SugarPlumpFairy

It looks like we had a lot of overlap in our reading! I was a massive Chalet School fan and still have a full reread of the series now and then. Other ones that still come out for rereading include the Drina and Sadlers Wells books (I only had the first five as a child, I have a full set now but given how much the quality nosedives after the first few I don't think I missed much!), the Jill books (again, I only had a few as a child but have since acquired them all), Anne of Green Gables series and the first three Katy books. I didn't have all the Noel Streatfeild ones but did have Ballet Shoes and The Circus is Coming (funnily enough the combination of the original thread and seeing a circus tent near Turnham Green while passing on the tube led to me rereading that on Wednesday), and later got the Gemma books too - also, when I was in my first school we started on When The Siren Wailed but my family moved before we'd got very far (army life!) and I didn't get round to reading it until I was an adult. Others that sprang to mind last night while I was turning this over in my head include the Narnia books, the Famous Five (again, I was a massive fan of these - I read a few of the Secret Seven but they never gripped me in the same way) and also the Malory Towers (...although I always had a sneaking suspicion that the character I was most like was Gwendoline) and St Clares series. Five Children & It (and the Phoenix/Amulet sequels), The Railway Children, Carrie's War. Some of the Roald Dahl books. Sweet Valley Twins was my guilty pleasure at one point but I tended to read the library copies rather than have any of my own, so I haven't really revisited them as an adult - Babysitters Club likewise. Saddle Club books - that's another one where I had a few as a child but have acquired rather more since! I expect if I went upstairs and studied our bookshelves I could probably find more examples, we have a shocking amount of children's books for a childfree couple because I hate throwing things out and often get the urge to reread things.

The first few years I baked a Christmas cake as an adult I used a fan oven and don’t recall any major disasters, but we left that house mid 2014 and I have no recollection now of exactly what settings, timings etc I used! A quick look online suggests you would probably need 130 degrees as the cooking temp if it’s originally gas 2? The recipe I use is also gas 2 and I expect I probably just did an online search for conversion.

For those who get the London Live channel they seem to be showing several of the London Children’s Ballet shows this week, in 6am-ish slots.

I booked for a workshop after seeing this post and also didn’t get a confirmation email, so any info you find out about this would be appreciated.