Cakes, pies and festive fascinators

Radio silence again! It’s a bit daft to announce that I shall be quietly blogging away without any fuss only to disappear for another (nearly) week. 



It’s just that it’s that time of year again…. There are some gigs that I’ve done over and over, that I haven’t been asked to do (quiet sigh of relief) only to find they’ve been replaced with other new gigs. Some partners in crime and I were invited to decorate a Christmas tree for charity and Monday and Tuesday last week were the ‘decorate day’ and launch. More to come on that in a day or two when I come begging for YOU for votes! On Thursday night I went to the Foreign Correspondents Club to listen to Amitav Ghosh talk. While some of the politics was interesting, I was more interested in his writing, which was barely touched upon. Still, the gins were big and cheap and it was lovely to be out with friends. On Friday I was part of a group that was cutting up donated cakes and pies for Ye Olde Tarte Shop at the Ploenchit Fair, an annual event that raises lots of money for charity. 



This weekend my time has been taken up by the construction of some Christmas headwear. Obviously, for anyone that knows me, there’s nothing frivolous about making festive fascinators; this is a High Priority activity and the coming weeks would be less without them. Right from the beginning they were very fiddly little buggers; lots of cutting out in fraying type fabrics which turned me goggle eyed. And in the construction of them, I’m ashamed to report that I turned the language blue. On the first occasion, family members within earshot rushed in to see if I'd sewn my fingers together. After they saw I was simply cursing like a sailor in frustration, they ignored me. (Harumph.) Still, they’re done now and there’s only a similar headpiece to make for a teddy bear (yes, honestly) a costume to make for Husband and four Christmas Creatures. In the next ten days. Yikes.








(While I was checking out some visuals for the picture to illustrate this, I came across this post which made me laugh out loud. PLEASE DO NOT visit this link if swearing offends you. [It's not big and it's not clever; it simply demonstrates your lack of vocabulary... I do however like a bit of Anglo Saxon.])

Here I am

Hello?

Is there anyone there?

I thought I’d pop by to let Facebook friends know that despite an unhealthy interest in making statuses about cashew nuts, I am okay. I’m working hard. When I went to the cupboard this morning for a handful of cashew nuts to eat with my tea I was quite shocked at how few were left. I emailed Husband to ask (hopefully) if he’d been helping me out by eating them; sadly he confirmed that he didn’t like cashews unroasted and any consumption into the family pack of nuts in the cupboard will have been me. Eeek.

Anyway, the good news is that I’ve finished them tonight. I just need the strength not to buy anymore.

Along with having cashew control problems I’ve been having mad dreams. They started a couple of weeks ago.

One dream involved being bitten by a snake. Its fangs hung on the fleshy skin between my thumb and my forefinger and I was upset and worried that it would fall off and I wouldn’t remember what kind of snake had bitten me. The biting took place opposite Emporium, a mall in Bangkok and then the scene cut to London where I was wandering through the streets trying but failing to find the railway station to take me to the hospital.

Last night I had a dream that a cult was trying to recruit me.

But the weirdest one was nearly three weeks ago just as I started working on the novel. Husband was pregnant and he delivered two babies and then several weeks later he delivered the other four. In the dream I didn’t take much notice of the first two: I think our existing children and their cousins were ‘looking after’ them. I found the babies under a bed when Husband delivered the other four and I knew then that I had to start looking after them. I had the strongest feeling even in my dream state about these six babies. I knew they would be loved and I’d do what I had to do but the sense of disappointment I felt that I wouldn’t be able to finish my novel was so palpable.

Anyway I probably haven’t reassured any of you that I’m okay. I probably should’ve kept quiet about the weird dreams and cashew nut fetish… but you know I’m not getting out much at the moment.