A New Start : My New Job as Social Media Manager
I thought I would share my experience of the first 2 weeks in my new position as Social Media Manager.
I finished work with the Grenadier Guards Band on the 2nd of January and had a pleasant few months of resettlement leave, which gave me the time to go hunting for a new job. This was a big change for me as I had spent 20 years in the army and would have to re-invent myself for a new role.
I had been doing PR, Social Media & photography for years with the band, writing articles for publications and twittering and facebooking away for many years. As many of my friends know I’m an avid twitterer and have always been very social media orientated so it really was the logical step to take my knowledge with me and continue to do what I enjoy doing!
I had the lovely task of writing, rewriting, screwing up, writing & re-editing CV’s for various companies that needed a social media specialist.
It was a hard slog but I kept battling away and came across a digital agency called Propel in London’s west end. I dealt with a great guy called Jack Brawn who went to work finding me a suitable position. Jack was really professional and very helpful, being on the phone & email really quickly!
I was put forward for a company in Edgware, London that needed a social media manager.. 2 interviews later.. I got the job! big Yay!!!
Centre Radio provide In-store music, messaging and marketing services for over 250 Shopping Centres in the UK. The centres have their own, personal radio station, with the freedom of thousands of tracks of music with professional, personalised adverts and the opportunity to grab the customer’s full attention whilst in the Centre. They devise music and advertising concepts to suit seasons all year round!
The company has several arms within retail marketing and I had to hit the ground running to learn the various aspects of each individual brand!
I’m the social media manager for Centre Radio, Captive Music, Brand Audio & CentreBuzz.
As you can imagine… I had to learn very quickly about each of the 4 brands and how they operate in different markets. The team in the office made me really welcome and were very helpful in showing me what each brand represented and what they were all about.
It’s been a steep learning curve and I’ve had to learn about in store music, retail marketing, shopping centres & advertising production. But it’s brilliant, It’s a unique, niche environment & business to work in that I’d never really thought about before I came here.
My new home with 2 lovely monitors & my Grenadier Guards Mug.
The team in the office are all lovely and will be great to work with. I must admit that going back to working with windows instead of Mac is quite strange as I’m really a Mac geek at heart. I’ve had to learn Outlook rather quickly as it’s a microsoft product I haven’t really used before, but I’m getting there!
It’s great to be doing all the social media marketing as a full time role. It’s what I really wanted to be doing full time instead of a secondary role where I was always tied up doing other work and couldn’t give it the dedication, time & effort that social media demands.
It’s a very busy and time consuming role, but it’s so interesting to me to find & create new ways of marketing, connecting, interacting & networking.
In 2 short weeks I’ve started to get all the social media platforms on track and have enjoyed setting up individual blogs for the brands, using the talented in house web design, graphics & IT team at Centre Radio who have just done a fantastic job of rebuilding the CentreBuzz Website 
I look forward to a productive future here and I’m relishing the upcoming social media project that the company is working on.
A Spring Brass Band Contest
As many of my friends and followers are aware, I’ve been a tuba player all my life. Right from the age of 14 when I was given some battered and dented instrument at the back of the schools music cupboard as ‘I was a big lad’. It became my career after my education & I then spent an amazing 20 years in the British Army with the Band of the Grenadier Guards Band playing that big, heavy, shiny quite comedic but cumbersome instrument.
I originally come from up t’north and as you can expect I played in several Midlands brass bands.
Many years ago, every northern mining town had its own brass band. It was a huge tradition that the local pits had their own band and the towns and villages were proud of the tradition of brass banding. Every local northern village summer fete had a brass band playing in those days.
Sadly over the years as many pits and mines were shut so the brass bands representing them also vanished. The 1980′s were dark days for a lot of northern mining towns and communities and the brass bands became a shadow of what they were originally were.
Luckily, musicians being musicians were passionate enough to continue in many cases and the bands found a way to survive, through sponsorship and donations from local communities and in recent years Arts council & lottery grants have meant that brass bands continue to thrive.
My Bandsman Entry Pass for the Brass Band Contest
One fun aspect of brass banding is contesting. The first brass band contest was held in Manchester in 1853 and has continued to this day.
Brass banding is highly competitive, with bands organized into five sections much like a football league –A Championship section, 1st,2nd,3rd & 4th sections plus an under 18s youth section. Competitions are held throughout the year at local, regional, and national levels, and at the end of each year there are promotions and relegations. The bands are made up of 25 players and have supporters & fans just as loyal as football fans at times.
