Me & Vernon Kay

I had one of those 'just before you wake up in the morning' dreams the other day - you know, one of those very vivid and clear sort of dreams where you feel quite shaken by it for a few hours, as it was soooooo real. Anyhoo, this dream was about Vernon Kay trying to entice me into a torrid affair with him as he wanted me to run off and be with him. I don't mind telling you that in dreamworld, I was sorely tempted. I have spent the last few days saying to Mark 'well, Vernon wouldn't have said this', and 'Vernon would have let me do that', and Oliver refused to let me watch Family Fortunes. Ha ha.

Moving on from la la land, life is ticking along nicely. I made a disaster cake at the weekend. A simple Victoria sandwich which I have cooked many times before seemed to be a runny batter, not a gloopy cake mixture before it went into the oven, so, giving absolutely no thought to the balance of ingredients, I thought it would be a good idea to bung in more flour until it was 'cakey'. Well, it tastes like shite, and is, unsurprisingly twice the size of a normal cake. Looking at it, I have to wonder what the hell goes through my mind when I'm baking. Not the recipe obviously.

Feeling quite guilty at the thought of Mark having to endure this cake from hell for an entire week, I made a bakewell tart yesterday instead. I have never baked this before, and cannot be arsed to bake pastry blind, so it was definitely a suck-it-and-see sort of tart. The pastry was edible but the filling seemed terribly uncooked. We all, with trepidation, had a sliver for supper, and since we have all made it through the night Mark has happily gone off with some for lunch. Phew. Will use the Victoria sponge (and I use the term 'sponge' loosely here) as a door stop.

Whilst out doing the weekly food shop on Friday, Oliver said he wanted to gather together his own ingredients to make a meal by himself. Weeping inside at the potential damage to my carefully constructed shopping list, I said OK. He proudly came back ten minutes later with cress and a bag of lentils. Yum. He is so very sweet. We put back the lentils as I already have a half hundredweight at home, and decided on minestrone soup. Don't ask.

Just had the latest Cyber Crop over on UKS. I didn't really take part this time, but did do the 'pre-crop' challenge - 'Home is where the heart is':

Also have done this week's SLYMI - scrap a thank you. I have scrapped my thanks to my sister in law, Kim. Not a brilliant photo, sorry Kim, but it is the only one I have of you!

Journalling reads:

'Kim, you have such a strong and confident opinion on home education that the first time you wheeled out your soap box to preach to us about it, we were hooked.

Impressed and excited by your beliefs, we took the decision to keep Oliver out of school. For this alone, you have my deepest gratitude.

You are a constant source of support and inspiration to me, and your presence in our lives is a very welcome one.

It is wonderful to see Oliver developing into a bright, confident and gregarious child, a million miles from the shy toddler who would have been thrown to the wolves at the school gates. Thank you.'