Here's a recipe for a chocolate biscuit slice. I made it for a school function on Friday and got asked for the recipe. As I have gone to the trouble of typing it up, I thought I might as well share it with you. It is very easy and no-bake. It probably ought to come with a health warning too!

( Chocolate biscuit slice )

I had every intention of joining in the DVD sessions but I'm afraid I just ran out of time. Of course, I always just sleep through DVDs anyway, so my lack of participation is entirely true to life. I hope you had a very happy birthday, Grandma Kate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNi9b9SsWJg

This is totally meaningless to all but one, or two at the most, of my friends' list, but I'm happy. From the BBC website: "Of course this is bigger than Neil Armstrong's achievement. This was against Australia." Freddie is my hero!

Normal service will resume when we lose the next test.

I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday too. On the whole, I enjoyed myself but with big reservations. I didn't like OotP at all so this was the first Harry Potter film I wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing. Perhaps I should add that I don't especially enjoy watching films or the TV. The medium doesn't really excite me and neither would rate highly on my favourite forms of entertainment. Plus the flickering lights, especially of action sequences, give me a headache. (I had to close my eyes for much of Star Trek and some of this film.) So my reflections aren't going to be impartial.


( Post-film Thoughts )

Obviously Britain has even more talent than was hitherto suspected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHvATmUsSg

Last Tuesday I received my PIF (or rather pay it back and forth) gift from gabrielladusult. She has recently taught herself to crochet and has made me this lovely cozy scarf. I was going to struggle through some photography this weekend but fortunately for me, Amy had already taken a photo and posted it (in the middle of moonette01's birthday Magical Mystery Tour, so you may have missed it) and has let me steal use her photo. This puts off my photo tutorial to yet another day, thank goodness.

Thank you so much, Amy. It was a lovely surprise. I know you've had a very busy and difficult year so I am extra grateful that you made time to make me this.

( My scarf, a photo )

Hippo Birdie,
Two Ewes.
Hippo Birdie,
Two Ewes.
Hippo Birdie,
Moonette (and Igor).
Hippo Birdie,
Two Ewes.

Last September, crumplehornedki asked for another essay. I immediately jumped into action and asked for some “expert” commentary to quote. Now, only seven months later, here is the result. Thank you to everyone who has contributed, especially to stmargarets for her usual marking (or should that be unusual marking!) and to mrstater who hasn’t participated in my essays before. She actually wrote loads for me but I only used one line because it was just perfect. If any of you enjoy Remus-Tonks fanfic, I suggest you go and check out her writing. She is also writing a lovely Lark Rise to Candleford story which is making me very impatient to get the second series on TV here.

ETA Thanks also to rosathome for her brilliant comments and for being such a good sport as to lay herself open to all the digs that Mary and I made.

For those interested, my previous essays can be found here:

Project Crumpet http://tdu000.livejournal.com/1957.html

Mary Sues http://tdu000.livejournal.com/2321.html

Neville Longbottom http://tdu000.livejournal.com/7490.html

( All was well! )

From rosathome. A few weeks ago, Ros decided to participate in "Buy a friend a book week" and of all the people who volunteered to let her buy them something, I won the draw. Yesterday my book arrived. She managed to find me an out-of-print book she knew I wanted to read. I did wonder when she mentioned buying it on ebay whether it would be by this particular author.

Some of you may have noticed that rosathome and jo_blogs argue occasionally about who is the greater fan of Antonia Forest's books about the Marlow family. The jury is still out although each has claimed victory! I became curious and read the first one, The Autumn Term, which I enjoyed very much. I was wondering how come I didn't read these when I was a girl as I loved the British boarding school genre of books. A bit of investigation showed that they have been in and out of print a great deal and my youth corresponded with an out-of-print period whereas Jo and Ros, being somewhat younger than me, were able to buy them. Currently they are all out of print, except for the first one, and my local library doesn't stock them so I wasn't expecting to read any more. Consequently it's lovely to have received End of Term as a gift. Not only was it lovely and generous of Ros to decide to buy a friend (ME!) a book but she put so much thought into what book to buy.

Thank you, Ros!