I was invited to play tuba with Staines Brass; a championship band competing in the London & Southern Counties regional finals at Stevenage.
I had previously contested with Staines Brass back in 2006 & had also been ‘borrowed’ for a few concerts in the interim years.
The Championship section had 13 bands in total and were to play a modern piece of music called ‘The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea’ by Derek Bourgeois. A piece that is around 17 minutes long. The order in which bands are to play are drawn out of a hat around 1.30 pm and the contest begins.
We all wanted an early ‘draw’ to get the piece over and done with, calm the nerves and get to the bar for a few refreshing beverages. Early numbered draws are affectionately known as the ‘beer draw’ for obvious reasons.
Where were we drawn?
13th !!
This meant that we had to wait around all afternoon and eventually got on stage to perform at 7.30 pm.
Staines Brass had rehearsed the piece well & had worked on it for many weeks before hand as it is a very challenging and technical piece.
I sat in the concert hall and listened to several bands before we went on and the playing standard was very high for the afternoon.
Eventually we went on & did our very best. There were a few ‘moments’ in our rendition but all together we were very happy that we had done the best that we could and our conductor Melvin White seemed very pleased with our performance under the hot lights on stage at Stevenage arts & leisure centre.
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea : Staines Brass Performance
All the days competing bands and supporters crowded into the hall and the nail biting wait for the results began.
If any of you have seen the film ‘Brassed Off’ you will know that every brass band aspires to reach The National Brass Band Finals of Great Britain which is held at The Royal Albert Hall in London.
( and it isn’t just playing simple pieces such as the William Tell overture! )
Brass band test pieces are very technical & challenging pieces of music that take months of preparation to get to the required standard.
In October, Staines Brass will be competing against several famous brass bands including Black Dyke Band & The Brighouse & Rastrick Band.
We have a huge mountain to climb to compete against these fantastic bands and Staines Brass are looking forward to the challenge.
Thank you to Staines Brass & Jason Pickin for the Results Quote & use of the Staines Brass Photograph
A Cold Wet Day in March on the Shropshire Union Canal
As the whole family were together for a Sunday, we thought that the 6 of us would hire a small narrow boat / day boat and take to the waterways as the weather had been seasonally warm and quite pleasant.
We had seen the weather the day before we went and had not been too impressed, but after all.. How bad could it be ?
Our Boat for the Day
We hired a traditional 32ft narrow boat from Norbury Wharf Staffordshire.
After the obligatory Bacon rolls in the canalside cafe we had a quick demonstration of the basic controls and we were on our way for the rest of the day.
The Shropshire Union Canal: Staffordshire
The weather was dreadful! We had to take it in turns to pilot the boat as it was raining & sleeting and we were getting cold rather quickly at the helm.
We had a 14 mile round trip to make in 7 hours, turning the boat around at the pretty village of Wheaton Aston.
Me at the Helm of the boat : in the rain
I did a little research and found out that the canal (Built as part of the Liverpool to London canal system) had been in use since the 1830′s and was one of the last major civil engineering feats of the great Thomas Telford.
Amazingly at one point there is a raised embankment at Shelmore where you can look down over the fields & woodland. This little section took over 5 years to build and was constantly slipping and collapsing during construction. It just shows how our historical engineers built things to last!
After a soggy 3 hours of cruising down the canal, past many annoyed fishermen we arrived at our turning around point and moored up for lunch.
We would have gone to the nearby pub to warm up but feared that we may run out of time for the return journey so we sat on the boat with our sandwiches, lit the stove for some warmth and got some well needed coffee on the go.
We set off back to Norbury junction at 1pm as we had to have the boat back to the yard by 4.30 pm.
Luckily the rain had stopped and had been replaced by some sunshine, however it had now become breezy & bitterly cold.
Even though it was cold it was lovely to be outside, out in the countryside with just the sound of the diesel engine chugging along.
I would recommend getting out on the water to anyone that hasn’t done it before. I have been on many canals in the past and love the freedom, love seeing the wildlife & enjoy the scenery and the canal engineering feats of a bygone age. I had a brilliant, but chilly & damp day out on the water
Sunshine on the return journey on the Shropshire Union Canal
A Musicians Guide To Dealing With A Chemical Attack!
Clutching a guide to CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear) acronyms the band sat down in a comfortable lecture hall for an introduction to the events during the week ahead in Winterbourne Gunner near Salisbury.
