My new BADGER-print t-shirt

I bought myself a badger print T-shirt from Marks & Spencer last week
Its getting its first outing today
So far I'm very pleased with it.
It was £19.50 if you were interested.

Badger print t-shirt

It reminds me of The Badger Song which you can view here....

Last night i dreamt about Cornish Pasties

Last night I dreamt I had to give a talk about the differences between Gregg's Cornish pasties, versus Betty's Cornish Pasties. I remember saying that the Betty's ones were hand made and hand crimped, and the Gregg's ones were greasy and wet.

When i was in the lake district...

When I was in the lake district and out in the damp evening, on my way back to my b&b after dinner, I saw the biggest slug I have ever seen. It looked like a dog poo. I shit you not.

Who built the ark?

This is a song from my childhood (probably Primary School) that I've just remembered

Who built the ark?
Noah Noah
Who built the ark?
Brother Noah built the ark.

Now in come the animals, two by two
A hippopotamus and a kangeroo
Bum-bum-bum

Who built the ark?
Noah Noah
Who built the ark?
Brother Noah built the ark.

Now Noah said "Now shut that door"
The rain started pouring "and we can't take more"
Bum-bum-bum

Who built the ark?
Noah Noah
Who built the ark?
Brother Noah built the ark.

We weren't really supposed to sing the Bum-bum-bum bit, but we were kids, so we did.

The Yorkshire Way: protecting hand held digital devices

For the last 2 yes I've had my HTC mobile phone in a sock.
A real sock.
A real sock made for some kid.

My gadget socks (gadgets INSIDE)

When I got my phone I decided that I wasn't going to be ripped off by buying some cheap plasticy cover for it and felt that a sock would do the job perfectly.

I have to give credit to my boss at this point for introducing the idea, he put the work-camera in a sock to protect it from scratches. BUT. He used a thin sock. 

I decided that for ultimate protection I needed to have my phone in a towelling sock, or one that had towelling on the inside. Boots the chemist didn't let me down, I got 2 pairs of Baby towelling socks for the bargain price of £2.99 and the beauty of a sock is that you can wash one and use the other, with 4 socks (I had 2 pairs) I could even pretend that a pair had gone on holiday!

My gadget socks with their respective gadgets (OUTSIDE)

As it happens I only use one pair for my HTC phone and I got rid of the other pair. But it does the job perfectly and the soft fluffy towelling innards are great for polishing the screen (especially when you give your phone to your 4yr old niece who wants to play on the drum kit app).

When I got my new Nexus7 I knew exactly what kind of cover I wanted for it, I'd just buy a grown-up towelling sock for it (why not?). I did toy with the idea of buying a flannel-mit and sewing a button & loop over the end, but a stretchy sock seemed to hug the gadget much better giving it much better protection. Plus I'd have to buy 2 flannel-mits. 

So here we are, little diddy sock for my phone and grown up sock, which I've named Bagpuss for my Nexus7, what's not to like about that?

PS Yes, that is Mavis Cruet on my HTC desktop

Clandestine Cake Club: Wed 22nd August, 1st yr celebration at Settledown Cafe

Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us, happy birthday Clandestine Cake Club Newcastle, happy birthday to us.


We held our 1yr celebration in The Settledown Cafe and had over 30 cake bakers/friends celebrate the occasion.

Why The Settledown cafe? It was the venue for my first ever CCC, I remember it well...4 bakers (me, Kate, & Val (plus some other woman who never came back), 4 bakers friends, 4 cakes. We sat around the communal table in the cafe and had a full size slice of each cake. I remember the fullness, the happy sticky cakey feeling inside. The sugar rush.  That was the start, and look at us now.

There should be a settledown cafe in every town, a cosy cafe with mismatched furniture, it's own retro living room snug and great staff who know their tea and coffee and nothing was too much trouble.  We ate off full sized dinner plates but we didn't mind - we were there to celebrate with cake, and we well and truly did that.

Our theme was 'cakes worth celebrating' which seemed to spell super-size cakes, there were cake presents (wrapped up with an icing-bow), a 6-tier rainbow and a black forest gateau (the size of the black forest), meringue cakes, glittery cakes, a chocolate hedgehog cake - who didn't have one of those for their birthday as a kid? a trifle inspired cake, a bee-day cake (b-day, birthday? made with honey, as in honey-bee, geddit?), cakes with candles, cakes with hundreds & thousands, a torte as well as the cakes that CCC is known for: magical flavour combinations like kiwi, white chocolate & lemon, chocolate & lime, lavender and orange, upside down cake of blueberry and elderflower to name but a few.



We had 18 cakes in all, which meant there was plenty left to go in our party bags and enjoy over the weekend. I made special cake labels to colour in too, which went down very well too - everyone kept inside the lines ;) everyone took time to colour in their label according to their cake.

Our designated cake pap Hanna - did a great job in snapping the occasion (in return for cake), and they're online in my flickr account

We had 5 new cake club bakers: Judy, Maddie, Kitty, Bryan and Claire (new organiser of the Jesmond & Gosforth Group)

Thanks to Settledown for hosting us again - we hope we weren't too much trouble for you.
Thanks to all of our bakers and their friends for coming along too.

Another successful cakey event :)