On Sunday we have pudding

 

Hello everyone. I hope that you are ok. It's quite warm in Plymouth, but I think that lots of you are going to get it even warmer, so brace yourselves. We have just finished our tea. Sunday is the only day that we have pudding - unless we are eating out. This was a yellow-stickered M&S chocolate torte. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I have spent Sunday afternoon slaving over the cooker, melting chocolate into cream. Not in this weather. Actually, I have made one from scratch once. Unfortunately, I was about four weeks pregnant with our first child and had foolishly agreed to make the afters for Christmas dinner when our family was meeting up. Halfway through the melting bit, I was hit with a wave of nausea, the like of which I have never felt before or since (sorry - thinking about it - I had it with my daughter) and which stayed with me even as I climbed onto the maternity table to give birth. I've never been that keen on melting chocolate into cream ever since. 

I have watched an insane amount of sport on TV this week. I know a lot of people are unhappy about it all, and I quite understand that but I really love it, I'm afraid. HOH has said that he decided early on that he could either make a fuss (which he would be perfectly entitled to do) or go with it. As he says, there's not much else on the telly anyway, so he has a list of programmes that he has been catching up with when I am not around, and he is ok with that. He's also doing a lot of reading. However, I will need to rein it in a bit. I was sitting in front of the telly, watching France v Uruguay, and I suddenly realised that it was gone midnight. I can't keep that level up - not at my age. I won't be staying up tonight for the England game because we have a hot date tomorrow with our son, and we have to be up fairly early for the train. 

With one thing and another, I fancied a bit of a light read this week, so I found this. "A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering". It's very good and has lots of great lines. The hero is a man who breaks into rich people's homes while they are away or into second homes, etc. He never steals anything - just lives quietly in their house, and because they are so rich, often, when they come back, they don't register that anyone has been in. This is all going very well until, as is often the way, murder rears its ugly head. 

I'll be honest, I'm not sure I entirely understood the crime that the baddie had committed, but I still enjoyed it. The only thing that took the edge off was the fact that the author is quite well known. (See photo) He introduced the Private Eye
Podcast, and he wrote questions for QI and Only Connect. So when I read the book, I just kept seeing his face as the narrator. Has anyone else ever done that? Just me then. Anyway, the whole thing looks set up to be made into a three-part series on ITVX. It's that kind of book.

To church this morning. Sometimes church is a comfort and a strengthener for the week ahead. Sometimes it can just open you up a bit and make you feel a bit raw. This morning it was the latter. At the moment, work is difficult; obviously, there have been problems with our home, which is a permanent building site at the moment, and a couple of other things are taking their toll. This meant that I spent a good proportion of the service with my bottom lip decidedly wobbly. I was told once that people say church is for softies who can't cope with real life, but in reality, it forces you - almost like nothing else - to face whatever you are dealing with. I'm trying not to overthink things. There's a lot going on, and I am generally quite shattered. All the best to everyone staying up to watch England. I am hoping to be fast asleep. Have a good week.