Baking Cakes (and the Art of Avoiding Life's Little Frustrations)

Monday. 6.30 a.m. It's Monday, and at 2 o'clock this afternoon there'll be the second Monday Club at the Oaktree Centre. Last week was well attended, not by Shenley Christian Fellowship members, but by several community members who are regular attendees. Plenty of cake and tea. Yesterday, after church, I was asked if I could make cakes for today's session. I have been checking ingredients in my cupboards and setting things up, as I will have to go out and stock up on some ingredients. I will go to Lidl later this morning. I have also printed out a recipe for Victoria sponge cake from Delia Smith's website.

11.00 a.m. I went to Lidl at just after 9 o'clock and stocked up on ingredients as I mentioned above. I really have to organize my kitchen, as there is a definite shortage of space. I had set a lot of it up around 6 o'clock, even before I'd taken Alfie out, but I wasn't going to do the circuit of Oldbrook Green because yesterday I walked at least, 11500 steps and was quite exhausted, but I am attempting to do far more steps. Anyway, as I write, the Victoria Sponge is finished, with raspberry jam as a filling and a sprinkling of icing sugar on top and it's in it's tin, ready to take to the Monday Club just before 2 o'clock. 

Tuesday. 3.05 a.m. Oh, dear! Alfie isn't very well. I thought he needed to go out, so I hurriedly got dressed and we were out on the grass (this was around 10 o'clock last night.) But he didn't do anything, just walking along the grass. We went back indoors and he did a mess. He seems to have the runs. Cleared it up. Not nice. But he'd done another, which I have just cleared up. I have had to change my duvet, due to another accident. I don't know what caused this mishap. I have decided to stay at home and not go to Camphill and sent an email. I feel disappointed, but I really can't leave him on his own all day in the flat.

2.30 p.m. As I have already reported, in above, Alfie hasn't been very well, which meant I didn't go to Camphill this morning, unfortunately. I thought it wasn't such a good idea to leave him on his own. I had a £25 Marks and Spencer voucher to spend, which had been earned from doing online surveys for a company called Maximiles. I wanted to spend it and decided to drive into the Central Shopping Centre. I got to my usual car park in Secklow Gate. I had hoped to pay using the RingoGo app on my iPhone, which I have used on quite a few occasions. It means you don't have to fiddle about with change and use the ticket machines and, if you need extra time to park you don't need to return to your car and can use the app to add your time and pay. But the app wouldn't open and for some unaccountable reason wanted the password to continue. This was somewhat exasperating, so I paid with a £1 coin I had in my pocket for such an eventuality. Having parked and paid I went into the shopping centre, first going to Boots to buy liquid Feroglobin which I have been taking for several months as a supplement. It has 14 minerals and nutrients in it. It's quite difficult to find it on the shelves, and had to ask an assistant to show me where it was. Having paid, I came out into the walkway and went to Nationwide to take out some money from my account and I walked towards NatWest to pay the cash into my account there. This NatWest branch has been there in all the time I have lived in Milton Keynes, but I discovered, much to my disappointment, that it had closed. It was then that I realized that there was a new branch at the other end of the shopping centre, opposite John Lewis and near Middleton Hall.

I crossed over the road from what had been NatWest and re-entered the shopping centre and went into Marks and Spencer, going up on the escalator to the menswear department and bought a set of shortie pyjamas and long pyjama bottoms. Easy and straightforward.

 If you know the shopping centre, you will know it must be a good half mile or so. On arrival outside, I found a machine which would allow me to pay through a slot, provided I used my debit card and my P.I.N. I couldn't get the machine to work, so I went inside the branch. I asked a member of staff whether I could pay the cash into my account via a teller. Yes, upstairs, I was told, although there was a queue. When I arrived upstairs there was indeed a queue, but the cashier/teller wasn't in place. Goodness knows, what was going on? Was it a tea break or something? The queue wasn't moving. I wanted to make a simple payment, that was all. It was at this point I thought to myself 'I'm turning into Victor Meldrew, the character in the sitcom 'One Foot In The Grave', who is constantly being frustrated by life's little upsets and is known for his line 'I don't believe it!'

There were several more ATMs nearby which could be used to pay in cash. I had to ask a bank staff member to help me operate the machine. You can use your card and your P.I.N. and then insert your banknotes through a slot. I then discovered that you can put them in a bundle and don't have to insert the notes individually.

