Wine, Women, Song and Cake

I had a birthday dinner with Nits last night. It was wonderful, wonderful, despite an initial contretemps where I was supposed to bring something and when almost there, realised I didn't have it, U-turned and went back to get it...while poor Nitsy Poo was starving in her car, waiting for me, thinking I was lost.

Despite all this...when we got there, everything was, in a word, perfect. The delicious wine and lemony 'tini, the pasta (we both couldn't finish, so we doggie-bagged and young Arnold, who has disappeared on his morning jaunt, will be the beneficiary). I hope he comes back soon. I don't like having him out.

Yesterday I met the most fascinating little kid, who helped me do my ingredients shopping. I had asked his advice about fondant, so he took me to the freezer, showed me the various sizes available, asked what I wanted it for...and then proceeded to grab the list out of my hand and whisk around the shop getting the different things (except for when he couldn't read my writing and had to come back and ask me what this or that was). He tried to get me to make florentinas (I think that's how it's spelled) but since my baking schedule is already on overdrive, I said maybe later. And then I asked for a baking tray and he showed me the various ones available (bear in mind this boy is only eight years old). I said, hmm...they seem rather flat...don't you have anything deeper? And he said, auntie, you mean cake tin, not baking tray. Oops! Anyway, he went into his spiel again, explaining the virtues of the various cake tins. I turned inquiring eyes on his mother. Did she teach him all this? No, she shook her head smiling. He just listens to us explaining things and picks it up. Apparently he's in the express class but still bored.

Anyway, after helping me to all the ingredients he could possibly find, suggesting a few alternatives that I may not have agreed with (such as rum essence for rum) he begged his mother to be able to tot it all up with the cash register. She refused nicely, getting him to do something else instead. So he got out the trolley, and packed everything on it and told me he would be following me to the car with everything. I said, no, no, I parked the car far away. So he said, yeah, so what does that mean, you're going to carry this all by yourself?

My little porter was all on the ready, so I said, no worries, I'll just drive the car round and load it. And that's what I did. The young man, his mother, his mother's maid all helped and we loaded everything up quick smart. So now I have got nearly all the ingredients necessary for my baking to begin.

I just need rum and aromatic bitters and I think I'll go scrounging around for that today. After my interview at 11. In Subang. After which I see the Prabhakaran (must remember to load my car with her presents).

I haven't even started on the story for the last interview. Instead, I've been dissipating, dissipating, dissipating, and soon I'll be baking.

Look at this:



Don't I have the most beautiful friends?