Jennieworld Today

Another birthday is upon us. It’s my mother-in-law’s birthday tonight, and I wanted to give her a nice birthday as she’s so good to us all year round - always on hand to help out or babysit for us at the drop of a hat! So, my cake tins have come out again, as has the Jane Asher book, and this is the result:

I’m pleased with how it has turned out, and it does look like a normal box of chocolates in the picture, so job done! It is actually a plain sponge cake sandwiched with and covered in lemon curd, then there’s a circle of icing on the top of the cake (I used the cake tin as a cutter) and a long narrow strip around the outside to form the side of the ‘box’. I made the truffles as well, and have a separate picture to show you those.

There are four flavours. From the top right and working clockwise we have; brandy with dark chocolate, Cointreau with white chocolate, dark chocolate with glace ginger and finally white chocolate with apricot. And there are plenty of spares which the family will have to work its way through this weekend!

I really hope that she’ll like it, and that she enjoys the chocolates. The next birthday on the family calendar is mine, in the middle of June, and I don’t think I’ll be making a cake for that!

Today was a good day. We had a day out at Cosmeston Medieval Village. They were holding a special weekend for the bank holiday which involved lots of people dressed up in medieval constumes, as well as a battle between the Welsh and English for possession of the village! There was a hog roast, as well as a medieval tavern (Husband had half a pint of mead ale), a pancake stall and lots of other stalls selling suitable items to fit in with the theme. It made me really want to dress up! We were surprised by the number of little children who were dressed up too, and really getting into the spirit of things.

My boys enjoyed themselves, and have already expressed an interest in going back, as there was plenty there to keep them amused. They’ve even chosen what clothes they’d wear if they could dress up! I think that the purchase of a bow and arrows, and a short wooden sword may have added to the attraction of the place! They also enjoyed seeing the few animals there, including the pigs in the picture below, some chickens and some black sheep. Also, despite the weather forecast, the day stayed warm and bright (Husband was a little pink in the face with slight sunburn) until well after we started back home.

Hey, do you ever have one of those days when you feel as if you should be doing more with your life? Today is my turn to have one of those days. I shouldn’t really, as I’m very blessed with a wonderful husband and two boys who I love and love me back, as well as all of us being as healthy as very healthy things. However, lots of my friends are doing particularly well for themselves recently in their careers, which brings into focus the fact that neither of my part time jobs could possibly be called careers. I suppose the nearest thing to a career that I have is bringing up my sons, which I know is in itself a good thing to do. However (and you must be able to see my point here), when compared with my wonderful friends, of whom one owns his own business, two have completed their PhDs and two, including my best friend are qualified solicitors, I do start to wonder whether there is any way that I could be doing anything more.

Answers on a postcard to the usual address!

(And don’t worry, this too will pass!)

Ok, I know I’m getting a little obsessive, but I’d like to record here and now that the current forecast promises warm dry weather for the next few days, with showers on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday (of course). We shall see!

This is my latest decision with regard to the national weather reports and what to think of them. At one point or another storms have been forecast every day for the past four days, and as yet I’ve not seen any hint of approaching showers, let alone thunder and lightning. Therefore, I’m just going to take each day as it comes and ’seize the day’ i.e. get on with all my outside tasks so that I can get everything done before we do eventually get some rain. April showers didn’t quite materialise for us here, so I’m hoping now that the weather gets the rain out of the way before we go away in a few weeks. Wouldn’t that just be typical; fine weather for two months and then when we have a caravan break we’re stuck inside for the whole time looking out at torrential downpours. Anyway, enough of the misery!

Just under nine weeks until my friend Owen marries Leanne, and I’m geting so excited! I really hope that other old friends will be able to go, as it would be so great to catch up. Very soon the wedding list will open, and I’ll be able to choose their gift. I really wish that we had got round to organising a wedding list when we got married. At the time, we didn’t see the point as we already had all our household items. Now, I can see that it would have been nice to have asked for things like a nice set of cutlery, or table linen or similar to use on special occasions. Oh well, only twenty years until our silver wedding anniversary! Perhaps we could renew our vows then and get some new knives and forks!

I thought I had a digital picture of the church where we got married, but can’t see any in my photo files so I’ll go and take a nice one before the sunshine breaks and I’ll post it next time I’m online - it’s such a lovely church and provided the prettiest backdrop to our wedding photos. Anyway, I’m off to seize the day and feed my friend’s dog!