The guide numbering over 500 acronyms was soon needed as we were informed of the tasks that we were to undertake during the training course. Within the space of half an hour we were introduced to IPE, CDA, RVD, ID, COLPRO, CAM, LCAD & MCAD.
The Grenadier Guards Band : not as you would normally see them!
My notepad resembled a 4 year olds school writing book as I struggled to make sense of all these initials and their relevance to course. The fact that the whole afternoon was taken up with PowerPoint presentations; and as anyone who has sat in a classroom and tried to take in hours of PowerPoint presentations after a substantial lunch can attest, concentration levels were suffering a little.
The next morning, having worked out the correct order of dress for the day which was 3R (we should have known even getting into uniform for the day was subject to an obscure code) all became slightly less murky thanks to the great training staff that we had for the course. There were still a few confused faces when shown how to use the PDRM testing equipment with blinking lights of different colours depending on whether it was switched to H or G.
Lessons soon moved to the RTF (Respirator Testing Facility) or Gas Chamber in old money, to put our Gas Masks… sorry… ‘Respirators‘, to the test and check that they were fitted correctly. All went well and the band proceeded to next step of the course,
Setting up the CDA. The CDA (Chemical Decontamination area) is an area where personnel, in event of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack would be decontaminated and then moved on to be treated beyond the contaminated or “dirty” area. The band were taught various decontamination roles of when and why they should be used.
This all taken on board the band were split into 2 groups and told to prepare for the next days exercise. Half the band would be the decontamination team, the other half casualties. The decontamination team was broken down further into roles such as Commander, Medics, Cutters & QM’s department. The teams were instructed to make a list for the next day of everything that they would need to set up a CDA.
This list was debated over at great length that evening in the camp mess over several refreshing drinks and soon, the ever expanding list was spilling onto the backs of several beer mats.
After a comfortable nights sleep in the modern accommodation at the camp, the band walked up to the training area and the first decontamination team presented the list of equipment they needed to set up the CDA. The training staff were a little bemused as to certain items on the list. The previous nights suggestions to the list had obviously been effected by the refreshing drinks, as on the list were items such as; A coffee machine, Leather Settee, LCD Television & a pool table.
Shane & Me : *note the spooky eyes cut out of a newspaper & stuck behind the eyepieces
The training staff took this in good humour and the exercise began.
Once the decontamination area was set, a bang and loads of green acrid smoke signalled that an attack had taken place and the casualties were soon to arrive.
We had to prioritise the casualties as they came in depending on the injuries sustained. Now remember, we were all wearing charcoal lined suits, thick butyl rubber boots, gloves, a respirator and Kevlar helmets. The conditions, even in the overcast weather was somewhat uncomfortable.
In the casualties came and stretched the decontamination team to the limit.
Training Exercise
In the medical area the team were tasked to cutting off the decontaminated charcoal lined suits and getting the casualty treated and out of the “dirty” area as soon as possible. Several uniforms were sliced and many pairs of shoelaces were cut through as the confusion ensued. It was getting extremely hot in those horrible uncomfortable suits.
Casualty Decontamination
Several members of the team were then tasked with carrying a casualty on a stretcher to the corner of the field and back to show how quickly your performance would be degraded by extra work. I was one of those carrying the stretcher. Normally you would use 4 people to carry a casualty but, as it was so hot and tiring in the suits we had to use 6 people just to carry one person.
Two hours into the exercise now and the dehydration set in. I just could not take in enough water due to the nature of wearing a respirator. It was really unpleasant work.
There were still many light-hearted moments such as when my friend Jim came in as a casualty impaled with a spade and Shane O’Neill had camouflaged his helmet with a branch from a tree, complete with nut filled bird feeder still attached.
Jim with a spade stuck in his back
The exercise ended after some 3 hours and we were relieved to get our respirators off, suits off and get some fresh air.
It had been an exhausting afternoon but we had learnt what to do if such a situation should ever arise.
The week at Winterbourne Gunner, learning the musicians secondary role and wearing green was certainly a change from public duties and concerts, but the band enjoyed the chance to do something different and showed the Grenadier Guards Band’s professionalism and team spirit continued in a totally alien environment to the pomp and ceremony of London.
*article originally published for print in 2007*
A Walk in St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery
The St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery is located in East Finchley, North London and is one of the largest cemeteries in the UK.
St Pancras Cemetery has a traditional style with a mixture of old and new graves covering some 190 acres. It was established in 1854, the burial chapel was built in 1854 but at the moment closed for refurbishment. All burial services are held in the Islington burial chapel.
