Spent a good few hours today sorting Christmas decorations and starting to put them up. Readers will know we make a big thing of having a decorated house – not insanely so with 20 foot inflatable santas and neon-lit elves – but it is still a lot of work. Went to London on Wednesday to meet my old friends Sue and Sue from Birmingham – had a good time but will not be recommending the restaurant we went to. Been doing book stuff too. On Saturday it was our WI Fair so I took along books to sell. Another cake with knitting needles etc. Am getting quite expert now… The second novel, ‘Death is a Desirable Property’ is now written. Am just having a final go-through and then it will go to Philosopher for his edit – he is tough… Patrick the cover designer is working on the second cover, then I will have the hard job of formatting it for Amazon. Yes, I did the first one, but have now forgotten how I did it!
Those cakes with knitting needles are a bit tricky. Readers will know Battleaxe doesn’t bake. Well, like everyone else she did in Lockdown but it was fatal for the figure. Last time I got a sponge cake from Marks, but now, suddenly, all their cakes are tiny – same with Sainsburys, same with Morrisons. They say they serve six? Oh purleeeze. Anyway, had to make do with a tiny one. Made icing to go on top, but it ends up so thin. Bakers, how do I make it look thicker, like the cake on the book cover?
So, what was with the London Restaurant? It was the Portrait Restaurant (… by Richard Corrigan… who he?), at the top of the National Portrait Gallery. You are supposed to have fantastic views over London, but of course it was a sunny day, and the winter sun was blazing straight in through the windows, so they had to have the blinds closed, and you couldn’t see a thing. You should see views like this… in your dreams, mate. Those plates in that photo (from the internet) seem to have piles of food on them. In your dreams again…
We didn’t have a window table because even with the blinds it would have been too hot – it was hot anyway. Worst thing was the NOISE. The restaurant was busy, and I think, no exaggeration, it was one of the noisiest restaurants I have ever been in. It was deafening, and us three ended up huddled round our table, heads close together, like the three witches from Macbeth, shouting at each other like we were in some throw-back night-club. The set lunch cost £39 for 3 courses, which is OK on the face of it, but the portions were very small, and any veg to bulk it out was £6 per portion, bread was £5.75, and flea-size carafe of wine £22. Sue T’s choice were not great – a braised tongue starter with three wafer thin slices of tongue not much bigger than 10p pieces. Battleaxe would not recommend! We staggered out, ears ringing, and had to take refuge in the upstairs bar of the Charing Cross Hotel, which was blessedly comfortable and quiet.
I suppose it is easy to get out of touch with increasing restaurant prices. At Sunday lunchtime we two took a break from our Christmas decoration work and walked down to the Old Town for fish and chips. Standard size – not large – cod and chips at the Master Fish Bar is now £14.50. Two of those, no mushy peas, a small bottle of Becks and a Coke came to £37. For what used to be one of the cheapest meals you could get!
And then, what about postage prices! You’ll be getting fewer Cnristmas cards, folks…
Battleaxe is all crabby about money atm because the tax office have suddenly nabbed her. I get a state pension plus top-up from the old SERPS scheme which you paid into if you didn’t have a private pension. I always assumed, that like a private pension, this would be taxed at source, but no – it never has been. (Shows how little interest I take in money). So, a few weeks ago I got zonked with a tax bill from 2023 – 24, and have just got the one for 24-25. They seem to have written off the previous years… cross fingers I hope. Don’t get me wrong, my pension is not huge, we are not talking thousands owed in tax here, and we can well afford it, but nevertheless… Don’t get me wrong again, I don’t object to paying tax – in fact we should all pay more to get some decent public services, but it is still a shock when it is applied to oneself!
Ah well, soon I will be a million-selling writer… The sales of the first book have been great but are beginning to drop now – partly because I am so focused on the second novel I have not kept up the necessary marketing of the first one…. but there are compensations. Look at this nice little write-up I got in WI News. Every little helps…
