A Christmas story

At Made by Many, young as we are, a tradition has emerged. This involves heaps of driftwood, the sound of wet, salty waves, mud that sticks like glue to your boots and pants, a terrifying death slide and a frying pan with attitude. Not necessarily in that order.

It must be obvious to you by now that I am talking about the annual Christmas bash. Yes, that one – THE party of office parties – the day when anything is possible and everything becomes legal since on the next morning, people usually don’t remember exactly what happened anyway.

Well. You won’t forget a Christmas party on the beach in late December! We started early and had a lovely train ride down to a pittoresque village called Worth Matravers, where we visited  the Square and Compass Pub, a “pub so olde that they don’t even have a bar, just a hole in the wall” (Tim’s quote). From there, we walked through beautiful scenery, past a duck pound, a farm, a scary looking ox (and some friendlier cows), until we reached the infamous and terrifying death slide leading down to the beach.

Safely down, we collected driftwood and put together a bon fire, which Flint the dog almost caught fire from but Chef Oli then tamed with a noisy frying pan, masterfully dishing up the most amazingly superb dishes. On the menu was:

Various pork saussages, + some lovely chorizo that David supplied
Bifa Ana (mozambique style) – Marinated rump steak: parsley; garlic; chili; bay leaf; olive oil and a little red wine
Grilled leg of lamb – Marinated in: Olive paste; garlic; anchovy and rosemary
Lentils -  onion; leak; carrots; bay leaf; garlic and toasted cumin seeds

Also (although nobody ate it cause we were too cold by now)

Cous cous – grilled veg (courgette; aubergine; onion; pepper); roasted cherry tomatoes; pomegranate and parsley

Julia served Polish mulled beer with honey and Tim made the best ever mulled wine. Stuart, adding to the atmosphere, braved the cold by playing Hallelujah on his guitar.

In spite of the December cold, we all had a fantastic time together. But I must admit that my fave moment came on the train back, when Tim suggested we’d add a new and different spin to our Christmas beach tradition by spending five days on a beach in the Caribbean next year…

Isaac’s photos

William’s photos

Matt’s photos

Simon’s photos

Tim’s photos

My photos