Today I've mostly bin...

[Laura]

No, it was freezing and it rained non-stop for three out of the four days. It was at a place called Winmarleigh Hall in Lancashire. But there were no major injuries or disasters, which is always the main thing.

[SparkOut]

You didn't have to play the piano at the same time then?

[Laura]

No, thank goodness, but they did keep telling the instructors that I was their music teacher. Usually every time the instructors tried to get them to sing. It was a fairly effective way of making them stop actually. They're too clever for their own good, the kids I teach!

[LAT]

Well done Laura, it sounds as though you should be pretty proud of yourself. And I think you deserved that 14 hour sleep too.

[giraffe]

I thought she meant she'd only had 14 hours all week!

[LAT]

Oops silly me!

Well she definitely deserves it now!

[gill216]

You've confused that with Fraggle. 14 hours a week is about right when she's around

Edit- I think I'm confused now

[Laura]

Actually, both are pretty much true now I come to think about it. I did mean that I slept for 14 solid hours when I got home, but 14 hours would be about the total for the three nights I was away as well!

[strep98]

...cooking 8 stickey toffee puddings, 2 pate, 4 lemon syllabub, and some lemon curd that won't set (first time ever). Any suggestions on how to get it to set please let me know.

[Looby]

At Hatchlands Park looking at the last of the bluebells.
Out this evening to a charity Sri Lankan curry evening.

[LAT]

That sounds good. We are thinking of going to Hatchlands tomorrow.
Enjoy your curry!

[giraffe]

I remember my grandfather making some jam with some plums and it wouldn't set. I think they tried boiling it up again with some citric acid. Perhaps your lemons aren't acidic enough?

[strep98]

Thanks I'll get and reboil it. With Jam you can usually add more pectin (I think), but lemon curd doesn't have any of that. Oh well I will have to find something to pour lemmon sauce on I suppose

[SparkOut]

Put it in the freezer and call it sorbet.

[Bunnylump]

Wow Laura, I take my hat off to you. That sounds exhausting!!

Strep - if you do manage to get to the bottom of the lemon curd mystery lack of setting, let me know will you? The same thing happened to me when I was catering for my daughter's 21st birthday! Hope tomorrow (well, today) goes well!

[MBH]

They're too clever for their own good, the kids I teach!

Never confuse intelligence with raw, natural Cunning!

This morning I've mostly bin snoozing - a real Sunday morning lie-in (unheard of in this house).

Spent yesterday getting my wife and her friend off to a wooden cabin in the Lake Distrcit near Ambleside. This (as usual) included the 3-dimentional real-world game of Tetris to fit everything they were taking into the car, and then getting them down their with the various stops for food, drink, toilet, etc [The drive home took half the time with just me and Jennie {the dog} and a CD of Rock-n-Roll classics ]

I got them on site, then went to the local shops to get the OTHER things that were suddenly needed while she did the traditional "cleaning the accomodation - because cleaners can't clean!". Do any of you other ladies insist on leaving your holiday homes cleaner than when you arrived???

So I've got a week of 'me and my dawg' with Jennie and I looking after each other. Peace, wonderful Peace I might even get a chance to look at these puzzles that I've been unable to get my head around.

[giraffe]

Enjoy your week MBH!

[hints]

MBH there is something WONDERFUL about having the house all to yourself, isn't there? Can't remember the last time I had that.

And as for cleaning a holiday cottage before I use it? You must be joking! By the time I've tramped in and out in my walking boots a few times, filled the kitchen with wine bottles and bowls of fruit, the bathroom is full to bursting with every type of bubble bath known to man, and strewn the table with maps books and puzzles it starts to feel MUCH more like home!! Yes I am a dirty slob. I do always clean it thoroughly before we leave though. SEE - I bet you appreciate your wife a bit more having heard THAT, don't you?

[Bunnylump]

OMG. I did it again. In my defence, there is something really weird now when I log on. I'm never quite sure who I'll end up being. I will tackle the Jester about this when it is no longer his birthday!!

(EDIT) It is obviously HINTS and not me who is the dirty slob.

[Laura]

I was trying to work out which one of you it was writing as hints. I got to the every sort of bubble bath known to man and deduced it probably wasn't Scurra!