MEGA photo entry!
2012-06-08, 11:48 p.m.
Omigoodness my laptop hates me and so does the internet!No matter how much I have tried to hurry up with this wretched entry, those twin forces of evil have conspired against me to crash, delete, unexpectedly switch off and otherwise make me go �AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHH� at least once every ten minutes over the last two days. If this entry wont load then I am going to abandon the internet altogether and instead embark on a trip to visit you all individually and tell you about my day as it would certainly be easier and quicker.
First off, I need to do something with my hair�.
That�s Jooj, doin� the filmin�. She�s been a little Demob Happy since she�s now on study leave from school (only five exams left � YAY!) and has done her last full day of lessons. This means she has also done her last Non-Uniform Day of her �regular� schooling. For most people, �non-uniform day� means �wear jeans, and possibly a hoodie�. In our house, it means �rip up your (spare) uniform and go to your friend�s house before school so you can apply fake wounds and blood and go to school as ZOMMMBIEEEEEES!�
With the help of their much beloved Spanish teacher, they staged a reasonably realistic zombie attack during a lower school Spanish lesson, involving climbing through windows and scaring small children half to death. Heeheehee.
Then there was the small matter of L�s birthday, which had an 0 in it this year and was therefore designated as Very Special, Thank You.
Conversation About Birthday Cake
What cake would you like
Ummmm��.chocolate?
OK
No, wait! Orange! No! Ummm��can a cake be chocolate AND orange?
Lemme hear ya say �HELL, YEAH!�
Mmm, chocolate orange sponge cake, chocolate orange frosting/filling, chocolate orange Matchmakers, Orange sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, orange jelly slices and Terry�s Chocolate Orange. There! That chocolatey orangey enough for ya?
Blow out the candles, then!
Then let me whisk you away for a mini holiday (OK, just one night but the kids didn�t come with us so it counts as a holiday, fersure!) where there will be even more candles to blow out:
And after a restorative stay at The Regency in Leicester, which is the scene of many and several drunk-and-disorderly evenings when L was on the touring circuit (but on this occasion was the scene of relative normality with touches of domesticity!), we rocked up at Peterborough Cathedral, so L could set up his tripod and take SOOOOOOOOO many pictures. He likes that kind of stuff. I clickclickclicked at all the stuff I wanted to see and then sat in a pew and tried to look pious while he did all manner of clever photographic shenanigans.
Anyways, this is Peterborough Cathedral. Its jolly nice.
In one place they�d scattered mirrors on the floor as some kind of �installation�.
Which meant that you didn�t have to look up to see this
You could just look down, and get much artier shots, reflected in the mirrors!
See! Isnt it jolly!
There was weird old art stuff everywhere. What looked like a pile of rubbish at the bottom of an archway
turned out to be pages and pages of sheet music, stuck together like a great swirling spiral or pencil shavings
L took this picture of some metallic hanging sculpture thingies, looking for all the world like the glistening teeth in a giant ecclesiastical mouth, with two other-wordly eyes beaming down on the worshippers
It was nice weekend (OK it was Tuesday/Wednesday, but it FELT like a weekend!) and me and L are at least one step closer to being�..well, closer, I guess!
The driving was a bit knackering, if Im honest. And so is all this typing. Lets stop for a nice cakey. Here�s a recipe for cereal bars which are altogether gorgeous and gooey and chewy and not at all like little slabs of breeze block or chipboard like most cereal bars are.
I made these three times in one week as they disappeared so quickly from the cake tin. Even my dad and L, who are no big fans of the �afterchew�, enjoyed them so Im pretty sure that you will, too.
Dry things
2 cups muesli
1 cup plain flour
� cup shredded coconut
� cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 � cups dried fruit
Wet things
1/3 cup maple syrup (or golden syrup or corn syrup)
1/3 cup honey
60g butter
Other things
1 tablespoon boiling water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Tip all the dry things into a big bowl.
Put all the wet things in a jug and microwave them for 20 seconds or so, until theyre all liquefied and nicely runny. Then stir in the tablespoon of boiling water and the baking soda. The wet mixture will fizz up a bit and go foamy � don�t worry, its supposed to.
Tip all the wet mixture into the dry mixture and give it all a good stir
Tip it into a shallow tin (mine was about 25cm x 20cm but don�t be too precious about it) which you�ve lined with a bit of silicon paper
So you don�t get it all over you (its VERY sticky) cover with another piece of silicon paper
and then press it down with the potato masher til its all flat
then carefully peel off the paper and put in in the oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 15 minutes
by which time it will be nicely brown
then, cut it up into 16 pieces. NOT twelve, they will be too big, you fatso. Eat, with a cup of tea. Mmmmm, delicious.
There�s cancer news, but its boring. I�ll tell you about it on Sunday. Its all relatively good, though, so don�t worry about me.