Nov 25

Santa, Snow, and a Shogun

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Sunday should have been the day I took part in the Kings Lynn Santa Run to help raise money for “EACH” (East Anglian Children’s Hospices).  We awoke to the sound of sleet on the window, looked outside and everything was starting to turn white.   As the time to leave for the run came closer, things got whiter and real snow started falling - I wasn’t particularly relishing the thought of going out for a run in the snow, but got into the car and headed off.  I took the Smart, coz it had lovely heated seats….

I didn’t quite make it to the Santa Run, in fact I didn’t make it very far at all.  Slowing for a sharp corner on the snowy country roads I noticed a large 4 x 4 coming round in the opposite direction slightly faster than I would have liked - when I say coming round the corner, in fact what happened is that it only turned part way before it started sliding in my direction.  There was that moment of inevitability where you just know there is nothing you can do to avoid a situation, then a crunch and an inflation of airbags like an explosion in a marshmallow factory and the car filled with smoke.

Scary is the only word for it.  Shaken and stired, I managed to open the door of the car but didn’t seem to manage to move to get out of it for some time.  Then I found that I had hurt my foot, although as the snow cooled things down it sort of dumbed it enough to walk ok.  The guy who hit me drove me back home after pulling the Smart well off of the road - a small panic attack on the way as in my opinion he was still driving too fast in the snow and I envisaged sliding on another corner.  Details were exchanged, RAC called to remove the car, and then a chauffeur driven trip in the 2cv to casualty to sort out the bits that hurt.  Result is, after x-ray, no broken foot (thank god!), no neck/shoulder damage either, although i certainly hurt in all of thoses places, plus a lovely bruise is appearing thanks to the seatbelt.  I left casualty with crutches as once the foot thawed out it hurt like hell and hopping was the only way of getting about.

The next day was spent sorting out insurance, loan car etc., and gave time for all the bits that seemed ok the day before to start aching - feeling like I’d seriously overdone things at the gym.  Two days later and things are slightly better, walking again and shortly to attempt a drive to college in the loan car before trying the heavier pedals in the 2CV to get to work tomorrow.  The car isn’t faring quite so well, possibly to be written off by the insurers - we’ll have to wait and see.

Guess it could have been a lot worse……I could have changed into the Santa suit before I left home…

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Nov 25

12″ Square Carrot Cake

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An adaption of a recipe I found on the internet - I wanted a nut free cake, plus the original recipe had orange juice/rind (2 oranges) or  1tbsp marmalade but I knew of one person with a citrus allergy so I missed that out too.

400g margarine

700g sugar (I used golden caster suger)

4 large eggs

1kg carrots, grated (the finer you grate them the tidier it is to cut later)

150g dried fruit (and/or nuts)

2tsp vanilla extract

500g plain flour

4tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp mixed spice, although a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg works very well too.

2tsp salt.

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas mark 4

Grease and line the bottom of a 11″ or 12 square cake tin - mine was adjustable with removable sides which made releasing the cake very easy.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in eggs one at a time - if the mixture looks quite liquid after 3 eggs, don’t use the last one.  Fold in the grated carrot and fruit/nuts and add the vanilla essence.  Fold in sifted flour, bicarb, spice and salt - mix well and pour into prepared tin.

Cook for about an hour, the sides of the cake should come away from the tin and a skwer inserted into the centre should come out clean - it may need a little longer at a slightly lower temperature, mine tended to take about 1hr 20 at about 170C, otherwise the top burnt over that time - although I have a fan oven.

Thats about it - its good on its own cut into squares, or can be butter iced, fondant iced etc.  its almost flat enough to stack one on top of another and fondant ice without any trimming.

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Nov 25

WASH - and pre-WASH

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Its been a whie now since WASH was all packed away and finished for another year, but quite a busy time for me, so now I get a chance to look back at the event, and all the work that went into it.

The party weekend itself was, as always and particularly so this year, absolutely fab - such a great atmosphere, and added to this year by the return of some lively ex-members.  Being on the committee and having logistical problems to worry about (think birthday cake, moving, hiding, cutting and distributing - more about the cake later) meant I didn’t actually start to relax until after Saturday nights’ activities were over and I was able to kick off my shoes (literally!) at Lara’s shed party. 

And was I glad to do that!  Remember the platform boots from Camden?  Well I discovered after a french dancing session that I was perfectly ok to dance in the lower ones, but then realised that everything in moderation should be the key to these things - I spent all evening standing, dancing, walking, in them - and hobbled back to Lara’s shed for the party where one of the first things I did was find a spot on the floor to sit and remove them!  Surprisingly standing in them was the worst.

Not to be put off by sore feet (and blisters) I actually did wear the highest of the platforms to the casino afternoon (no dancing there!).  Will I never learn?

There was no one highlight of the weekend for me, although the casino was very good, and I am going to another one this Friday in King’s Lynn run by the same guy.  I would probably say one of the best bits was seeing the three King’s Lynn ex-members enjoying themselves so much, it was just like the old days and made everything worthwhile.

