Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic!

Wah-hey! Big project pretty much finished, holiday just round the corner. Just time to pop back and tell you all about my exciting plans to finish painting the wardrobe doors (it's like the Forth Bridge all over again) and make a lemon drizzle cake. Hey, suburbia's where it's at, don't you know? What with the lawn mowing and washing cars, we really know how to party.

Actually, my car could really do with a clean at the moment, given that the last time it was done was when it went in for a service several months ago. Since then it's been liberally smeared in toddler goop on the inside, and Northumberland mud/sand on the outside, to the extent that even said toddler keeps remarking on how dirty it is. So far I've decided to buck the Sunday carwashing trend, but I might have to succumb.

Our carwashing avoidance tactic last Sunday was to spend the weekend camping in the wilderness of Northumberland, up past Rothbury. That's right - the bit that's practically Scotland, with no mobile phone coverage. It might have been a beautiful back-to-nature experience - the website of the place we were staying promised: "No busy roads or traffic nearby, just the gentle bleating of sheep in the surrounding fields, penetrates the tranquillity of this ideal retreat." Ah, but they hadn't bargained on the Coquet Creek Country and Western Weekend just up the valley or the Beerpigs Scooter Club taking over the nearby hotel with about 200 scooters had they?

Still, outbreaks of grumpiness aside, I've now discovered (a) it's pretty light at 4.30am (b) birds sing REALLY loudly at dawn when you're in a tent trying to sleep and (c) I can function reasonably well on three hours' sleep as long as I drink obscene amounts of strong coffee.

Coffee, love?

So, you know how way way back in January, I said I was going to raise enough money on eBay to buy a proper coffee machine? Well, I'd love to report that I'd managed to sell £150 of stuff (in my dreams...) but rather more surprisingly, I've changed my mind. Doesn't happen often, I freely admit (I'm a determined sort of lady/woman/girl/hot mama). I got as far as £43.20 before caving in and buying a stove-top espresso maker to tide me over for a while.

But I'm hooked. It's the low-techness of it that I love - fill the bottom with water, add a scoop of coffee to the filter, screw in the top and then stick on the stove for five minutes, until the sound of bubbling coffee manifests. As far as I can tell, all that might go wrong is having to buy a new rubber seal at some point. Bargain.

Coffee cash

OK, so I've been a bit busy, and haven't got round to posting. But to make up for it, here's a photo of R's birthday cake which M and I made this afternoon...classic Vicky sponge, with a raspberry jam layer in the middle. There would have been cream, but there was none in the fridge, and as it was (a) blowing a gale and (b) freezing cold I couldn't be bothered to walk all the way to the shops. And check out the glass stand action - Nanna's cakestand is getting its first airing of 2007. Now what I really need is one of those glass domes that sits on top to stop the cake drying out...


So what have I been up to? Well, mostly eBaying...I've been bitten with the bug. My target at the moment is to earn enough from selling stuff (things we found when we moved that we no longer needed) to buy myself a proper Gaggia coffee machine. But it's addictive - I keep logging on to see how many people are watching or bidding on my items. So far they seem to be going down well...and I'm becoming well-known at the local post office (if only as "that irritating woman who insists on using her switch card for trivial amounts of money because she never has any cash on her"). I reckon £150 should do it - maybe by Christmas?

Twirly bits.

Spent a while this evening drinking coffee in a civilised manner in the rather lovely Tyneside Coffee Rooms. The cappuccino's not as good as at the much lamented Intermezzo, but it makes a good substitute (note to self: must get round to writing up my highly biased 'guide to cappuccinos and other frothy coffees in Newcastle'. Which will have about three entries.)

Anyway, the Coffee Rooms currently live in the superbly grandiose Old Town Hall in Gateshead, for reasons too complicated to go into (Tyneside Cinema, refurbishment, lots of Lottery cash...). I have to say I rather like Victorian grandiose, particularly if it includes lots of twirly bits. There's probably a technical architechty term for all that kind of stuff - you know, all the fancy decoration on ceilings and pillars and the like. But twirly bits will have to do. And the Old Town Hall has them in spades, which is rather nice to look at while you're drinking coffee and pondering on the meaning of life, the universe and what you need to get done by the end of the month.