Brilliant banana bread, Zoom Zoom etc

Hello. So today I made the brilliant banana bread. The recipe called it “brilliant” not me. I haven’t sampled it yet so I can’t say what it tastes like but it looks pretty brilliant if I say so myself. I love the way home made cakes don’t look perfect and sometimes burst forth with a little explosion on the top. It also smells lovely and warm and bananery and I think doing the drizzle with runny icing like a lemon drizzle cake was a great idea (not mine). If you’ve got a couple of ripe bananas going spare you can check out the recipe here. What a shame David doesn’t like bananas, I will have to eat the whole thing myself. Actually I might freeze half of it as the recipe said this was a possibility.

How have your Zoom sessions been going? Managed not to get zoom bombed yet? We had a fun catch up at our Zoom book club last night, many thanks to Sue and Pete for organising. It has come to my notice that being named in person on The Waffle is becoming a badge of honour amongst my book club members and friends, so I’ll try not to leave anyone out….

We talked about the book we had all just read “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood. The overall consensus seemed to be that most people liked the book, with the exception of me and Debs. I found it just too strange and couldn’t get beyond page 65. Sally was not present but I believe she didn’t like it much either. Book club is at its best when we don’t all agree and we can have a good discussion about why or why not we felt that way about it. It’s a great group of people and no-one is afraid of expressing their opinion or disagreeing with someone else, all in a very amicable fashion. We’ve been going for about 5 years now and usually meet in the pub and have a meal too. This time we all had our virtual pubs at home.. but the drinks were real thank goodness. I was quaffing posh G & T with ice and lemon that I received in a beautiful gift box from my friends Clare and Luke for my birthday. (Watch out, there is a lot of name dropping happening today!). I don’t usually drink during the week but I make an exception for book club. So, other than the book we talked about our individual experiences of lockdown. Here are the interesting bits for you (in my humble opinion), even if you’ve never met these people. Firstly I have to warn you that nearly everyone in this club is called Sue or Peter.

David Palin, our leader, has been busy writing his novels which you can check out here, wondering whether takeaways might be contaminated and doing some rather “interesting” walks which I can say no more about. Sue (Windsor) has been celebrating her birthday and organising Zoom social events/book club and looking after her Mum together with her husband Pete. Pete has been enjoying his new voluntary Chairman role and trying to get the whole world up to speed with Zooming. Erica has been eating, sleeping, walking, eating. She claims that if she eats any more she will no longer be able to exit her house, her words not mine. She has also been rehearsing some promising voiceovers for The Waffle’s future advertising campaign although she seems to think I would need a name change to Wendy, nice try but it’s just not really me somehow. Peter (not Sue’s husband) has been working from home (nice stairs by the way Peter!), watching his family go up and down the stairs and has been itching to tidy up the bookshelves we see in the journalists’ living rooms behind them at the daily press conferences. Sue (France) has been reading and going out for her daily walks carrying her paperwork needed by the French authorities. Last but not least Debs has been eating curry and chocolate, doing a lot of tidying up, some online free courses from the OU, and recommended us all a book called “Lady in Waiting” by Anne Glenconner.

Hopefully I haven’t forgotten anybody? Of course we are all friends in The Waffle community too, whether we have met in real life or not. I appreciate so much the blog support from those who know me and equally those who only know my blog persona, which is pretty much me anyway, wherever in the world you may be. Right, now I’ve stopped thanking everyone like the government does in a most patronising fashion every tea time, I’ll go and cook the venison burgers and leave you with a few pics of the day. P.s thanks again everybody!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️