Guests

It’s really strange, but when I am in Gravesend I just don’t get the inspiration to write anything except my blog, which is factual and just a repetition of my mundane existence.

No I have to wait until I am in Devon to start getting the stories in my head, playing like a film on the back of my eyes, so quickly that I hardly have the chance to write it all down. I normally do a page or so, and then have to go back and edit it to try and make sense of what I have just written down. I shudder to think how I would have managed in the “Good old Days” when it would all have been done on a manual typewriter, with no correction facilities. What I really need is a typing tutor to teach me to touch type, as I only use a couple of fingers from each hand. Perhaps there is an app for that.

Anyhow, I am going home to a few busy days now, After Naomi and Eamon’s visit last week, (and as you can see they were welcomed by our dogs) and a trip to the park

we have Amy and Harry staying from Sunday evening, its Harry’s birthday as well, Yvonne has made him a chocolate and Beetroot cake, which she will ice on Sunday morning, and I’m making saffron buns and some bread.

My experiment with writing 2000 words a day when I am not at work has gone well. I did over 14000 up to the 7^th, so now the revised target for the end of November is 48000 or so. The plan is that that will be the story, complete in skeletal form, i.e. just the plot with enough detail to understand what is going on. I will then have to edit and amplify it where appropriate to make an 80000 word complete novel. Then and this is the big bit, I will start hawking it around the literary world, or I may just self-publish it on the Kindle or similar. As that won’t be until after New Year, I can put that bit off for a while.

I only had one ship to do at work, a tanker to West Thurrock,

and I did that in the morning, so after a spell as duty pilot I stood by for a few hours, then when it was clear that I wouldn’t be required for another job, I came home. That was unusual because it has been quite busy recently, and there's nearly always a job at 2 or 3 in the morning to do before I can leave.

Back to the food, after the saffron cake falling to bits when sliced, this time I decided to make rolls, however I think I overdid the timing in the oven, because I didn’t get the desired result. Instead I got saffron rock cakes, which I hope will be a new trend?

They taste fine though (my tasters next door assure me of that) so even though they weren’t what I planned, they will be enjoyed.

The French bread that I started on Saturday evening also had its own troubles, for some reason the baguettes stuck to the tray, something that has never happened before, and one loaf was ripped quite badly. So (and this is the best bit about most cooking disasters) I destroyed the evidence. I ate it!

Amy and Harry turned up on Sunday evening and we had the cake. Yvonne had filled it with clotted cream and iced the top.

 It went down really well and we followed up with a take away curry and finished off with some of my Home made Baileys.

We are going to Rockfish in Dartmouth on Monday, for more good food, I do like people coming down because we can do the grand gastronomic tour, but it will mean more time walking the dog and/or cycling later.