I'm taking cake along to Nicholas' funeral. Cake for 100. In a morning (I've got a meeting at work at 2pm which is my deadline)

So far we have

Gingerbread x 1.5 - 15-25 slices
Banana bread x 2 - 20 slices
Fruit cake x 1 - 20-30 slices
Lemon drizzle tray bake (in oven) - 30 slices
= 85 - 105 portions so far

I think a chocolate & orange cake, and a some fairy cakes and we'll be finished. Crack to it!

Nicholas Robinson, August 2003-May 2007

Rest in Peace.

Clearly I'm not in New York, sadly that didn't happen. But I did go on quite a long bike ride - about 14/15 miles - on Saturday, and today I alphabetised my fiction books and categorised my non fiction books (not exactly the Dewey Decimal System though... W for "Witty" comes before R for "random" and G for "God-dy). Boy do I know how to spend a Bank Holiday Monday

Watching the 1997 election results: the evenings TV from 1st May, 1997 had been playing all day on the Parliament Channel. First time around I was cruelly deprived from the television - somehow my parents thought I needed a whole night's sleep before my first GCSE in the morning - but this time around... all bliss. And I was able to everything knowing that I'd still be up for Portillo. (Actually, I stopped watching there, I did have better things to do than watch 14 hours of ten year old "live" news).

So much has changed. I'm not a natural Labour party supporter, but I remember that morning in School (after the exam!) everything felt "different". It was, afterall, the first change in government we'd ever seen, and there was so much chance for hope and optimism. It sounds cliched now, but it did feel like a new beginning.

10 years later, lots more grey hair, wrinkles, and of course the arrogance of power has struck the Labour party. When I look back on those recordings - Tony Blair refusing to get too excited about talk of a land slide until it was confirmed, even a cagey Alistair Campbell - it seems sad to compare it with today's Labour party where a presumption of government leads to backbiting, infighting and heaps of disdain. Take away Iraq (and whatever the views on it, had Britain *not* gone into Iraq things would hardly have been better there, we just wouldn't be seeing it on our TV screens) and the Labour government has made some good changes to the country. Even the NHS is in a better shape - yes, its in debt, but drugs are more expensive, staff are being paid more, and I've got a realistic chance of being seen in a hospital nowadays. Its so easy to get stuck into the government spin but watching the old footage did remind me of that optimism - and I don't think it was all entirely misplaced.

David Cameron though, HE'S scary. The guy seems totally unable to think for himself. William Hague talking ten years ago about Tony Blair jumping on to any old bandwagon to seem popular to whatever section of the public he was talking to felt peculialry familiar.

There is a small chance I might be flying to New York on Saturday. I've never been on a long haul flight, never been to the States, and have a brand new passport which arrived just the other week. Fingers crossed that Mr ferijen's work does want him to go and that my work doesn't mind me having a few days off to accompany him!

Ooh the excitement!

Last night I went down to Southampton to look at the fireworks over the Liberty of the Seas, the world's largest cruise liner which is making a promotional visit in Southampton before embarking on its Carribean cruises career.

Took a couple of pictures. Hope you like them!

And I managed to drive on the wrong side of the road without a problem. In our 14 hours-or-so in the country, we fitted in quite a lot: drove along the coast above the Juno and Gold beaches, then inland to Bayeux, to the cathedral and that rather famous cartoon strip:

Picnic lunch overlooking Arromanches (although the sea mist was dense so visibility was poor) before heading to the Caen Memorial Museum, a military history museum charting (it says) the twentieth century. In fact, it concentrates much more on the 30s and 40s, with exhibits on Vichy France, the Battle of Britain, and the effect on ordinary lives across Western Europe. Impressive was its relative impartiality: a fair amount of attention was given to the German experience of war, reflective of the era in which the Museum was built.

