The rocky road to a Macmillan Coffee Morning!

I think I might have mentioned that the office is having a MacMillan Coffee Morning at the office tomorrow at which I have received the dubious honour of playing "trolley dolly" although I have refused the French Maid's outfit that The Girls in the office had picked out for me......(I really am not that upset. Not sure what an impression I would have made on my new bosses in a frilly little outfit!)

On the basis that there are currently about 100 members of staff in the office (although being a Friday not everyone will be in!) there has been something of a mad dash to produce or prepare cakes to be sold. Accordingly (and given that anything I was going to prepare would be after a two hour commute home!) I decided to go for something that is very easy, and which has always gone down really well in the past......Rocky Road!!!!!

In an effort to give me a little extra time this evening I kinda slinked off a little early, to catch my train an hour early......(another hour to actually spend time at home, not in bed asleep.....gotta be good!). I watched the weather get progressively worse throughout the day in Manchester, but by 4.20 this afternoon it did seem to have calmed down massively, and at worst there were a few spots of drizzle in the sky.....so imagine my delight on the approach to Howden station to be told by the conductor that lightning had struck the station and knocked out all the signals. Stuck outside Howden, advancing at a few metres at a time meant that I ended up home only a few minutes earlier that I would have done normally (.....although I dread to think what time I would have got home had I left at the normal time)

But once home it was time to start preparing......so here we go here is a really easy recipe that has never disappointed. You will need:

100g - unsalted butter
225g - plain chocolate
2tbsp - golden syrup
2tbsp - cocoa powder
2tbsp - caster sugar
100g - Maltesers
100g - milk and white chocolate chips
100g - mini marshmallows
225g - ginger biscuits or digestives
Icing sugar to dust

This is for double the quantity

Steps:

1. In  pan heat the butter, chocolate, golden syrup, caster sugar and cocoa powder and stir together with wooden spoon.

2.             Once melted together, leave to cool for 10 minutes.

3. In a large bowl mix together all the other ingredients, including the biscuits crumbled up into mixed sized pieces.

4.           Bind the other ingredients with the melted chocolate sauce.

6.     Pour the mixture into a 20cm square cake tin and leave to set in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours (or overnight if possible)

7.       Cut into pieces and dust with icing sugar.

Serve and enjoy.....with a nice cuppa tea!










Hope that you enjoy this recipe and the fun of making it!

Thank God for remote access

Today was supposed to be a day off, to finalise the flat, and then to relax after a hellish few weeks of constant running around. After a weekend (extended) which saw me racing from Manchester on Thursday night, home to Hull to then travel to Birmingham for a wedding on Friday and then back up to Hull for a re-enactment event over the weekend the thought of a lie in sounded fantastic.

This was until Friday evening when the landlord telephoned to say that The Girl had returned her keys early and they had been round, and could I just pop back to the flat to re-clean the oven and wipe over the shower screens again! (pretty sure that the place had been spottless when I moved out....but not going to argue when they have my deposit money!)

“Sure, is Sunday evening okay? I can then drop the keys off at 9.00am on Monday morning!”

“That is was fine” - so a start slightly earlier than I had hoped, but the keys were handed in and the relationship was finished! Dead! No More! There was nothing else now that would be part of US, and I could become ME again! (Word to the wise though……apparently it is hugely inappropriate to say thank you to your friends for their support as a status update on “Stalkerbook” – was accused of publicly bitching about her, at which point I received the lash of her friends collective tongues).

The only thing left to do with the flat was to collect the final meter readings for electricity and water.

Advice from the agents - call the property manager.
Advice from the property manager – speak to the agents.
Further advice from the agents – Oh yeah we took over the keys about 2 months ago!

Another trip to the agents to get the keys to the meter cupboard, and the flat keys back, and another two trips through town and I was again saying goodbye to the flat (I hope for the last time!)
Okay I thought……it’s now time for me…..just check my work e-mails so that I am not faced by four days worth tomorrow morning (really should learn not to do this, as it means that they can contact you, and the emergencies just happen a day earlier!)

Having spent the day off, running around sorting other peoples problems, I fancied a coffee……okay I am addicted to the stuff (the first one usually hits the system shortly after 5:00am and then throughout the day they keep coming! I think it is a defence against work mechanism…..the longer I can spend making coffee……the shorter the amount of time I have to spend at my desk!) I have to say that nearby we are really spoiled for coffee shops, especially down Newland Avenue. So with my laptop, and a latte it is amazing how much you can get done! The environment is far nicer than home…..the coffee is fresh…..and if you want a break you can watch the world go by for five minutes (alright you can spend 30 minutes watching the world go by, trying to listen in to the very interesting conversation at the next table without them realising, and then doing five minutes work!)

So as it is, I have solved the problems from work….restored my caffeine levels to around that of the gross national export of Columbia…..and updated you lovely people about my exciting (okay not really that exciting at all!) life. I can only say god bless remote access working…..and caffeine (now I only need to convince my bosses to let me telecommute everyday and I would be a happy little bunny!)