After all the frustrations of A.T.M's and other things, it was time for a break, so I went into Costa on Middleton Hall. The other week I had a really great hot chocolate which had cream and bits of Kit Kat sprinkled on top. But, unfortunately, when I asked at the counter for another, I was told it was a special edition and they no longer sold them. So, I settled for a hot chocolate and cream. Well, why not? The after experiences of the day I think I deserved it.

So, that was my shopping trip! Nothing much else to report here. 

Winter Draws Nearer

Saturday. 8.20 p.m. The weather is getting colder. There is the possibility of snow in some parts of Britain, according to the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast this morning.

I have been baking a traditional Christmas fruit cake. It's not something I have made before, so I had to have a look for a recipe and chose one by Delia Smith. I got most of the ingredients in Sainsbury's during the week. Except I left out the mixed dried fruit, which I don't like. I couldn't get brandy or port, or, at least, in small bottles. Do they call them half bottles? I'm not certain. I had bought a high-grade spring form tin to bake the cake in. Because my oven is difficult to get an accurate temperature, I bought an oven thermometer from Amazon. I think it's vital to have your oven set to the recommended temperature before you decide to make a cake or, indeed, anything you are about to cook. It required a good four hours to bake, which meant I needed time to mix up the ingredients and then allow plenty of time to bake the cake. So on Thursday, I began to follow the instructions in the recipe at around 9 a.m. It came out of the oven at around 6.30 p.m. I had managed to get a small bottle of port from Aldi when I went to Curry's to buy some leads for the Portal TV for when it arrived and would be required for setting it up. I mixed in some port to the dried fruit before stirring up the cake mixture and putting it in the tin and then the oven.

I have removed some over-cooked outer layer of the cake. I may have to have another go at scraping off some more more before I attempt to ice it. I remember my mother used to make Christmas cakes and ice them, with a first layer of marzipan and then the whole thing covered in white icing, I think it's called royal icing. You either like it or you don't. I don't mind so long as the icing isn't too hard. 

Tuesday 4.15 p.m. I have booked my car in to be serviced at Bleak Hall Motors. I have managed to arrange it via their website and paid, getting a discount in the process. It's booked for 8 a.m. this Thursday. I then went to Sainsbury's and bought marzipan and rollable icing which should make the cake icing a good deal easier. I don't think you could get pre-made icing or marzipan when my mother was around making Christmas cakes. Not only that, but I think you just roll each layer out and use warm apricot jam as a sort of glue to stick on the marzipan onto the cake surface. 

Wednesday. 4.10 p.m. I have managed to have a fascinating Zoom session from Bletchley Park on my new Portal TV about Britain and America and the Battle of The Atlantic during World War 2. It works really well and makes things a good deal better than having to peer at a small laptop screen instead. There are a couple more documentaries to go in a four-part series, and then they will be uploaded onto YouTube. Very pleased with the purchase of the Portal TV, which was on offer due to Black Friday offers. I have also bought the sixth and final book in the Peter Ackroyd 'History of England' series called 'Innovation,' which came from Amazon this morning. So, I have that to look forward to reading, although I have plenty of other reading material to read first and, looking at the pile of books atop my bookshelf, it should keep me occupied well into 2022.

Thursday. 2.25 p.m. I took the Renault to Bleak Hall Motors for the 8 a.m. service today. It has had to remain there until tomorrow because they discovered two rear springs which need replacing, and they can't get the parts until tomorrow. I walked back to Dexter House as it isn't particularly that great a distance and will wait until tomorrow when they should ring me to let me know it's ready. I was told I could have driven it provided I didn't go far or over any speed bumps at speed, but I didn't want to risk further problems if the remaining springs were to break. I was fortunate I took the car for service when I did because it could have broken down on the motorway going to Worcester over the Christmas period. Better to get it repaired rather than leave it.

Definitely a good deal colder today. Probably cold enough for snow. I hope not, but could be. There was a light icing on the car windows this morning before I drove to Bleak Hall Motors.

Friday. 8.a.m. Really very this morning. Storm Arwen about to strike, but according to BBC Breakfast it looks as if it's the north-east of England and Scotland which will be struck the hardest. They show it on the maps on the weather forecast in bright yellow which makes me think of those horrible plastic rain coats you used to have which made you hot and sweaty. Pac-A-Mac? I can't say I remember.

