A world gone mad

By mad I mean angry. Why are people so angry these days? Not just quietly fuming either, people seem so keen to really let people know about it. Have you been following the Neil Perry and Fleur Clapham altercation? I wonder whether they would have said those things face to face. I'm not taking sides as it seems clear to me that she was after something (are you really hungry when you've had an entree and some of your main or thirsty after two glasses of wine?) and he need only have said that it was a stressful night and he was sorry she was disappointed. As the emails have gone public then everyone else gets to join in and say how terrible they think Fleur or Neil has behaved, sharing the anger.

My friend Kristy does book reviews for Web Child and recently one of her reviews was trashed. Kristy had stated that the book wasn't for her and explained why but she ended by saying that certain people would enjoy it and that she had a friend who would love it. Someone took offense and made a personal attack! I think it might be because the prevailing attitude of the moment is that everyone, individually, is number one, the most important person. When people state opinions that differ from our own we take that as a personal criticism and get defensive. If I say that I don't eat at McDonalds then people assume that I am judging those who do. Relax!

We're missing Tim, Shona and the pumpkin very much but we had a great, busy last weekend of the holidays. I went to a meeting to plan for A Taste for Life and ate bircher muesli made by Sara. It was delicious.

I took Bethany to a birthday party and then, just before lunch I thought I'd quickly make Mim's wedding cake. I realised the other day that while Mim thought that two cakes would fit into the three tins, they were really pretty big and would need all three cakes (I had prepared enough fruit for my Christmas cake as well). So, I made three cakes in my biggest bowl. I used this much butter!

I forgot how involved it was and I kept having to add things up over and over, changing the ounces to grams and then multiplying by three. Maths is not my strong point. Also, my huge bowl is not quite big enough. This is the last lot of fruit I had to mix in and there was no room for it!

Two hours later and I had finally finished making the mixture. Jossie took this unflattering photo.

Eight hours later, at 11pm, the last one came out of the oven. They smell fabulous and I can't wait to have a piece on the 2nd of January. This is what the cake would look like if it was iced with foil :)

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. After church Narelle offered to take all our children home with her! We very cleverly have matching kids except that they squeezed an extra one in between Toby and Bethany. This means that taking our three kids meant making three of her kids happy all afternoon. Win-win. I did some washing and the shopping but also managed to relax with Tim's orange drink. Thanks Tim.

This morning I got up at six for the first time in a couple of weeks, got everyone ready for school and work at rode to the library. Thankfully, I love my job so was very happy to be back and to have my first coffee since I left Mum and Dad's. Back into it then.