Gajamay - For Good

As teenages we idolised uniqueness, everything has to be cool and wicked. Growing up in a boarding school meant we had to learn quickly, master interpersonal skills early and treasure each other's company. We made up secret languages, turned some insignificant streets into regular hang outs, made up code names and abbreviations. One day, someone said that "gajamay" is a word used in Africa for "we are friends", of course we adopted it straightaway, only close friends had the honour to be greeted with gajamay. I never found out the truth about the word but ten years on, when these close friends are now all scattered around the world. Keeping gajamay helps to remind me of this closeness we once had.

Wicked - For Good

I'm limited

Just look at me - I'm limited

And just look at you

You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda

So now it's up to you

For both of us - now it's up to you...

I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today

Because I knew you...

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me

Is made of what I learned from you

You'll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart

And now whatever way our stories end

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring

By a wind off the sea

Like a seed dropped by a skybird

In a distant wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

Because I knew you

I have been changed for good

And just to clear the air

I ask forgiveness

For the things I've done you blame me for

But then, I guess we know

There's blame to share

And none of it seems to matter anymore

Like a comet pulled from orbit (Like a ship blown from its mooring)

As it passes a sun (By a wind off the sea)

Like a stream that meets a boulder (Like a seed dropped by a skybird)

Halfway through the wood (In a distant wood)

Who can say if I've been

Changed for the better?

I do believe I have been

Changed for the better

And because I knew you...

Because I knew you...

Because I knew you...

I have been changed for good...

When we were orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

An extract from the last page of the book was what drew me into taking it out at the library:

...My feeling is that she is thinking of herself as much as of me when she talks of a sense of mission, and the futility of attempting to evade it. Perhaps there are those who are able to go about their lives unfettered by such concerns. But for those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm...

...drifting through my days here in London, I believe I can indeed own up to a certain contentment. I enjoy my walks in the parks, I visit the galleries...This city, in other words, has come to be my home, and I should not mind if I had to live out the rest of my days here. Nevertheless, there are those times when a sort of emptiness fills my hours.... 

Plum & hazelnut upsidedown cake recipe

This was featured in this week's "Waitrose Weekend" guide. I was impressed that even for someone who's rubbish at baking or following recipes properly, it turned out perfectly moist and spongy. So I decided to share it here. I couldn't find the recipe on the www.waitrose.com/recipe website, so even typed up the whole thing here, happy baking!

Prepare 20minutes
Cook 45minutes
Serves 8 (or a greedy couple over the weekend :-p)

Ingredients
125g butter
50g light muscovado sugar (I accidentally used brown granulated sugar, but seems to work)
50g roasted chopped hazelnuts (couldn't find them so used flaked almonds instead)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 Plums, stoned and quartered (make sure they are ripen, some of mine were a bit sour...)
75g golden caster sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 large free range egg, beaten
150g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml Soured Cream

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4. Butter and base line a 20cm round deep cake tin. Melt 50g of the butter and mix with the muscovado sugar, hazelnuts and cinnamon. Scatter over the base of the cake tin and press the quartered plums into the base.

2. Beat the remaining butter with the caster sugar and orange zest until pale and creamy (is it me or should this specifically say melt the butter first?), then beat in the egg a little at a time (again, shouldn't it say beat the egg first, THEN add a bit at a time?). Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and fold into the creamed mixture with the soured cream to give a soft consistency. Spoon on top of the plums and level the surface.

3. Bake for 45-50 minutes until well-risen, golden and firm to touch. Cool in the tin for 15minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Serve warm with cream or cold. Store in an airtight container.

Nutrition: 245kcals / 4.3g protein / 35.7g carbohydrate / 21.3g sugars / 20.6g fat / 10.3g saturated fat / 1.7g fibre / 0.7g salt per serving

See what I mean by not being able to follow recipes, now?