Cake experiment

Everyone knows (or should know) that the best experiments are with cake! *nods*

My lovely friend, S, was being imprisoned in hospital for a whole week, covered in wires, so they could look at her brain.  The good news is....she does indeed has a brain!

Anyhoo, imprisoned in one room for a whole week, cameras pointing at you 24/7 and nothing more than knitting, reading and watching TV all day, unable to shower or leave her four walls wasn't the most pleasing thought.

I decided, what was needed was CAKE!  Cake never fails to cheer people up...colourful cake, even more so.  Being short of time I just bunged all the colours into the tin, hoping they'd rise relatively evenly and would still resemble stripes at the end.

Taking the cake out of the tin and *hmmmmmmmm*.....that bottom green stripe has slightly overpowered the other colours....and where's the orange gone?

Oh well, cake is cake!  It smelled heavenly, so I iced it up and toddled off to see S, after dropping Ol off at school.  Tom stayed home with Hugo, nursing a stonking hangover (well....that's what work Christmas do's do, apparently.)  I picked up a proper cup of tea from "a popular commercial tea outlet", as hospitals aren't wonderful at providing anything other than dish water.

The moment of truth....we cut the cake and...."OH.MY.GOODNESS"  Look at the spirally goodness!  Rather naively I've always assumed that cake rises upwards, so thought that the stripes would be uneven, but never expected this!  

Of course it makes sense, if you think about it.  The cake heats and expands and gets pushed up, around and down in a spiral.  I've decided that far more experimentation needs to be done....and cake eaten.  It's the only way to be sure....*nods*....the only way!

Just look at those curly stripes.....!

We spent the day playing board games, drinking tea and eating cake.  (In case you wondered...I won Settlers of Canan. *just saying...*)

A terrible picture I know, but look at S's fantastic paper decorations.  The nurses were in awe of them and made her show them how to make them. (Which I can share with blogdom when I have a spare 5 minutes........or 10....!)

In other news, we have a new family member.  Well...I say new, but in fact, Solomon and I go WAY back.  I grew up with Solomon, and a better cat I'll probably never find.  Here he is doing what he likes doing best......sleeping.

Solomon has a shockingly bad ear infection and needs some rest, away from crazy lurchers at my mothers house.  When you're 14 years old it's time to slow down and laze about in the warm.  Not worry about coming into the house in case there's a crazed puppy at the doorway.

Our little old lady, Pusskin, wasn't so sure about Solomon to begin with

Her face says it all, doesn't it!

As does Solomon's.  Poor mog.  (please excuse the poor, unnatural light.)

Well....day 3 and they're doing quite well together.  Solomon has no desire to question Pusskin's authority so whilst she's a "Miss Hissy fit" and growls occasionally, but no "blows" have been made, he just gives her the space she wants and lets her sleep on our bed, instead, being a hot water bottle for Oliver.  I think, give it a week and she'll give up making such a horrible noise.  I've been told that the last cat she lived with was a nasty thing, so she just needs to suss out that Solly isn't going to attack her or threaten her comfort in any way.

Right....I've promised my Little man "A muppet's Christmas Carol" so must go and snuggle up with him on the sofa.  Tomorrow we have a surprise trip for him and I'm ridiculously excited about it.

Wrap up warm...it's blooming cold.