2.00.p.m. I had been waiting in expectation from the garage to ring to tell me they'd finished with the car. Then at midday I just happened to glance at text messages and they had sent a text to say the car was ready to collect. There was no point hanging around, so I walked to Bleak Hall. It has been threatening rain. It took me barely half an hour to walk the distance, and it was paid for and I came home soon after. As I write this, the wind has become stronger. I have taken out a few minutes ago, but as soon as we got outside, and I deposited him on the grass, his majesty turned round and came back inside. I don't blame him, but it was funny. He just doesn't like rain or cold.

Cakes and Bakes

Tuesday. 8.20 a.m. I took Alfie out for his usual outing along Strudwick Drive at around 5.25. It was relatively mild thank goodness. No rain or excessive sunshine. On the way towards Oldbrook Green, there is an oak tree on the grassed area with bushes around in, just behind the bus stop. Alfie always stops there to have a sniff and a wee, but fortunately, he didn't see the black and white cat hiding behind some of the foliage. If he had there would most definitely have been a great deal of barking. The cat was very still and quiet. I think it must have realized that moving with a very vociferous dog was not in its own interests.

I'm back in the kitchen, baking cakes. I have just this minute put two tins of Victoria Sponge into the oven. They should be ready to remove in around 20 minutes. Closely following Delia Smith's recipe. I have actually doubled up the quantities as the first time I made a sponge it came out really think. Probably because I didn't include baking powder in the mixture. I presume it produces more air and that would make it rise far more. Just have to wait and see how this turns out.

Currently working on the plot for a new storyline. This will, hopefully, run concurrently with what I've already written. 

Later. 4.40 p.m. The Victoria sponge didn't come out quite as it should have done. Unfortunately, it hadn't been in the oven long enough. Either the oven wasn't set to quite the right temperature or the bake wasn't long enough. Just a couple more minutes I would have said. It tasted fine, but not up to my usual standards.

Wednesday. 6.00 a.m. Alfie and I did our usual thing and were out around 5.35 but he didn't intend to walk any further than he needed to, determinedly took me home to the flat when he'd done what he needed to. So that was that.

Milk went off again! I wanted to make a cup of tea yesterday evening and when I poured it out into my mug, it came out as yogurt, not that I would want to eat it. The 'best before' date was 4th August, so it should have lasted a good deal longer than it did, so that means no tea or breakfast cereal this morning- yet again! Why is this? I reckon it's a good deal older when it's dated at the dairy, so by the time you buy it, it's virtually out of date. Mystery, nevertheless.

I've been grappling with setting up my FitBit, which has been laying on the unit in my bedroom for months. I've managed to charge it (it is a Charge 3, for those who are interested.) which is something of an annoyance as I'm never sure it is charging when I put it in the charging device. You have to get the gold contacts to connect with those in the charging device and it should vibrate to show it's working. I have also managed to reset the time on it by using the app on my iPhone and it now seems fine. You can change the clock face and I have managed to set a new one, so it's up and running and I can keep a track of the number of steps walked during the day. So, another box ticked.

Some Like It Hot

This blog post's title refers to one of my all-time favourite films, the 1959 comedy starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and the fabulous Marilyn Monroe, 'Some Like It Hot.' (Actually referring to jazz and not the weather.) The Curtis and Lemmon are out of work instrumentalists, Joe and Jerry,  in 1920's Chicago who accidentally witness the Valentine's Day massacre and have to dress up as women in an attempt to outwit the mob. Joe becomes Josephine and Jerry becomes Daphne,. They join an all-girl band and go on tour with them and on the train, they have to travel on to one of their gigs in Florida,  where they meet Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, played by Monroe in one of her most iconic roles. If you want a film that will make you laugh, then this beats a lot of modern comedy. It is in monochrome, so don't be disappointed in that, but it really doesn't matter, as it's fast-paced, funny, and downright crazy.

I was out with Alfie at 5.45 a.m. as we were ready, not bothered in the slightest that it was that early. As I write this (9.00a.m.) It's sunny and warm and likely to get warmer as the week progresses, according to the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast earlier.