Ok - back to the cake then!  Some bright spark earlier in the year thought that a birthday party wouldn’t be complete without a birthday cake to cut and distribute to all the party-goers (that would be me then - doh!)  So, next problem - how to make a cake big enough to feed over 200 people…….Online research led to a choice between vanilla sponge or carrot cake so obviously I had to bake a test cake of each to find out.  Some of the sponge cake is still in the freezer, the carrot cake was taken to both mine and stephen’s work and went very quickly.   The carrot cake came out flatter and so would be easier to ice - unfortunately it wasn’t high enough so I would have to stack two high with a filling - meaning I would need to cook six 12″ square cakes.  It would then also only feed about 170ish people so I would make one sponge cake too which would hopefully feed another 70 or so.

Needless to say, I now know the recipe for a 12″ square carrot cake off by heart (I will post on here later!).  I used 6 kilos of carrots, and to ice and decorate both cakes about 6 kilos of fondant ice, and nearly 2 kilos of icing sugar for buttercream and piping icing!  I couldn’t have done the cake deorating without the help of Stephen for rolling out such large pieces of icing, and didn’t finish decorating both cakes until about 4.20am on Friday morning, needing to be up to pack for the weekend around 8am! 

Start the weekend as you mean to go on is what I say…..although did have an early night on Friday, about 3am when the party didn’t finish until aroud 6am!

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Nov 10

Project 52 - Week 12 & Project DS Update

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The kite project continues - actually got some bits sewn together now - all 5 of them, only another 135 to go.  All pieces are now cut out, 20 of them hemmed.  Lots of work to do.  The bits are stuck together with double sided tape, and then sewn, but the sewing machine doesn’t like the tape - just to sew 5 bits together took hours.

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Nov 10

Project 52, Week 11

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Had to be WGW - and The Coat!!

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Nov 10

To Whitby and beyond

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A very cold and windy Whitby was awaiting us when we arrived on Friday evening.  I couldn’t take the day off work, but did manage to get all my stuff done and be able to leave a couple of hours early, so once we’d booked into the B&B, got changed, and driven the 20 miles or so to Whitby, it was nearly 9pm and the first act of the evening was almost over. 

The evenings entertainment for us was at “The Met”, one of the “fringe” events of WGW.  The first act, from what we saw, had quite a bluesy feel to the music and sounded pretty good.  They were followed by a group called The Savages who turned out to be quite unusual.  The rock and roll music, with a bit of a goth theme…..”murder in the graveyard…” was very easy to dance to, and the floor show at times quite spectacular with illusions, gunshots, fire, a guillotine and a huge helping of blood!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it!

Saturday, for me, was shopping day - hoping to pick up some ideas if not actual items of clothing.  There were several indoor markets, in The Met, the Spa, the Leisure Centre and a couple of other places.  There were corsets, coats, top hats, all sorts of things to look at, and after some deliberation, I came away having parted with more money than I am used to with an amazing new full length leather coat and a hand made crystal headband.

I spent most of Saturday in my platform boots (the lower ones), but following a walk down to Whitby town itself (the Spa and The Met are both up on West Cliff) and back, managed to develop sore feet and even a blister - think those boots have a way to go before they are properly worn in! 

One thing I really noticed about Whitby this weekend was that the predominant style of “goth” fashion seemed to be Victoriana, corsets and bustles everywhere!  Lovely to look at, probably quite difficult to wear and negotiate the steep steps and lanes of Whitby, probably very expensive to buy too.  The prices of the clothing at the event were generally quite high, but when you appreciate that a lot of the clothing is hand made, you understand why.  We even saw one stall where the stallholder handmade every one of her corsets, and was actually busy sewing one as we browsed - they sell at around £200 or more and are made to your specifications.

Saturday evening I had booked tickets for a Burlesque evening.  We arrived in plenty of time, and spent quite a lot of time waiting before the show started.  What I thought was the headlining act (Miss Sakura Tsui) was actually the first one, which surprised me, followed by a couple of other acts, one of which (Hells Belle and the Velvet Burlesque) actually performed three routines, extremely well I thought.  Miss Tsui did one more just before the end of the evening involving balloons full of glitter and feathers which she gradually popped during the act……you can guess the rest!  All in all, I thought Miss Tsui was excellent, but her routines were very short.  There were very long gaps between each act, with no initial explanation, but following some hecking from members of the audience we were informed that some of the nights acts had pulled out and The Velvet Burlesque had actually agred to perform at very short notice.  Had they explained this at the start, there may have been much less hecking, and I, for one, would have been more inclined to stay later at the end when they put on some music for people to dance to.

Sunday saw us attempting a walk down to Whitby town once more, mainly in search of a fish and chips lunch before setting off home, but not before spending most of the morning taking shelter in the Met and the Spa from the coldest, most horizontal rain, you have ever seen!  We did eventually make it down to the town by car, had a good look around (yep - more goth clothes shops!) and had a very late lunch/early tea in a cafe, followed up with a couple of huge pieces of Tiffin, which we ate in the car whilst driving home.

Quote of the weekend…..overhead from a goth….”I don’t get this mask thing?”

Photos?  ok, yes I did take a few…..

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