Saturday, July 13, 2013

Normal Service Shall Resume Shortly

When I came home from France,  I brought home a little extra thing that I wasn't expecting.  I had managed to hurt my back and was scuttling around like a crab, with a temperament to match.  I don't really like anything that interferes with my daily life so this was most unexpected.  When I couldn't get out of bed without swearing like a trooper, I knew I needed to visit the doctor.  He was pretty unhappy and sent me for an MRI (no, they didn't find a brain) which showed up the aftereffects of an injury from when I was 16. Stop counting back right now, it's just rude... I had broken a bone in my lower back which is pretty unbreakable and spent a few months in a haze of morphine injections into my spine (ouch) and was pretty much bedbound for that summer. But memories fade and I hadn't paid it much heed since. To quote Jim Steinman, It's All Coming Back To Me Now.  With a vengeance.  I've a lovely gap between my vertebrae where one should not be, hence the current crab status and dose of sciatica.


Thursday, July 4, 2013

In The Name of Love : My Pride Rainbow Cake

Last weekend was the Dublin Pride 2013 festival where men and women from across Ireland came together to celebrate LGBT life.  It's actually the largest Pride festival in the country and has grown from a one-day event in 1983 to a ten-day festival with a huge arts, social and cultural content.  It's loud, it's proud and it's colourful.  Speaking of which, my work friend Ms. Katona (not her real name but we  know who she is) collared me back in January to make her a cake for a Pride party.  It had to be big, brash, bright and most of all, delicious.

 
I based it on the birthday cake I made for my niece Alicia last year but ramped up the flavours to suit an adult palate.  The actual cake mixture and method was identical, but I changed the icing to a white chocolate sour cream because it's more adult friendly.  Katona was ever so slightly happy with the cake and it was cut long in advance of the actual party.  Some people have no self-control!