I've been making fruit scones! They are currently baking in the oven and have about 3 minutes before they come out of the oven (should be saltanaley rather than currently. Sorry about the pun, but I just couldn't resist.) I have been using the equipment I have purchased on Amazon and in Dunelm, the digital scales, mixing bowl, rolling pin, and so on. It all seemed to go well, and as ever, using Delia Smith's recipe.

2 Minutes later. I have removed the scones from the oven. I'm a bit disappointed that they have come out no bigger than when they went in. Just a bit tiddly. I did follow Delia's recipe quite carefully and she said to use a 5 cm cutter, which I did. I was expecting them to rise a bit more than they did and come out somewhat larger. Oh well, as only the first time I've made them in quite a while, not really bad. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

I have a saving account with Metro bank. The only way I can access it is either by visiting a branch or through their app or website. I had been attempting to reset the password but with no success. You are allowed a few attempts and then, if you attempt too many times, I think it's probably six, you are prevented from attempting further, probably to prevent scammers or hackers to pinch your cash. As a last resort, I decided to visit their branch down Chaffron Way, next to Waitrose. I also had a pile of 5p pieces which had been collected in a glass jar which had been steadily increasing to such a point I decided it needed cashing in at the bank. It was around £10 so I could deposit it in the Metro account, but then I wasn't certain if they would accept 5ps. I suppose it would take some time to count, but I had already done that.

It turned out that the bank has a machine which will count your change. All you do is tip your coinage into the hopper and after a while, once all the coins have worked through the machine, it gives you the total and then you put in your bank account number and date of birth and it gets deposited in your account. Ingenious, and certainly did the trick. 

I then had help from a member of the bank staff to reset my online account, and required me to come up with a new password and security number, and hey presto! It worked! Problem solved and it means I can keep an eye on the balance and it makes life simpler if you use the online facility rather than having to go into a bank branch.

It's 'Ot!

Goodness gracious! It's a really hot day! I may actually get a chance to wear my new shorts which I bought in Marks and Spencers the other week! So, knees and other areas below will be on display, hopefully not too pale.

I had made a chocolate fudge cake last week and took it to the Mens' Breakfast on Saturday morning with the intention that we ate some of it, if not, all. I was looking forward to trying it out. After the disaster of the one I had made a few weeks earlier, I decided to follow one of Delia Smith's recipes and made the two sections and then made the chocolate fudge to cover the cake as well as the filling. It didn't get touched by any of the men and landed up being put in the fridge in the café area, basically to keep it chilled and out of harms way. I was then hoping (note: hoping!) to get a slice when I returned for Sunday service. It didn't appear and then I was told that it had been eaten by the women who came to the Ladies' get together which follows on after the Mens' Breakfast. To say I was shocked would be untrue! I was expecting some of the men to have a go at tasting, but not to expect the ladies to EAT ALL OF IT! Shocked, to say the least, and disappointed that I didn't get to sample it, although it was made to share and I never make cakes to sit and eat on my own. So from the fact that it was eaten entirely I am pleased as that was made for eating and not staring at! I shall have to make more, and not just cakes.

Anyway, regardless of that, I went to the Willen Hospice coffee morning in John Lewis's store in Milton Keynes. I haven't been for the past couple of weeks, last week was May Bank Holiday and what with one thing and another, just didn't manage to make it. A lovely lot of people, who've been through the similar experience as me with a loved one dying of cancer and being a patient at such an amazing place as Willen. During the morning some ladies from Willen presented the lady who is the liason officer for John Lewis who is responsible for having the coffee morning at Lewis's and she was presented with a certificate and a huge bouquet of flowers to thank her for her work.

I've been into the Nationwide Building Society's branch in the main shopping centre to check that my bank account is safe after the 'business' I had to endure regarding the scam last Friday. It would appear that it is safe, thank goodness. I then went to the NatWest to check my account there, and it is also fine. I did all this just to reassure myself that all is as it should be. The main reason for going to the Nationwide, which is the account I use most, was because they have frozen my debit card and will be issuing me with a new one. I now pay for parking using the RingGo app on my iPhone, but this morning, when I want to use it, my payment was declined so I had to walk into the shopping centre, take out some cash from an A.T.M. machine and go into the Metro bank to get change, £1 coins, which I used to pay for my parking ticket. I am assured that the new debit card will be sent to me by the end of the week.

