Succumbing to chocolate and other temptations

A relaxing weekend with the family - the Son&Heir and the entourage. We haven't seen them the whole of the summer because either we or they had arrangements. Fortunately the grandchildren are old enough not to forget us. We had all sorts of indulgences at/with lunch and the evening meal. By popular demand, I had made a double size apple crumble, but I also bought some very chocolatety icecream - Carte d'Or Chocolate Inspiration. I saw it advertised on the TV and thought, GD3 would like that - and so would I. She did - and so did I. In the mean time, the family had brought some Belgian chocolates; they didn't last the day, and a lemon drizzle cake acquired at a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan nurses. I had brought out of the freezer my New Year honey cake and some chocolate brownies. I tried them all. This explains why, even though we went straight out after lunch for a walk in the woods and to the 'Pooh-sticks Bridge', that afternoon, by this morning, I had put back the same 2lbs I'd managed to gain and then lose during last week.

On Sunday, we took the family out for a Chinese meal. GD3 had asked, the previous day, if we might be able to go there. They love getting up and down to get things from the buffet. We had a table with a central revolving glass, and GD1 delighted in putting her drink just out of reach, so that she had to turn it, to the increasing irritation of the S&H. Poetic justice, I suppose, when you consider all the torments he put me through. It's about three months since our last visit to the Chinese, and they were very much more empty than usual. Credit crunch biting, perhaps.

And another building society has bitten the dust today. All very worrying because each collapse heralds a downturn in everyone's fortunes. I'll give that some more thought to that in a few days' time.

Last week, I also turned my attention to a new PDF file for Tainted Tree. There were errors, particularly in the layout of the original version and I spent some time trying to correct them. No doubt, I have still missed an error that the rest of the world will spot in 30 seconds. I've sent off the new PDF to Antony Rowe with an order for more books. We have an event at the Guildford Book Festival and at Arts Alive in Leatherhead at the end of October, so hopefully there will be more sales. I'm nearly out of copies now. I also got organised enough to send off some short story entries to a competition. And I'm still peeling apples!