Dearest, darlingest Internet.
How are you? It's been a year since my last proper post. A year. There's really no excuse for that kind of slovenliness. It isn't even that I've been off the brownies, or have sworn off sponge cake. Developed a phobia or fondant, or nixed the nougat. I'll stop that now, and be straight up with you.
This past year has brought many changes to my life; two new jobs, new hobbies and larger scale life changes including the selling of my current house, and the arduous, stressful task of looking for a new home I could bear to live it, i.e., does it have a kitchen I could bake in?
I would say I have baked less overall in the last year. The difference between being able to afford to bake (now) and having the time to bake (then) is a difficult balance to weigh up. It is now very unusual for me to bake on a weekday evening, for example, as I don't get home until half past seven, by which time I need feeding and to feed my pets, and a little rest time, ready to get into bed and be up again at six to make quarter past seven coach. I know this differs very little from anyone else's commuter lifestyle, but there we are.
Funnily enough, I think this blog helped me get my current position; it came up in all my interviews, as apparently even the slenderest londonites are total cake heads. And I hasten to add, my work has very little to do with baking or creativity in its wider form; I work in business recovery, handling internal compliance. Have some jargon, Internet. I hope you like it. It's fresh!
Having said all this, I did win my first ever baking competition this year, and began to dabble in sugar past decorating, which have been great fun, challenging, and yet very rewarding. I've made a lot of money for charity and non-profit organisations this year via auctions, bake sales and bake offs, and I hope to do more of the same this year.
In this new and shiny year (year of the dragon!) I hope for many things. I hope I can get my offer accepted on the dreamhome I found yesterday (Internet, you should have SEEN the kitchen. And it had real fireplaces!) I hope I can afford my mortgage. I hope my parent's divorce goes through soon and with as little further emotional trauma to my mother as possible. I hope my elderly cats see 17 and 18 respectively. I hope my pet rats have a healthy happy year and don't find the move too stressful. I hope my friends will have happier years. I hope for progression, creatively and in the workplace. I hope I find time to breathe.
In terms of resolutions, well, those which are pertinent to this blog, I have a few.
Post more often; despite baking less overall, I still bake often, so there is little reason I shouldn't let you all know about it.
Buy a new camera; my old one finally gave up the ghost mid rat photoshoot in October this year. I have been shopping around for a new one ever since; it is finding the one or two hundred pounds for the outlay that's the trouble.
Keep pushing the boundaries; this year I have made some famously difficult things, including macarons (they ain't so tough), and tried a vast number of new things (sugar paste modelling, cheesecakes, custards...). I can do more, and better.
Use my cookbooks; I spent at least £60 on cookbooks last year, ranging from healthy soups, to cupcakes, to traditional british baking, to Nigella. I look forward to the challenge of living alone and feeding myself. I've done it before, but now perhaps, whilst still endorsing thrift, I will have the chance and drive to try to vary my palate a little more. Though my standard fare is bloody delicious all the same.
In the meantime, I have a collection of pictures I intended to write full posts for and never did, so I will stick them up and annotate, and if any should interest you, please let me know and I'll do my utmost to get a recipe or method online.Today will be all about writing workshops and baking, as a wind down from yesterday's house hunting... And a treacherous amount of cheese and wine. Oops.
Hate to see you go, Internet, but love to watch you leave.
Natasha x
No comments:
Post a Comment