I  then went into Marks and Spencer because I needed something to eat as it was fast approaching lunch time. I found a cheese and salad baguette near the entrance and a pack of Welsh cakes, which I have to admit I haven't eaten for goodness knows how many years. I then went to pay at a checkout and stood in line at one which was being operated by a young lady who clearly had a learning disability. I think she might have been moderately down syndrome, but seemed very capable. I'm so pleased that companies such as Marks and Spencer give these people a chance to prove themselves. She was busily chatting to customers as they were going through with their shopping. I only had a few items and handed over a £10 note, but she unfortunately keyed in her till for a £20 note and had to get assistance from a supervisor. It wasn't really a problem, and it just needed a bit of patience but she managed the situation very well.

Foggy Morning

Quite a foggy and overcast morning here in Milton Keynes when I took Alfie out for his routine walk around Eaglestone Park. We veered off the usual circuit and went off through the estate and ended up on the Redway. Alfie decided to do a whoopsie on the Redway. I always do my duty and picked it up. I always make sure I carry black biodegradable bags for this very purpose. There are no red bins to dispose of dog waste so I had to walk back into the park and put the bag in the nearest bin. So I decided, as we were there, to walk back around the park and came back home the way we come out, along Griffon Close. I'm afraid there are those dog-owners who still refuse to take responsibility for their dogs and do not clear up when they mess. It spoils the park and the surrounding environment that this is the case. It doesn't take much effort to clear up after their dogs, but then there are some people who will still ignore any sort of regulation, regardless, whether  it's conforming to traffic speed limits or clearing up after their dogs. As it is, it makes an unpleasant environment and I have seen notices to this effect, because it means that events planned and run around the park for children have had to be cancelled because of the health risk. It's a shame that those who don't comply don't get caught and fined.

I've been doing some ironing. Don't laugh. Men doing ironing? What's wrong with that? I'm pretty good at it. I think I must have been shown the best way to iron a shirt, for example, when I was working in stage management somewhere or other, probably by one of the wardrobe staff, or I watched whilst they did this and asked how to do it fast. They could wash and iron for goodness knows how many people, because if a show was running for a certain length of time, it was necessary to keep shirts and items washed, ironed and back in the actor's dressing rooms ready for the next performance.

 Anyway, I use a steam iron. I try to use distilled water in the thing because if you put ordinary tap water in a steam iron, around this area at any rate, where the water is hard, it can build up limescale which can block up the inside of the iron and the holes where the water comes out as steam soon clog up and you can get horrible deposits of limescale on the clothes you are ironing. Anyway, I needed to get a fresh supply and went to The Range yesterday afternoon, which is where I got the last supply, but none to be found. I then went to Homebase, across the road from The Range, and, again, none in stock. Today I went to Morrisons, where I'm almost certain I saw some the last time I was in there, but none to be found. Why is this? Is it because people who own steam irons don't bother with distilled water in their irons? Or is it that distilled water isn't considered to be an important enough item to stock, taking up valuable shelf space and not making enough profit to warrant selling it? Seems odd. It was always used in car batteries, but presumably modern car batteries don't require the occasional topping up with distilled water. I don't think modern car batteries have the little plastic caps which you had to undo in order to put in the distilled water. The cells inside had to be covered in order to make the battery work efficiently. I don't know what my dad would make of this. He would always tell me, whenever I was going anywhere in my car, 'make sure you check the oil, have you topped it up? Are the tyres correctly inflated? Have you checked the battery?' and so on. Even to this day I have to go through this routine whenever I go for a long journey in my car. It sounds crazy, but I suppose he was right. I can't think what he would make of modern cars, with things like SatNavs, computerised systems which tell you to do this and that, how to drive the car, when to have it serviced and goodness knows what else. Alarms for all manner of things, if you haven't put on your seatbelt, or closed the doors properly. Mine even tells you when to change gear!

Sorry, I digress.

I've been making scones. I have made them before. I used Delia Smith's recipe. They taste great but don't look particularly brilliant. Not going to win any prizes but I made the batch just as a sort of test and then make another lot and hopefully they will be better. Is it scone or scone? How do you pronounce the word. With a short end or long? To rhyme with gone or cone? I suppose it depends where you come from, north or south. Does it really matter? What ever the pronunciation, they taste great with cream and jam! Best with clotted cream.

