The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. Not necessarily in that order

Early June

S: “Hi Polly, would you make a cake for the guess the weight of the cake stall at the school fete”?

Me: “Yes of course I would be happy to”. We have always supported the school since my grandson started there, and I do enjoy baking cakes.

Friday morning: started to bake the cake and since all the ingredients were out and the oven was on I decided to bake one for us at the same time. That’s me being frugal and practical. A mix it all together one for the school, a lemon and almond one for us - a new recipe I had found. Easy peasy.

The Bad
Later Friday morning: Oh dear, not one but two disasters; the school cake looked good in the tin, but when I took it out and turned it over it had a huge crater in the bottom, look at this

see that small hole at the pointer – when I held the cake to the window I could see daylight through it!  

The Ugly

On to cake number 2, the one for us. That didn’t fare well either, the top of it was cremated! 

what a dismal sight. Before I had cut the top off the cake my grandson came in and asked if he could have a slice of the chocolate cake!! 

To ruin one cake is unfortunate, to ruin two takes skill J

Friday afternoon: texted my daughter to ask if she could buy a Victoria sponge cake while she was out, which she did, and I would decorate that.

Later Friday afternoon: it was a very nice Victoria sponge cake – Tesco’s finest, but it was small, very small, and even with marzipan and sugar paste coverings it would still be small. My son-in-law suggested I bake another one, but I was tired and really couldn’t be bothered. Then he said, “but how much do you want people to want to win it, is that going to inspire people to pay to guess the weight”? He was right of course, I needed to commit to making the best cake I could.

Friday early evening: baked another cake, exactly the same as before and it was fine.

Friday 9pm: cake done, stuff put away, dishwasher on, sat down with a glass of my favourite wine - Asti Spumante.

The Good

Saturday morning 8am: started decorating the cake and - ta da disaster averted

My grandson leaves the village school next month so our involvement may not be needed anymore, but if it is, note to self – just say no!

PS Although the ruined ones looked grim they tasted very nice. I froze half of each one and prepared the rest for us. The others will be used at a later date.

A Good Read

Holiday reading. I grabbed this off my book shelf a few days before leaving.

Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland

tells the absurd and tender story of Susan Colgate, a former tv star and Barbie child beauty pageant contender, and John Johnson, a hard-living movie producer, who find each other by losing themselves. John is a producer of adrenalin fuelled action flicks. He’s led a decadent life purchasing his way through sex and drugs, the process of which has reduced his capacity for love. Waking up in an L.A.hospital, John is amazed that it was the flu and not an overdose of five different drugs mixed with cognac that nearly killed him. Whilst in a coma he has a vision of Susan. Once recovered, he decides to give up his decadent lifestyle, give away all his worldly goods and live on the road. 
After her parents squander her tv sitcom earnings Susan marries a heavy metal rock singer who needs a Green Card, in exchange for $10,000 a month. But when the band's popularity dwindles, the marriage dissolves. Flying back to Los Angeles, the plane crashes and Susan is the only survivor. As she walks away from the disaster virtually unscathed, she, too, decides to disappear. 
John and Susan are two souls searching for love in the capricious, celebrity-obsessed domain of LA, and are driven, almost fatefully, toward each other. 
Funny, fast-paced and a bit heart-wrenching, Miss Wyoming is about people who, after discarding their self-made identities, begin the search for a love that exposes all vulnerabilities. I was drawn into this story immediately and thoroughly enjoyed it.  

A Monastery and a Market

My daughter and I had a day trip to San Salvador Monastery and Felanitx Market. The monastery was a Benedictine monastery founded in 1011. At 500 metres high and overlooking Felanitx it's Majorca's second most important place of pilgrimage. Originally pilgrims had to walk the narrow paths to the summit, passing Stations of the Cross and stopping at the wayside shrine. It looked like it would be a nice walk. In 1961 a new road was built and visitors can now drive to the top, negotiating steep inclines and sharp turns, some of which needed a couple of forward and reverse manoueuvres by our coach driver!

Part of the monastery has been converted into a hotel. It has about a dozen satellites on the roof, cunningly concealed here by a tree!

The church within the monastery was very pretty inside, with a light show and music

This giant statue of Christ is 37 metres high.

A rare photo of moi, I'm usually behind the camera

I don't know if she was ferel or owned. She looked healthy and content.

I love a good market, and we were expected to haggle, which my daughter did with great gusto. My son-in-law has always done it but Amanda hasn’t until this holiday, there was no stopping her! Unfortunately we didn't have much time to spend here, barely enough time for lunch and to have a good look around.

Nice Boats

A trip into Cala D'or wouldn't be complete without checking out the marina. 

The boats were gorgeous

and look, I found a "Mojo" !! :-)

After fantasising about winning the lottery and which boat we would choose 

I chose this one below.

 Time for a well-earned coffee followed by some retail therapy. 

Up Next: A Monastery and A Market

Majorca

Woke up it was a first class landing and looking out all around 

I saw people wearing coats and a fine mist on the ground

It was 11pm, I knew it wouldn't be warm,
I hoped for mild but it was cold and I was glad I had taken a lovely warm fleece!
We had arrived back from a 7 day stay in Majorca, 7 days of wonderful hot weather. 
Wednesday was our first full day with a daytime temp of 28 deg
rising steadily to 32 deg for our last day. 
Gloriously scorchio.

Myself, my grandson, my daughter and my son-in-law have had a great holiday
in the pretty resort of Ferrera Beach, Cala D’or.  

Before the holiday I was feeling a bit lacklustre about my blogging,
has that happened to you? Hopefully I can find a mojo soon. 
Meanwhile I would like to share some holiday photos with you.

I was very impressed with EasyJet, a vast improvement from the early days.

The resort was lovely with all amenities 

and the beach was a short steep walk away - 80 steps! it sounds a lot,
but it was ok and I soon got used to it. 
I looked upon it as exercise to offset all the ice creams I ate, and Burger Kings!! 

The beach was one of many small bays. 

Up Next: Nice Boats