Back in the saddle

I was a bit worried about giving back the London puzzle to my neighbour, as it had the piece missing. So I sort of kept putting it off. But when it was time to hand out the  last of the Christmas  cake, I took the plunge and took it back. My neighbour who iced the cake and showed me how to do it next time had a piece, and the other neighbours including the puzzle lender. As it turns out the piece was already missing, thank goodness for that. I have also broke my previous record and done 6.5km in a day including walking in the house. I went to some friends in Charvil. I now have two bookings for dog sits this year, the chocolate Labrador up the road, and a new client, that is the lovely black Labrador I met at the Cosy Nook, that booking is for July. This is without even advertising. I decided to make the Battenburg cake, I now have the tin you use for baking it. I actually made two cakes as can be seen, the first pair of spongers were a bit flat and uneven, the second more improved. It’s actually quite hard to get in and level the mixture with the dividing bar in place and I think next time I will make two cakes again , but not use the dividing bar in the tin and make two sponges, one plain, the other pink. You then have to cut them lengthways and stick the four together with apricot jam. So far so good, the cake then has to be wrapped in the marzipan after that’s been rolled out. The little cross hatching and final touches aren’t on my cakes, but they tasted good.



I have started watching the C4 Drama  True Love which is very good, but the episodes are not all available, you have to wait for each to be broadcast. Meanwhile the Battenberg was going down a storm, I had two friends round and they had a slice each. I made another cake on Monday, again the given cooking time meant it was a bit overcooked. I need to be more careful with that. I am also in the middle of arranging a visit to someone I knew when I worked in the IT industry, who lives in Maidenhead. I also did  some gardening, filled up the brown bin, as it’s due to be emptied this week. My lodger is going to show me how he cooks rice, I think it’s one part rice to two parts water, you use cold water, when it starts boiling you take it off the heat and leave it, then after letting it cool a bit, it’s done. 


Monday had me looking after this guy for a morning, for a friend,  I have known him since he was a puppy. I took him for a walk, I think we did four km. like his predecessor he likes drinking water out of puddles and walking through them also. He is a lovely dog, and slept for only a short while. Have not heard from the fracture clinic yet, I will leave it a few more days before ringing them. 


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