Baking and Driving

I've been baking. Now, there's a thing. I had made Victoria sponges before, but intended taking a couple along to the Thursday-evening 'Freed To Lead' session. I've been involved in this course at the Oaktree Centre, home of Shenley Christian Centre, for the last couple of months and wanted to contribute something in the catering line. I have bought the necessary equipment from Sainsbury's, two cake tins, a pallet knife, cooling rack as well as the ingredients, as suggested by Delia Smith on her website and printed out her recipe from the website. I already have a mechanical set of scales, but when I came to use them, they're not particularly accurate for weighing out metric weight so the cakes I have already made have come out fine but probably would be better if I could weight more accurately, so I have ordered a set from Amazon, made by a reputable manufacturer, Salter, which should, hopefully arrive sometime today. So I will be able to make the second cake once these scales arrive. I'll have to wait and see how things turn out, literally, once I have made the second cake.

I took out Alfie around 6.30 this morning. It was quite mild, no wind blowing, no ice on the car windscreen. The grass in Eaglestone Park has been mown. I wasn't aware yesterday, but I think I heard the mower, but not sure what it was. There's quite an acreage to cover so it must have taken some time, no doubt one of those ride-on mowers. They missed  bit, a sort of triangle of grass, but never mind. Only problem with them mowing the grass was that, when I got home I had grass stuck to my shoes. Just annoying. Never mind.

I've been to Camphill this morning. I thought it a good idea to leave the house around 8.30 because I knew the traffic was going to be heavy. I drove round the inner ring road to come out of Eaglestone near the shop and then left onto Chaffron Way where traffic cab build up approaching the Four Bridges roundabout, but it wasn't too bad, fortunately. I then went round the roundabout and headed back towards the Marlborough Street roundabout where the traffic was fairly heavy, but I carried on along Chaffron Way. A large four-by-four insisted on tailgating me until I got to the roundabout just beyond Waitrose at Oakgrove. Can't people think that some people are quite happy driving at a reasonably safe speed, and that it's dangerous to tailgate another car? If you come to close behind and I have to brake suddenly, you will run into the back of my car and cause quite a nasty accident, or don't they see this? Apparently not. They just want the road to themselves and you out the way.

I got to Camphill and parked in the carpark (where else would you park? Crazy really.) I then walked into the office and the lady there took me to the class doing work on computers, because she thought that was where I was meant to be, but after about half an hour another lady came in and said I was going to be working with residents in the theatre, so I was taken there and introduced to the 'actors' who were sitting in a row. I had to give them a sort of introduction to myself and they all introduced themselves. A very talkative inductive bunch. The leader of the group and one other assistant gave me a sort of run-down of what they had been doing; a project which uses the 'Three Little Pigs' as the basis for a play and video to explain 'Stranger Danger.' One of the group wasn't so good at remembering his lines, so they went through them, using what they described as osmosis to retain and learn these lines. As the lines are in verse, it would make it a good deal easier to remember, well, it would if it was me. I wasn't allowed to get away with just observing, I had to join in with them, and the whole group had to repeat the lines. Considering these are guys (and when I say 'guys', I'm referring to both sexes.) who probably don't have good communication skills (but some of them had extremely good communication skills!) it was quite amazing how well they did all this. I worked as a student support assistant at Barnfield College at the Westbourne Centre in Bedford, and I got involved with the drama students and it was really amazing what some of those guys achieved.

Mid-way through the morning, a man who I believe was previously a BBC television producer (forget his name now) and who is a governor of Camphill, came in to start work on the video they are making. He had been editing footage which they had been filming over the past few weeks and he showed the rough footage to us and I was really impressed by what he had done and what the students had achieved. Using a lot of technology, such as green-screen, to create a lot of the effects, such backgrounds. The film/video isn't complete. It needs sound extra work doing on it. Sounds which we helped record, will be added and a voice-over and then it's complete. I'm looking forward to going back next Tuesday to continue working at Camphill.

I had hoped to try out their café at Camphill, but it's closed. The chef/cook/baker who works in the kitchens apparently is in the Himalayas, not sure exactly what she's doing there, climbing a mountain, (not sure whether it's Everest.) so the café is closed at the moment, but hopefully it will be open agin once she returns. I'm really looking forward to trying the bread she makes.

No doubt there will be some paperwork to be completed, stuff like a disclosure (formerly called a C.R.B. check (Criminal Records Bureau) before I can work at Camphill. But  a really positive time spent there.