How will I adjust post-Olympic games?

They've been such a big part of my life over the past 16 days. I didn't expect them to be. In fact, I didn't even watch the opening ceremony! But then I started reading comments about how spectacular it had been. I logged onto the BBC website and found a 6 minute highlights video and "wow!" ... it was pretty special, wasn't it?

Since the opening day, I've watched sports I'd never previously given a second thought about. I've watched triathlon. I've been mesmerised by the cycling in the velodrome. The tennis at Wimbledon was magical. The swimming and diving at the aquatics centre made a real splash (if you'll pardon the pun) and the athletics ... well, that was simply outstanding!

From what I've seen on television, from what I've read in the papers and from the Tweets I've seen, I think it's fair to say that London 2012 has been a roaring success. Team GB did us proud!!! I've been enthralled throughout the whole event.

So what next? How will I fill my days if not by watching Jessica, Tom, Chris, Ben, Andy and Mo?

Well thankfully, the English Premiere League football season kicks off again next weekend, so I guess I'll be glued to my television as once again, Chelsea begin their campaign to regain the title and of course, retain the Champions League trophy. Come on you Blues!

I know of no ILLEGAL impediment ...

Those were his exact words.

He should have said "I know of know LEGAL impediment", but I figure it was such a minor technicality and if anyone asks, I tell them that as of today, we've been married for 19yrs.

photo taken the day Iain asked me to marry him in 1992

I get easily distracted ...

It's one of my [many] areas for development (aka weaknesses). I start a project, then something new, and often shiny, catches my attention and then I just kind of drift off ...

The [not so shiny] new that's causing my current distraction is Instagram, and more specifically, #photoaday type challenges. My favourite of which comes from Fat Mum Slim's blog. My friend Helen introduced me to the joys of #photoaday photography. I started last month and found it really quite easy to use the daily prompts to take a photo each day and upload them to Instagram. Here's some of my images from July ...

"Lunch"

"Letter"

"Building"

"9 o'clock"

"Cup"

Unlike some other #photoaday challenges, with @fatmumslim's version, you get to see the whole month upfront. Straight away, you can see all the daily prompts and it's give you a head start and a bit of time to think / plan. Spontaneity was never my strong point. Mental note to add that to my "areas for development" list!

If you're interested in joining in, here's August's list:

Recipe #30 of NEWrecipes52 ...

I tried out this new recipe a couple of weeks ago, but me being me, I totally forgot to share it with you ... d'oh!

I've never tried banoffee pie before, but the combination of flavours really appeals. I mean, you really can't go wrong with banana and toffee, can you?


The banana flavour was achieved by incorporating mushed up, over-ripe bananas into a pretty standard cupcake batter mix ...


The toffee flavour came courtesy of the caramel icing. I was debating whether to call this icing my NEWrecipe52 #31, but I figured I was unlikely to use it with any other recipe, so I just kept it with #30 instead ...


First up was making the caramel. Brown sugar, butter and a splash of milk all put into a saucepan and set on a high heat ...


Until bubbling rapidly and a gorgeous golden colour ...



It only took a couple of minutes and then it was just a case of adding the icing sugar. The recipe just said to stir it into the caramel in batches, but I found it really tricky to get the mixture smooth. So instead, I turned to my trusty electric hand whisk and it worked like a charm ...


The trick to using this icing, is to work whilst it's still warm! Even by the time I was piping my 6th or 7th cupcake, the icing was beginning to firm up and was proving hard work to get out of the bag ...


I topped them off with slices of dried banana ...


The banana in the cake made them beautifully moist and the caramel icing was really quite simple to make and super, super sweet. These little cupcakes were the perfect afternoon treat ...