Columnist: From leaf eating to ferret racing

Imagine of that what you will but what in my mind I was prepared for, was an Awakening of Portuguese-ness.

What it amounted to was in actual fact two long wooden dining tables, lined on either side with dining chairs, squeezed into a small-ish restaurant filled with lots of strangers ready to eat six courses of food made by a Portuguese chef.

Ok, we weren’t all strangers, I draw the line at turning up to a dining experience, no matter how unique, alone.

I did have some familiar ears to whisper in as curiosities such as course two arrived.

It was a blackberry leaf, which in its basest form was a single green five pronged leaf fried in tempura batter and sprinkled with ras el hanout salt. A dish of chicken juices was provided for dipping purposes and eating commenced.

The following courses arrived on a similar and vein and I would now go as far as to say; I consider myself well and truly awakened.

But a-day later I found myself in the Oxfordshire countryside, with a ferret in hand, attempting to coax the creature through plastic tubes faster than my compadres could. This was all in the name of ferret racing. The trouble only being I had misconstrued the day’s activity and my attire was haphazard to say the least. When first described to me I heard ‘racing’ and wrongly assumed we were glamming up for some amateur betting and bubbles. I can categorically state, there is no requirement for fascinators amongst the frenzied fun of a ferret race.

Now, back to reality...