Green Tea and Genmaicha to replace the beans!

After a week of some of the finest coffee and coffee making in the world in Melbourne, it is probably a good time to have a break from the beans. I always over indulge in Melbourne and it's difficult to replicate it so I try and find a new fix, for a few weeks at least. I drink a lot of green tea anyway but I'm only just learning about how many types of green tea there are.

When I was in Japan a few months ago I brought back some packets of green tea from the supermarket. I can't speak or read any Japanese so I had no idea what I was buying. It turned into a sort of prettiest, most exciting packet, beauty contest.

There was one that I absolutely loved. It didn't imagine it could be healthy as it seemed to be quite sweet and have sugar puffs or popcorn through it! I got a Japanese friend to translate a picture of the packet and it is called genmaicha. I have since found it locally and buy it loose but it can also be found in teabags from Teapigs and Whittards amongst others.

It is the perfect healthy drink as it is sweet enough not to need anything to accompany it. Really, no biscuits required! 

Apparently it was a drink enjoyed by poorer people in Japan who couldn't afford to use too much tea so they bulked it up with puffed rice!

Sadly in this country it is not for the impoverished and comes with a reasonable price tag but if you can find it and are a fan of green tea, I implore you to try it. It's a great drink and perfect for my coffee free days ahead.

Thanks as always.

Lee x

Cafés and Coffees

I love nothing more than taking my notebook or ipad into a cafe and whiling a way an hour writing, getting a caffeine hit and relaxing.  I really struggle to find good places where I live though, both in England and in Scotland. I've even been driven to designing my own perfect cafe, which will provably live in the pages of my notebook forever more! It's a greatest hits, the best bits of every cafe I've been to. Think of it as a Lee Super Cafe!

Many of these best bits are taken from cafés in Melbourne, which is excactly where I am writing this now.  The atmosphere in most Melbourne cafés is a friendly, very relaxed atmosphere with a real rustic charm. Great, but sleep-deprivingly strong coffee is standard and the food is normally a pretty decent whether it be breakfast, lunch or a snack.

From Brunswick to St Kilda you can take a chance and walk into a cafe and the chances are it will be spot on and the perfect place to take the weight off your feet and enjoy a rest. And that's what a cafe should be. Maybe one day I'll be writing about the opening of my cafe but the likelihood is I'll keep writing in and trying to enjoy other peoples. The search for the perfect cafe isn't such a bad search to be in!

Lee x

Lofty Ambitions

 

One thing I have been doing, not out of any grand design, is stay in a lot of lofts! It seemed that everywhere I booked and stayed, away from my F1 work, involved an attic or loft space.
All quirky and atmospheric, here are 3 of my favourites (in order of how you see them it's the photo)...

 

ABode Manchester http://www.abodemanchester.co.uk/

 

My friend, the Chef Michael Caines, has a restaurant in the ABode hotels and encouraged me to stay there when was up in Manchester. The food was exquisite, as you would expect from Michael, but the room was outstanding too. 'Fabulous on Fifth' is a private floor with five suites all in a loft style.  We had the Jonny Cash suite, which as a fan, was very excited about.   They also include an eclectic collection of modern art that comprises works by Yoko Ono, David Hockney and others.  It was difficult to tear myself away from pretending I actually lived there and venture out. I could quite happily have moved in!

 

Hotel du Vin in Harrogate   http://www.hotelduvin.com/locations/harrogate/

 

The room was amazing and the perfect place to relax.  Again, it was even a thought to whether to head out for a walk around the gorgeous streets of Harrogate. At night the rain rattled the windows but if anything it was atmospheric, certainly not noisy.  Despite the shower room looking like it should be out of a football changing room, the interior was more luxury than locker room!

