ROBIN EDWARDS

Hamlet at the Young Vic

I’m a huge fan of the TV shows ‘The Good Wife’ and it’s sequel ‘The Good Fight’. Honestly two of my favourite ever TV shows. If you haven’t watched either of them I can really highly recommend them. Both star the wonderful British actor Cush Jumbo, so when my friends let me know they had managed to bag £10 tickets to see her in the titular role of Hamlet at the Young Vic I jumped at the chance to join them.

Hamlet is probably one of the hardest roles any actor can perform, there’s a lot of lines and it’s a seriously intense role. The last time I saw Hamlet performed was Benedick Cumberbatch’s sold out, rave reviewed performance at the Barbican, so expectations were high. Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed, she did a brilliant job. Well worth seeing.

Hamlet

 

Nanban Brixton

Nanban is the ramen restaurant from former Masterchef UK 2011 champion Tim Anderson. When it comes to ramen he really knows his stuff having lived for a time in Fukuoka aka the Japanese home of ramen. I’d been wanting to check out his place for a while, so as soon as lockdown restrictions on restaurant lifted I headed straight down to Brixton. I went for the Lazy goat ragù-men ramen. This is one of Nanban’s signature dishes and is inspired by Brixton’s West Indian history and culture. Several years ago now it won the Evening Standard dish of the year, so I was keen to try it out and my expectations were high. The ramen consists of slow-cooked boneless goat leg and noodles in a spicy Indo-Caribbean curry sauce, topped with seafood sawdust, fried shallots, scotch bonnet bamboo shoots and a tea pickled egg. An innovate twist on the traditional ramen, but it worked. The goat was beautifully tender and tasty. It sat in what was definitely more of a sauce than a broth and had a good spicy heat to it, without being blow your head off hot.

Skin+Me

Tretinion and Retin-A are the strongest form of retinol available and very strictly only available on prescription via a doctor in the UK. Thus to get it I have been forced to either get it at great expense from a UK doctor privately or buy it abroad in countries with less tight restrictions like Thailand or Mexico.

Anyway recently things have changed a bit and you can now get prescription strength retinol via the internet through online dermatologist services. There is two main companies offering this at the moment in the UK, Skin+Me and Dermatica. After weighing up and comparing the two I decided to go with Skin+me. It’s really simple to sign up on their website, you answer some questions about your age, skin condition and concerns and then take a couple of close up, make up free and unfiltered face pics and then a dermatologist comes up with a suggested formulation personalised specifically for you. I had previously done Obagi Nu-derm and was already using prescription Retin-A that I had bought on holiday in Thailand and am an experienced retinol user so I managed to get them to prescribe me a relatively high dose to start. Usually they start people on a lower dose and then build your tolerance to it it up over a few months. My personalised formulation also includes niacinamide and azeliac acid.

It comes each month in a convenient postbox friendly sized package with a simple aluminium tube that you twist and it dispenses exactly the right amount of product for a single use. The packaging is all completely plastic free and fully recyclable. It’s all very clever and well thought out. This cost is £19.99 a month, so is massively cheaper than seeing a dermatologist in the UK and paying for a private prescription. I have a special referral code and so you can get your first and fifth month for just £3.50 https://www.skinandme.com/?promocode=ROBINE5TU9

Polzeath Cornwall

Sunday was our final day and another hungover late start (starting to spot a pattern here!) we wanted to go visit the coast and what with us being in Cornwall there was several different options to choose from but in the end we decided to head to Polzeath. The bay there is incredible. We had a lovely walk along the beach, over the rocks and then along the coast. Afterwards we headed to a local pub for a late lunch. I had a delicious bowl of local Cornish mussels cooked in cider with bacon washed down with some local beer. We all then back to the house before heading back to Newquay airport and getting the Sunday night flight back to London. I hugely fun few days, I had such a good time. Thank you to my lovely friends Craig and Rob who hosted us so well.

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Cornwall

The Eden Project Cornwall

On the Saturday we made our way to the Eden Project. I’d been wanting to visit this place ever since it opened at the turn of the millennium, so I was super excited to check it out. I’d heard reports that it can get incredibly busy, but what with the COVID pandemic it wasn’t actually too bad at all went we visited. It’s a really impressive site, with the domes looking almost otherworldly set in the old chalk quarry. The outside area is actually almost as impressive as inside the domes. The planting is incredible and you really do feel like you could be in the rainforest.

Afterwards we drove to the nearby town of Fowey for a look around.. This is a beautiful little town situated right on the mouth of its namesake the River Fowey. At its centre is a lovely warren of narrow streets lined with beautiful traditional brightly coloured Cornish cottages, many of which are now rented out as holiday lets. We found a lovely little pub right on the waterfront and enjoyed a few pints while admiring the view. Before we headed back to the house we stopped at a local bakery and picked up some Cornish pasties and some scones with local clotted cream for a late lunch.

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