"Couldn't find target."

Attempting to pay bills online with CrappyBank makes us feel about as successful as the ever-returning kamikaze.

Maybe their headband slipped over their eyes.

Sighs.

Preparations

With rum butter made and a handful of mince pies, the next thing was the cake. Not your standard dark fruit with marzipan and royal icing: ginger cake with rum.

So yesterday, after the very fine party at smallphoenix and family's, and the carol service at the Leper Chapel, we embarked on the almost annual ritual of chopping the fruit (pineapple, apricot, mixed peel, dates) and drowning it in rum. Now, having left the mixture to--steep? marinade? fester?--bubble gently to itself overnight., the entire house is filling with the smell of ginger (stem and crystallized; not, however, pickled!) baking. Mmmmm.

More mince pies to follow.

We feel less keen on the impending shopping trip.