.......wind! I woke up several times during the night, disturbed by the stormy weather. Then later when I woke again, I turned over to check the time on the digital alarm clock, as I thought it must be neary time to get up. But there were no bright green numbers - oh bother, the electricity was off. Fortunately we were able to have breakfast, as some years ago we got rid of the all-electric cooker, and instead intalled a dual-fuel one. Malcolm phoned the power company to find out what was happening, and it wasn't good news. A recorded message informed him that the power would be off for some hours. So we popped into Hawick, where the power was on, and headed to Sainsbury's for a cuppa and to pass some time reading the papers. Back home, the recorded message had changed to say that we might not have power until tomorrow ...... but at 1pm, hooray, the power came back on. However, the weather didn't improve, with a rather scary hailstorm
however, we aren't complaining, as we are watching the early evening news while I'm writing this, and some areas have had, and others are going to have, far worse conditions than we have had. Once the power was back on, I could get on with my plan for the afternoon. I assembled these ingredients
I lined and buttered the cake tin
yes, you've guessed, I was making the Christmas cake. The recipe I use doesn't require that the cake is made months in advance, a couple of weeks will do. I hope you like my "action shot" of beating the butter
soon the cake was ready for the oven
and the kitchen was somewhat messy!
two and a half hours later, the cake was cooked - I wish you could smell it!
a bit of fun to finish. I had an email from a very nice man who works for the FBI. Various organisations around the world, including the CIA, have been .... well, I shall let him tell you what they have been doing
The FBI in group effort with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), World Bank, South African Reserve Bank, and other related agencies have verified every unpaid contract / inheritance / Lotto winnings and agreed to settle the beneficiaries through the easiest means by issuing them swift ATM DebitCard value US$600,000.00 only. We are contacting you because YOU are listed and approved for this payment
all I have to do is send another nice man $210 and he will rush the special card to me, so that I can take possession of my $600,000. So, you see, there is money to be made with spam