A sort of 'normal' Sunday

Sundays have reverted back to something a bit more like 'normal'.  We are now allowed to have three text requests to leave the house at the weekend and they can be tagged on to one another which means that Mum has enough time to come to us for lunch although not having been for a while we were keen to get someone to come with her and Lilian was more than happy to oblige.  This meant that I did not have to spend Saturday getting our food ready having chosen something that could be transported and reheated.  This was just as well as I didn't know how I would react to my vaccination.  As it happens my arm is just a little tender around where the jab went in but I think I have had more painful bee-stings and I am hoping that is the way that it stays.

I had done a bit of advanced prep though because John was going to be doing a full roast I thought I ought to get the pudding in the bag so on Wednesday when I was waiting for the vaccination portal to sort its life out I made a caramel apple upside down sponge which looked and sounded lush and was pretty easy to make.  The trick is that when you are letting the cake cool you turn the cake tin upside down so that the 'liquid' caramel can seep down into the cake so that it remains moist.

I was a bit worried that having made it several days in advance it might be a bit on the dry side but it was very nice and light and went perfectly with a scoop of my home-made coconut ice-cream or a slug of cream!!  

I shall definitely be making this one again (although not if we are having Nicky and Mark round to eat as it had nutmeg and cinnamon in it - neither of which Mark eats - fussy bugger).  Anyway both Mum and Lilian benefited and took a slice each home which I hope they will both enjoy.

It was a dry and bright day although the wind was rather cutting.  All in all though a good day for Mum to drive up and she said there was little to no traffic on the road coming up and going back which is good.  I know that she will have enjoyed the change of scenery and John and I were able to get everything ready so apart from the fact that John tried to spot-weld the crackling to the bottom of the oven lunch was a reasonably relaxed affair!!

It is nice having people up for lunch and we wanted the table to look nice so I went on the scrounge in the garden to get some fresh flowers.  Fortunately I had quite a selection - freesias (John's Mum's favourites), narcissi, gerbera, osteospurmum and cyclamen which all made a pretty display on the dining table.  

When we were not eating we sat and chatted in the conservatory.  When I had got dressed this morning it was quite chilly so I had on jeans and a sweater - sweater being the right word mid-afternoon when I was melting and the temperature was edging towards 35 degrees which was in marked contrast to the lounge/dining room which was hovering around 18 degrees even with the help of the heater!!!

Mum and Lilian left us at around 3.00pm and got back safely so we tidied up and settled down for some TV.  We watched the last two episodes of Road Kill with Hugh Laurie which I enjoyed immensely - they must do a second series surely???  Makes you wonder though who it is really that runs the country - not the Prime Minister that is for sure!!!

The Blades (no longer Mighty unfortunately) were playing this evening - they were cuffed by Arsenal and long before the first goal was scored it was blatantly obvious that this team were never going to achieve anything so we flipped between the game and the end of the Masters which was an infinitely much more exciting proposition.  History once again in a sporting event with the winner Matsuyama coming from Japan which completed a double because his compatriot Tsubasa Kajitani wond the Augusta National Women's amateur championship on April 3rd.