St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery Chapel
This was the first publicly owned cemetery in London to be established after the 1852 Metropolitan Interment Act when the St Pancras Burial Board bought over 35 hectares of Horse Shoe Farm on Finchley Common.
The Cemetery is now on The English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and Gardens
The cemetery has a war graves plot containing over 100 graves from both world wars, together with a number of headstones retrieved from graves that were scattered elsewhere in the cemetery and could not be maintained. A memorial bears the names of 27 casualties whose graves could not be marked individually, and of six First World War casualties buried in adjacent Islington Cemetery who could not be commemorated there.
Graves in St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery
As it was such a lovely day I thought I would have a walk around the cemetery as it just a 10 minute drive from my house. It really is a beautiful and peaceful place. Now… I’m not a religious person at all, neither do I have a morbid fascination with cemeteries. I just love the peace and quiet that you get in places such as this. The cemetery is located right next to the North Circular in places but you would never believe it!
St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery in the February sun
It really is a vast and sprawling place. Much of the cemetery is overgrown and neglected and to be honest virtually impassable in places but that simply adds to the charm and attraction of the place.
It was the first proper warm day of the year, the birds were singing, squirrels were running around and the cliche crows were crowing in the ancient trees. I walked around for about an hour and never came across another person. It’s a lovely place to get away from the noise and madness of North London.
There are thousands of gravestones & memorials in this cemetery including some huge mausoleums in places dating back from the 1850s
It certainly was a nice stroll to be had this morning in the warm February sunshine. I had been told that the place had become a little bit of a wildlife reserve and is home to many species of birds & has resident foxes. I have seen foxes in Highgate Cemetery a few times but alas I never spotted them here.
I did however make a friends of an inquisitive cat that followed me around for sometime, wondering what I was up to..
My walking partner in St. Pancras & Islington Cemetery
If ever you are in North Finchley, London and fancy somewhere different to visit, you can certainly spend a few hours in this fascinating place.
St. Pancras & Islington Cemetery : more information
I was… Hong Kong Phooey
I’d just like to say that this post was prompted by a 3 hour car journey discussing the ‘quality’ TV that was on offer during my childhood.
We had one of those brown TVs which had legs that screwed into the bottom of it. The very same TV that came from radio rentals or some local business that rented home appliances at the time. Our TV had the little black box on the back to put 50p in. We had a 50p pot that was also used for feeding the electric meter in the cupboard under the stairs. (My grandma used to shout “go and put ‘ten bob’ in the meter”)
I used to plan my time at home away from school and weekends by eagerly grabbing the Radio Times and using a felt tip pen to circle all the good programmes that I needed to watch! That; and preparing my beloved tape recorder to record the theme tunes and songs from all the cartoons.
I have pretty early memories of such classics as Mary, Mungo & Midge, Captain Pugwash, Bagpuss, Roobarb & Custard & Mr Benn.
I have the Mr Benn theme tune as my ring tone now on my iPhone!
I went looking on youtube for a few reminders about some of these programmes. I also found some rather disturbing kids TV shows that I remember watching.. namely Pipkins!
I’d go to my grandmothers house at lunchtime from school and Pipkins was often on. The main character being a moth eaten manky puppet called Hartley Hare. If you had a Hartley Hare puppet now you would scare your kids to death with it! I also seem to remember the character ‘Pig’ from the show. Pig had a thick brummie accent for some unknown reason.
The TV highlights for me though were the Hanna-Barbera Cartoons such as Hong Kong Phooey, The Hair Bear Bunch & Scooby Doo!
Hong Kong Phooey
I was Hong Kong Phooey!! I would proudly consult my ‘Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu’ whilst wearing my dressing gown with the white piping edges and stand on my mums ironing board in the kitchen doing karate kicks. My friends and I often were to be found in the garden shouting ‘Chick-a-Bow’
I loved cartoons! I would do everything I could so that I wouldn’t miss them. I suppose with only 3 channels there wasn’t much choice for the 70′s child but I was obsessed. I loved Wacky Races, Captain Caveman, Stop the Pigeon & Scooby Doo!
Scooby Doo was changed in later years & I hated it. The original episodes were the best. And they are still broadcast to this day
The statistical breakdown of villain capture in Scooby Doo
I think that we; the 70′s generation children had the cream of quality TV programming. Not the overly PC, morally correct kids TV we have now!
