HRT Cake

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This is a very filling cake which I am sure would be good for you even if you don't feel the need for HRT and maybe would even be enjoyed by men. Of course, I am far tooooo young to be concerned with HRT but I do like this cake and I find that for my lunch I only need one large slice and a banana and I am happy for at least three hours. Then I need feeding again. Since I have been eating this cake I have become wonderfully slim (admittedly this has been in addition to dog walking, though the badminton matches in the garden have ceased), and I HAVE BECOME IMPOSSIBLY BEAUTIFUL, with thick glossy hair; perfectly smooth, glowing skin; glittering eyes; a lovely smile which compliments my fascinating conversation and charming personality.

HRT Cake recipe:

100g of each of the following:

soya flour

wholemeal flour

rolled oats

linseed

50g of eachof the following:

pumpkin seeds

sunflower seeds

sesame seeds

flaked almonds

2 pieces stem ginger (finely chopped)

half tsp each ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon

225g raisins or any other dried fruit

Mix all the above.

Add 425ml soya milk and 1 tbsp malt (although I left this out as I couldn't find any).

Stir.

Leave for half an hour.

Put in a medium loaf tin.

Cook at gas mark 4/180 degrees for about one and a quarter hours.



I think you could add honey or molasses or even apples, etc. It is very nice with butter. I believe you are supposed to have a slice a day if you are using it as HRT.

TRY SOME TODAY. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!

Synchronicity experiment - follow-up bulletin

Well, I think I can categorically declare that the experiment has shown either:

a) that coincidences are, in fact, just coincidences and there is nothing more to them than that

or

b) that I am unable to predict which details are significant.

Who's to say? As far as I can see, synchronicity or no synchronicity, there is no difference in effect.

I shall dismiss it from my thoughts.

Moral dilemma, philosophical puzzle

Concerning beans.

In my garden I have grown too many beans. The runners and climbing French have done unexpectedly well and demand has been outstripped.

My freezer is full now and I do not have the right sort of dinners planned to use the beans for our next few days' meals.

I seem to have been too busy/apathetic/lazy to have picked the beans to give to beanless friends/neighbours. (Harvesting beans is actually time consuming, and so is preparing them for the freezer or saucepan).

As a result, the plants are laden with overgrown, useless beans. So is this situation:
a) shocking - it is a sin to waste food
b) shameful - when some people are going hungry
c) disgraceful - I am sloppy and disorganised
OR
d) okay - I have used what I need, if other people wanted beans they would grow their own
e) nothing to worry about - the excess will be used as compost
f) a non-issue - I could think of the vegetables as decoration rather than a food crop, if I'd grown roses I wouldn't be worried that I'd not eaten them
g) a good thing - I am using my time for other more important things, rather than dealing with unwanted excess food

I am trying to think of my beans in terms of letters d to g. Feeling guilty is negative and should be discouraged. As Edith Piaf sang, "Je ne regrette rien, meme si mes haricots sont trop grands." Do correct me if I'm wrong.

Cricket

Why is everyone in the media trying so hard to make cricket popular? It's like a major advertising campaign. Someone must think they can earn a bit of money out of it.

I personally cannot bear to watch any sort of organised sport, with the exception of the gymnastics displays involving ribbon twirling during the olympics. But cricket is shunned by most right-thinking people, and with good reason. IT'S BORING.

Fame

First day back for our choir after the hols. I realised just how out of my depth I am. When I first joined this choir we sang simple three-part songs and were led through our notes with tender care. (No audition to join, obviously).

Now, three years down the line, we are over a hundred strong, with some very clever singers. We do all sorts of complicated stuff (at least I find it complicated). And unless I PRACTISE at home (which I don't), I'm pretty well lost. (It is made more difficult by my being an Alto, - they generally don't get the tune to sing - the sopranos get that).

Still, we do get a glass of wine half way through, which I think helps my fellow choristers. We are singing, inter alia, two of my favourite numbers - California Dreaming and The Rhythm of Life, in addition to our big serious thing coming up at Dorchester Abbey - The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins.

And being in this choir means I now have a tenuous connection to fame and glamour. Our conductor, Dr S., was with her church choir visiting Lincoln Cathedral, apparently, where they were talent spotted by the people filming the Da Vinci Code (with Tom Hanks), and they are ACTUALLY in the film, singing. Hey!

Disgusted of Reading

It's not often that I comment about what's in the news, but I am just so amazed at the news of the Hurricane-affected towns.

From the reports coming out of New Orleans, I was put in mind of Russell Hobans's science-fiction tale of post-nuclear catastrophe Britain, Riddley Walker. I was shocked at how quickly society broke down and anarchy appeared. When the crisis in Niger was being reported in our newspapers, a photo of a trader's stall full of food was shown with the caption that just down the road people were starving because they could not afford to buy the food. Market forces were in operation, apparently. In America the people were advised to leave, they said, but obviously not everyone did. Poor people could not afford to leave. And what about all those people who lived in old people's homes or care homes? Did they have a choice about whether to heed the advice to leave? American society left them to their fate. That's not a society, caring for all its people, that's a business - with money being its only scale of value.