There was also a piece of the wreckage of the twin towers, symbolosing the changing face of war. To be honest, the museum was very well organised/themed in telling a "story" for about half of the exhibits, and then lost the plot a little. Or maybe it just wasn't structured enough once your brain has been absorbing thigns for two hours. Still, worth a visit and with a lovely green area with which to lie around in the sun before the trip to the supermarket, dinner in Caen, and the ferry home, getting up from our very comfortable cabins just in time to see the sun peeping through the clouds.

Mr Ferijen's ankle hurt very much, but he put on his brave soldier face and seems quite a bit better now.

Beautiful, isn't it

This is Juno beach, one of the beaches of the D-Day Landings. Sixty three years ago, it looked like this:

The Canadian government opened the Juno Beach Centre as "a learning centre and tribute to Canadians". We arrived there too early to look around, but admired it from the outside (although questioned the commercial sponsorship on some of the plaques - although no doubt the sentiments are good, words to the effect of "L'Oreal remembers Canada's war effort" alongside a personal tribute to a soldier who died thousands of miles from home doesn't quite feel right). Still, the centre is an impressive building.

I can't quite get over the fact of the thousands of servicemen and women fighting for a country they may never have visited.

Mr Ferijen has just celebrated his birthday by tumbling down the stairs. He is now perfecting the art of playing Wii-tennis from the sofa with one arm, whilst nursing a very poorly ankle. I am contemplating learning to drive on the other side of the road very quickly. Baptism of fire springs to mind...!

I have been trying to keep to my regular new recipes as promised to myself at the beginning of the new year. Recent treats have been a chicken saag, where chicken is cooked into a spicey puree of tomatoes, spinach and onions. Its very lovely, particulary when served with pilau-ish rice and/or naan breads. I was also inspired to make this caramelised onion and mustart tart or, as it might better be known, quiche after watching it being made on Saturday morning television.

I've also been celebrating the birth of new babies and birthdays by baking. Nigella's chocolate cloud cake was particularly scrumptious, (as well as being gluten free, although that's not why I chose it) and this lemon drizzle cake has made a few fans. I think if you cook a lemon cake, an apple cake and a banana bread thing, really that counts as three portions of fruit if you have a slice of each, surely? Rounded off with gingerbread - the cakey version - which although a speciality of Mr ferijen's, was successfully carried off by me.

Also been experimenting with our breadmaker. It currently makes quite stodgy bread - its OK, but recent tastings of friends' breadmakers have indicated that it doesn't have to be that way. Experimenting with the rapid setting makes it a bit nicer, but how can I make it light and airy like that what I buy? Or do I really need to do it myself...

Finally, on Monday I catered for 10 people after somewhat rashly offering to do so at 4 in the afternoon - and we'd all eaten by, I think, seven. Two rather nice lasagnes - one veggie, one not. From nothing in the larder and in the middle of a park to food for 10 at home in three hours is fairly impressive, I think!

Sadly all this cooking isn't really making a huge dent into the pile of recipe books I've got, as googling for new recipes doesn't help the fact I've got lots of things already written down. So I must press on and make more!

And bananas, raspberries, and milk in a blender for half a minute - gorgeous.

Mainly because nothing terribly bloggable has happened. Currently I'm on leave for a week which is wonderful, and my garden is growing nicely (apart from the thing trying to use my vegetable patch as a toilet). Mr Ferijen, who is the grand old age of 26 today, has just got a Nintendo Wii which is extremely exciting in a "let's wave around with a remote control to play tennis with the TV" sort of way, and we're going to France tomorrow. Well, tonight. Just for the day. The joy of living near the South coast is that for £20 we can get a 24 hour trip to France. We're sailing tonight, arrive 7am tomorrow morning (after not much sleep in a cabin) and then leave 11pm in the evening.

So if you have any ideas of what to do for a day in the Caen region, please let me know!

Pray, if you can, for Harry, who became a first time Dad to twins on Saturday and whose wife died on Sunday.

Just thought I'd add for the record, I love Spring. I adore those daffodils bursting out into their full yellowy glory (gosh, sometimes I miss Trevelyan College

(Image is from Summer Study Courses pages, and not mine)