This is why I think that our generation love the concept of The Simpsons and the brilliant Family Guy!
We are the generation that grew up loving american cartoons
Why Businesses Should Be Using Social Media
In recent months I have been asked many times ‘Why should we be using Social Media?’ or “I don’t get Twitter?’
Ask Yourself… Are you missing opportunities by not listening?
Social Media has changed the way we do almost everything. Businesses & Companies have been slow on the uptake in some instances and are stuck in their traditional ways of marketing and advertising. The task is to convince the ‘traditional’ business why SM is so important!
Your competitors are using social media & your competitors are using social media well and are probably better at it than you!
Here are a few things to think about…
Social Media is mostly a public & open platform. Anything you can learn about your own brand or product, you can also learn about competitors brands!
You can gain valuable business by taking the time to listen to your community!
You can monitor competitors feeds for marketing advantages & how are they comparing themselves with you?
Social Media is a Personal Business: It humanises your business
People buy from people. People ‘connect’ with people. People buy from peer recommendations. In this day and age we have all become ‘savvy’ to the sales pitch and marketing and advertising spiel….. We have become immune and often ignore an advertising campaign.
In a recent report 73% trust peer recommendations Only…. 14% trust ads
Social media marketing lies in the potential for word-of-mouth online influencers. If a customer has 5,000 followers on Twitter and tweets something positive about your business, then that tweet is like a free online advertisement with a potential audience of 5,000 new customers, plus any Twitter followers of those 5,000 people, and so on. The same kind of thinking is true for Facebook wall posts.
Social Media is the most cost effective way to market your product or brand & stay ahead of the competition! It’s a free platform!
In 2011 The Social Media Marketing report stated that: SM increased website traffic by 72% & directly increased online sales by 48%
But, the community relationship doesn’t stop when you’ve made the sale. Social Media is great for customer service and for identifying issues in real time!
We all use Social Media sites for a sense of friendship, community & belonging. We can share valuable content and can react to feedback instantly!
In fact SM is now commanding a quarter of all time spent online and we dedicate more time to Social Media than email & searching. Include the huge rise in smartphone usage & almost 40 percent of social media users access social sites from their mobile devices. This means that users are connected to social media networks 24/7. Clients and potential customers can “friend” your business instantly from their phones.
Add cutting-edge mobile marketing tactics like location-based marketing and the possibilities of mobile and social media marketing are limitless!
A Series Of Firsts!
I thought I’d join in the fun of writing this post.. Not my usual blog style but what the hell!
Who was your first Girlfriend?
I was living in Shirebrook, Nottinghamshire.. or was it Derbyshire (I don’t think it was ever happy being in either county) One of my next door neighbours on our street called Samantha Taunton. I even remember the name. Other than that not much to remember. I must have been 13/14 ish?
First person you kissed?
The aforementioned Samantha. I think we used to make a tent using blankets on a bunk bed and hide under there.
First job?
I do admit to doing the local paper round before I went to school. I’d collect the newspapers at some ungodly hour and trudge miles away to deliver them. I must have had the most remote & bleakest road to do. It was the street that lead out of our village into the countryside. By the time I’d finished I’d walked miles. But: The first job I had properly was the cliche Saturday summer job. My mother worked at Sherwood Forest visitor centre in Nottinghamshire & got me a job at weekends working in the ice cream wagon. Just think… Ice cream for lunch every day. Perks of the job I suppose! Never was a fan!
The Major Oak: Sherwood Forest Nottinghamshire
First pay packet? What did you buy with it? Some LP or another.. I was a bit of a music nut
First CD you remember buying?
This would have been in 1988. When I started getting decent wage packets I saved up and bought a really good Hi-Fi. Being a musician this probably wasn’t so surprising. But the first actual CD I bought was ‘Works by Sibelius’ by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Von Karajan. From here on in I became a Classical Music CD geek. To the point that I now have thousands of them. I was always to be found in ‘Our Price’ or HMV, or specialist music shops looking for the latest hi-fi recordings of great classical works. I still love well recorded music, especially classical works!
First holiday abroad?
I was brought up in a traditional English fashion. My parents didn’t go on overseas holidays. I suppose that money was tight during the 70′s so we always took holidays in the UK, I remember going to Butlins, Self Catering holidays in Cornwall & Caravan Holidays in Skegness.
