1. I have been wanting to bake the Beer Cake from Mary-Anne Boermans Great British Bakes -- it looks like a good plain cake and the recipe originates just down the road in Tonbridge. Alec and I are at a loose end so I re-brand the exercise as "an important mission". We scamper up the hill to the pub with a measuring jug. I make Alec wait outside -- The Grove Tavern is a proper, dignified drinking pub -- but the landlord says "He can come in, he's the customer of the future." So I sit him up on a stool so he can watch our half pint of Harveys being pulled. Everyone is rather intrigued by the idea of beer cake so I promise to bring a slice round later.
2. Alec reports to Nick that our slice of cake was well received in the pub: "And now everyone wants to marry Mummy." (The cake is delicious: it is well studded with raisins, smells charmingly hoppy and has a good, interesting flavour and a soft, neat crumb.)
3. An "Eeee-eee-eeeing" Bettany comes pattering out of the nursery, presses her face up to the bannisters that separate the landing from the stairs and gives my nose a moist and definite kiss.
