Jumbles

Hello, my dear Lucy!
I can't believe that a month has gone by; how naughty of me not to write before now. The terrible thing is that I really don't have an excuse - I can't claim to have been washed away by flash-floods; to have been partying on the Isle of Wight in all that mud, or anything remotely interesting. Life has been rolling along here in its usual way - work, washing, ferrying the Chino children hither and yon to parties and activities, walking the dog between downpours... the usual. I did manage to time it just right this morning, and walked about four miles along the beach from Marske to Saltburn. The weather was glorious (although it's always a little 'fresh' on the Northeast coast) and it only began to spot with rain as I climbed up the sand dunes back to the car. Muffin, our Cocker Spaniel, had a lovely time and is sleeping off her exertions as I write. Every time I go to the coast, I marvel that we used to spend a good 2 hours in the car to Barmouth as children; now it's a 20 minute journey and the children take it for granted! You really must come up and visit over the summer if you can...
This week has been Olympic Week at the children's school - most of which has been rained-off, unfortunately; one saving grace was that, on Tuesday, I was standing behind a fence and could not be dragged into the Mothers' race - skipping this year - I still feel the ignominy of that previous year's event!

I have baked a couple of new things this time - both delicious! Jumbles and Pistachio and Carrot cake, pictured above, from the Great British Bake Off book. The only problem with the Carrot Cake is that I discovered that I'm the only one in the household who likes the stuff; unfortunate as it makes 20 slices! I managed to give most away, having reserved a not-indecent 8 pieces for myself - well I had 4 days in which to eat it! I am going to have to be careful, however, as I recently had a healthy heart check at work and discovered that I have high LDL cholesterol. Is it true that 95% of high cholesterol is due to heredity? I'm hoping so, but am rationing the cakes just in case.

Enough about me, dear; what about your new job? Please don't think that it was ignorance that caused me not to ask, rather I was giving you chance to settle in to it; after all your time not working, I thought it might be a bit of a struggle for you and didn't want to tire you by asking for too much information too soon. Have you read any howling errors? Unintended double-entendres? Do let me know!

Mr Chino and I are off to see 'Mrs Brown's Boys' at the theatre this weekend - I shall have lots of smutty jokes to tell you next time I write!

Write sooner than I did; Cathy x

PS: can you Hula Hoop? I am desperate to learn after watching Grace Jones at the Jubilee concert...