Butlins Skegness & Brighton Beach sometime around 1979
But my first trip abroad ‘other than day trips to Calais’ was with the school band. The band travelled to Holland & Germany quite regularly and this was my first taste of europe. Well, my first taste of something alcoholic would be more truthful. As mentioned in a previous blog, where there are musicians there’s alcohol.
What age were you when you moved out of your parents’ home?
I joined the army in 1987.. So I left home just before my 16th birthday. I covered this here in a previous post!
As is the norm in these posts I should tag a few fellow bloggers.. so this is for – @SunnivaAnne @HimupNorth @RhiannonFox & @PaulaMaher
A Damp February Day in Cambridge
After spending quite a few days indoors due to the cold weather we decided to have a little outing to Cambridge.
I hadn’t been to Cambridge for some years & thought It might be a good day to get some fresh air and go and have a walk around.
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
I decided it might be a good idea to go the ‘scenic’ route to Cambridge via the A1 from London. All I can say is that going via Stevenage cross country into Cambridgeshire is possible the dullest scenic journey at this time of year. It didn’t help that it was slightly misty, damp with remnants of snow laying on the ground in the fields. It really is a depressing landscape of beige & grey. It reminded me of Denmark; which has the honour of being the greyest place on earth. I wonder if residents of rural Cambridgshire have the same suicide rate at this time of year as Denmark?
Please Note: I may not have researched the ‘suicide’ statistics of Denmark vs ‘seasonal’ suicide rates of Cambridgeshire.
Bikes in Cambridge City Centre
Bikes……
yes… Bikes…
Cambridge is full of bikes. Students on Bikes, Professors on Bikes, Lunatics on Bikes, Mothers on Bikes & no doubt bike salesmen on bikes.
Every set of railings has a bike locked to them or actually hung on the railings. To be honest generally the bikes are left leaning against walls of buildings awaiting the passing pedestrian with coffee or iPhone in hand to trip over them. I realise that Cambridge is a very pushbike friendly City & residents and students are encouraged to use a bike but at the expensive of being a city centre game of dodge the lunatic. At least I saw a weird bearded student sort fall off his bike on the cobbles whilst trying to dodge shoppers in the ‘pedestrian’ area. Result of the day
Kings College Cambridge
But….. The beauty of Cambridge is it’s Scholarly heritage of learning. It is a beautiful city, even on a damp February day.
There are some lovely old buildings to see, alleyways to explore & the ancient university grounds to view.
We had limited time in the city but had a look around Gonville & Caius College grounds. It’s lovely to see the well worn flagstone paving & worn stone steps. The hand painted professors nameplates on hidden ancient wooden doors & the worn brass handles and railings around the imposing grounds. There really is some amazing educational & scholarly history embedded in the fibre of these fine ancient buildings.
Due to other commitments we didn’t have much time to explore further. That I will be doing in summer when it’s far warmer!
Best Thing Since Sliced Bread
This morning I thought I would make some bread. The last time I ever came in contact with ‘bread’ baking was when my grandmother used to make it when I was a small child. I assumed it would be an awfully messy job.
I’m quite a foodie & chef but as far as baking is concerned I was somewhat in the dark. I did my research on twitter & asked the question about where to start?
Thanks to @cloudstratuk I had the info I needed about which bread mix to buy!
Dough in early stages of production
I was advised to buy the “Wright’s Baking’ Premium White Bread mix as it was easy to make by just adding water.. This I think I could do?
Basically making bread with this mix was as simple as pouring the packet contents into a bowl, adding half a pint of lukewarm water and mixing all together for 5 minutes. Then leaving on a floured surface for 5 minutes, kneading & stretching for a few minutes then leaving to stand again!
I even bought a new 2lb loaf tin specially for this ‘baking related’ project today. After the dough had been kneaded, stretched & beaten into submission, off to the loaf tin it went, covered with cling film (which I had to fight with to get out of the packet) Me & cling film often disagree!
Dough proving in the loaf tin by the radiator
The dough had to be covered in the loaf tin with cling film and be left to double in size for about 30 to 40 minutes in a warm place. In my case I put the loaf tin on a chair by a radiator. I switched on the oven during this time so it would come up to the require temperature.
After 35 minutes the dough had risen perfectly and then I popped it in the oven for 30 minutes.
The end result & perfect fresh crusty bread
Half an hour later & a beautifully smelling flat later. The loaf was baked.
I really can’t believe how simple this was! I’m a homemade bread convert now & shall be baking more!
Lunch was some lovely organic smoked salmon which was delicious with the nice warm fresh homemade bread!
