, vanilla, nutmeg and a very strong Rum…… Caribbean Baileys perhaps!

Levi entertaining a large crowd and chilli eating!

I can’t move on without mentioning the legend that is Johnny Pusztai. An award winning butcher from Nottingham (556 Mansfield Rd, Nottingham NG5 2FS, 0115 960 5901), farmer, celebrity and supplier of produce to some of the Countries best restaurants. Johnny’s story is inspiring and his passion for his industry infectious. I loved watching his demonstration, what a skill, what speed, what knowledge and such tasty beef. All this organised brilliantly by Andrea and expertly compared by Mark Lloyd (both of whom also demonstrated).

Safe to say I was asleep in the chair by 8 o’clock Sunday night!

Johnny (left) and Mark talking Beef

Earlier in the week (its seems an age ago) I was happy to attend the Motor Transport Awards at the Grosvenor House and it was great to meet a few colleagues including my Board colleagues pictured below.

With David and Gavin at Grosvenor House for Motor Transport Awards

I continue to enjoy and embrace every minute of my “Time Out” – 9 weeks have passed and I cannot remember how I found time to work. Time for a holiday I think xx

Oui chef!

Like an episode from the Masterchef Quarter Finals, this week I got the opportunity to work a couple of services in a professional kitchen at the amazing restaurant Dickies Farm Dining located in the village of Plungar in Nottinghamshire.

Thanks to the kind offer of Rich the owner (AKA Dickie) I joined Rich, Emily, Saff and Max for two days. And I absolutely loved it.

Dickies is a special place and, as a customer, I have seen it grow up from its early days with an outdoor kitchen and a few tables to the building of the Cow Shed (the kitchen and dining room) and the development of its food offerings and reputation. It’s about honest food, build around locally sourced produce and Rich’s skills as a butcher with a focus on amazing beef steaks.

The butchers counter ready for service

Over two exhausting days I got to see how a professional restaurant operates, behind the scenes, preparation and then service……. the buzz and adrenaline pump of service.

I was thrown into the deep-end and under the close watch of Emily and Saff got the opportunity to prep a number of dishes, bake bread and work in service finishing off the legendary triple cooked chips and carefully preparing the local Saxondale Asparagus.

Did I enjoy it? Hell yes

Will I be back? I hope so.

Day Tripper

Bletchley Park and Wollaton Hall

Wollaton Hall

One of my sabbatical goals is for Lynne and I to visit somewhere new each week. Week one we visited Bletchley Park near Milton Keynes and this week Wollaton Park in Nottingham.

Bletchley Park is a nineteenth-century mansion and estate near Milton Keynes constructed during the years following 1883.

Bletchley Park – The mansion across the lake

The parks notoriety however spans back to just May 1938 when the mansion and 58 acres of land was bought by Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair, head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6). The estate was used as the central site for British (and subsequently, Allied) codebreakers during World War II, although at the time of their operation this fact was a closely guarded secret. During the Second World War, the estate housed the British Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers – most importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. At its peak 9,000 people worked in the mansion and the many huts dotted around the grounds.

An Enigma Machine

According to the official historian of British Intelligence, the “Ultra” intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain. The team at Bletchley Park devised automatic machinery to help with decryption, culminating in the development of Colossus, the world’s first programmable digital electronic computer. Codebreaking operations at Bletchley Park came to an end in 1946 and all information about the wartime operations was classified until the mid 1970s.

“We Also Served” memorial in front of one of many huts

Wollaton Hall and deer park is an Elizabethan mansion in the suburbs of Nottingham with 500 acres of beautiful grounds and a lake – obviously a must have for any reputable mansion! The mansion was build in 1588 and the building presents an imposing site sat on top of a hill. The mansion houses the Nottinghamshire Natural History Museum – an impressive array of stuffed animals and the surrounding buildings house cafe’s, shops and other interesting exhibits. In 2011 the site was used as Wayne Manor for the filming of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.

View of the house across the lake
Very tame deer in the park

Thank you for the feedback on my first blog. Some great support for my decision to take the sabbatical leave, I’d love to pack all those that offered in my suitcase but alas……

The first two weeks have been great and no regrets so far. It’s nice to have time. I’ve been very active (98,000 steps last week) and very productive, cooked loads and got some of my jobs ticked off the list. I even leant to use the washing machine today something that will be useful when I head to Ireland.

Please keep your comments coming and follow me on the blog so you get notifications of future posts.

Time Out!

As of 29th April 2019 I’m officially on sabbatical leave

So if you found your way here you are probably aware that, after 28-years in gainful employment, I have seized the opportunity to move away from the corporate world for 12-months and take some time out. Sabbatical leave according to the HR policy. The timing was good, my current assignment had ended, the loose ends all closed, the people I care about sorted and nothing obvious for me to step into so why not.

Wiki tells me that “the concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of shmita, and Jews in the Land of Israel must take a year-long break from working the fields every seven years. A “sabbatical” has come to mean an extended absence in the career of an individual to fulfil some goal, e.g., writing a book or travelling extensively for research”.

Well I am not sure about writing a book but with my highly trained corporate mindset still in existence (its going to take a while for this to change) I have set myself a number of objectives and goals to achieve during the next 12-months. These include:

  • Recharging the batteries, and improving health & fitness.
  • Spending much more time with family and friends. Supporting my daughter through her Exams and into University. Reconnecting.
  • Travelling extensively with anyone who’ll come with me.
  • Attending the 12-week certified course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland http://cookingisfun.ie/certificate-course/12-week-certificate-course-overview
  • Building new memories and learning new skills. Working out what the next chapter looks like for Mrs Slater and I.

I have been challenged to share my experiences over the next 12-months and will attempt to do that in this blog (my first new skill, setting up a blog). So please follow, comment and share. I’ll try and keep in interesting!