It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

...at the top of the stairs, where all the cooking smells accumulate. The so-called Menopause cake (full of phytoestroegens, apparently) is in the oven, but as it is full of spices as well as seeds and a few sultanas and nuts, it smells remarkably like a Christmas cake. Yay! A gluten-free one. We'll be away for Christmas this year, so who knows if I'll get around to making one. If CleanSteve has his way, I probably will.

Just three more weeks of working almost full time, and then I am going back to part time in the nursery. I am happy about that. Actually, I am ecstatic. Half the money, but twice as much more time to call my own.

I went into town this morning to do some research on a new idea I'm cooking up, and while there I bumped into Dr S, who volunteers in the nursery. He is South Indian, and when I told him I was vainly attempting to make a good curry in my spare time, he invited me around to his house for a demo. Now that's what I call a wonderful offer! We discovered that we both used to eat in the same South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Forest Gate, East London. In my case, that was almost 25 years ago, when I lived in Plaistow, so I couldn't remember the exact dishes I used to order, although Dr S could reel off his list.

It's cold tonight, and the wind's up again. All the energy-saving bulbs in the house are flickering, as they have been for most of the week. It makes me realise how many traditional incandescent bulbs we still have. Quite nice to have some that AREN'T on the blink. CleanSteve's attempting to light a fire for the first time this season (we have no firelighters :( ) and making soup, while I am expecting a phone call, I think we're going to watch Local Hero when the soup is ready. Nothing like a blast from the past....

PS I just tasted the cake. It's not quite ready, but first impressions are that it could do with some sugar. Oh, but the health-and-hormone police wouldn't approve of that!