 

 Belle Tout Lighthouse  http://www.belletout.co.uk/

 

This lighthouse at Beachy Head was a random booking! The tennis was on in Eastbourne so many 'normal' hotels were booked up, but who wants normal anyway! The staff couldn't have been friendlier welcoming us with wine and nibbles. The room had been described as  "quirky and unique" and it certainly was that. If there was enough space, I would have taken a photo but the whole room was basically my wingspan! Cosy,  lets say and the bed was up a ladder and filled almost the whole space. Unique and a great experience although that room and bed is not for the tall or faint hearted!   They do have other rooms too but as you can see, I seem to be attracted to lofts or up in the Gods!  It was perfect in the sunshine with gorgeous walks along the coastal path but it would be wonderfully atmospheric in any other season.

 

Lee x

Lazy Bones is Back!

After a manic start to the F1 season (12 countries in 6 months) and many other things in my life which I will use as a suitable excuse, I'm back to my blog! I vow to never let it go so long without updating this and if there are indeed any loyal readers out there who happen to come across this again then I thank you for your patience!

I better get on with writing something to repay you!

Grovelling and thanking....

 

Lee x

Earth Hour

 

The 23^rd of March – apart from my brother’s Birthday –  is also when Earth Hour is held.  In Malaysia, where I am at the moment, it is a big thing and from 8:30-9:30pm iconic buildings to normal houses will switch off their lights for 1 hour.   

The event was launched by World Wide Fund for Nature and was launched in Australia in 2007. Since then the Sydney Opera House, Petronas Towers and Houses of Parliament have all plunged themselves into darkness.

In Asia, fairy lights and displays are much more prevalent than in Europe and I do love seeing it but environmentally, of course it is not ideal.  The picture below is of the hotel stay in over here!

Working in an industry which is trying to make both F1 and road cars more environmentally friendly I do try and do my bit as and when I can when I am away and am a strong believer that if we all do a little bit and show willing then it can become part of our daily life.

For more information about what is happening in your country and how you can get involved later today have a look here http://www.earthhour.org/

Lee x

Hot in Malaysia

 

 

After a couple of very relaxed days with friends in Melbourne, I have come to the heat and humidity of Kuala Lumpur

Monday morning was spent in a world of coffee as I tried to wake up after a long and tiring Sunday. I was writing my first column for Motorsport Magazine and you can check out my race weekend thoughts here  http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/opinion/bbc-f1s-lee-mckenzie-in-australia/

I love Malaysia and have spent a lot of time in this part of the world but I never fail to be surprised when I step out of the airport for the first time and the wall of heat hits.  Then we get into the hire car and are met with the NO DURIAN sign.  I tried the pungeant fruit a couple of years ago and can completely understand why you wouldn't want one in a car. They stink and I wasn't a great fan of the taste either but you have to try these things!

We stay at a hotel that has its own water park, along with a lot of the teams.  It is the 9^th time I have stayed there and opening the curtains to see log flumes and a water bungee is always amusing, and slightly frustrating too as we never get time to use it!

The first thing I do when I get here is go for reflexology in a dodgy looking place on the street. It is the best reflexology that I have ever had and open until 11pm so I can even sneak in after work.  In my job I spend a lot of time on my feet running around after drivers and it is particularly bad here as Sepang has one of the biggest paddocks of the season. 

My other favourite here is reading The New Straits Times over breakfast. I love newspapers and enjoy finding out what is topical in all the countries that we go to but the NST is one of the best. How is it written, the stories covered, everything about it makes me smile and that is not a bad way to start the day, is it.

Lee x

 

 

Rain brings back the memories

Sorry for the lack of blog but since I last wrote the rain has been of biblical proportions! It means that today Qualifying and the Race will be on the same day for the first time since I presented my first show in Japan 2010.

Yesterday was a long old day mostly standing outside in a big storm for hours on end. It was deemed too dangerous for the cars to go out in but safe enough for pitlane reporters! Above is a cold looking me!

Below is the link to my diary from my website that I wrote after my Japan debut weekend - it brings it all back! 

http://www.leemckenzie.tv/full_story.asp?pageref=65

Lee x