Stuff I've been doing while I've not been here

Recently I have been ______________________________


Baking like a fiend: Over the past year and a half or so I have gotten quite into baking. It started off with making some cupcakes and treats for my weekly 'Sunday Gathering' with my mates and quickly evolved into full on birthday cake baking and decorating. It's gotten to the point now that my friends are putting orders in, I kid you not.
I made this for my nieces first birthday
They're watching me!?
Only the other week I baked about 50odd biscuits. Some were getting posted up to my sister for her birthday, some to Cheshire to one of my friends who was going through a rough patch (cause receiving baked goods in the post is bound to cheer anybody up) and all the rest were getting sold in my office to help raise money for Jeans for Genes.

And I'm currently trying to figure out how to do a turn-table cake for someone in work and have been asked to do 2 wedding cakes!

Not buying a house: This is in spite of going to numerous house viewings (6 this week) and the estate agents getting to the "You've been looking for a while now" stage of proceedings. Which is basically them trying to tell me not to be so picky and buy a house already.
Sure the view would be stunning... but the commute would be terrible
And, unfortunately, it's not like my previous experiences in buying stuff. Normally when I go shopping, I walk into the store, see if I like stuff, put myself into a mini-guilt trip about wanting to spend money, leave the store, decide that I want it anyway, return to store, check out everything again (just in case something better magically appears on the shelf) and then eventually buy it anyway.

Dead easy.

Not like houses. That requires dealing with idiotic estate agents, arguments about getting things in writing, getting lawyers and people just to convince other people to lend me money. And the odd guilt trip about spending money... cause, well, it's still me we're talking about.

Buying a house would be so much easier if it worked like any other normal shop. Tho I would expect that the shopping trolleys would be huge.

So if anyone has a really nice house in Lincoln that they are willing to sell me for hardly anything I would be really grateful. I may even bake you something.

Getting most of the ground floor in the house I am currently living in torn out: Dan, the guy that owns the house I live in (he doesn't like it when I call him my landlord), came round with his parents to decorate the house. All was going fine, until the paint that they were putting up on the walls was flaking off as soon as it had dried. It was then decided that we should get someone in to check for damp.

Turns out most of the ground floor, up to about waist height, has really bad damp. Which would explain the huge bulge in the wall by the kitchen door. The guy came back about 2 weeks ago to gut the place and damp-proof and replaster everything.

Some of it still isn't dry... so he hasn't been back yet to re-attach the skirting boards.

Given that I hate tidying/cleaning at the best of times, I didn't want to clean everything until he has finished... cause that plaster dust gets EVERYWHERE. Even in rooms upstairs. With the door closed.

... everywhere...

Geocaching in formal wear: Yes, you read that correctly. Geocaching. In formal wear.

My friend, Stacey (who you may remember used to be the Scout Leader for the 9th Lincoln) got married! And, stupidly, she invited Mim and I to attend. You would have thought that having left the group that she would have taken advantage of the situation and be rid of us, but no.

While the photographs were being taken Mim and I saw this tower...

South Kyme Tower
... and I commented that the area was just begging for a cache. Turns out there was one... and it was within 200m of where we were standing. It would have been rude for us not to. And during the break between the meal and the evening do, when everyone went to the pub... we may or may not have gone out and got 3 more.
See... actual proper formal wear
Beating sprogs at monopoly: This one is actually scout related! We had a board games night at the scouts a while back and I played some of the sprogs at monopoly.
That was what I ended up owning... pretty much the whole board
Yeah... they lost. Badly

Signing myself up for more work: Yup, I am actually a glutton for punishment. I've managed to sign myself up for not one but two new scouty projects.

You can stop shaking your head in dismay now...

First, I've been asked to be a subcamp leader at Poacher 2013, something that I am rather excited about. I've never been to a Poacher camp before, so I am kinda getting thrown in at the deep end

The second thing is super-secret at the moment, so you are just going to have to wait. If I told you what it was then it would spoil the event. And we don't want that now do we? All I can tell you is that it requires a heck of a lot of planning and logistics.

Doing big secret stuff: Even more secret stuff. It's big. And it's secret. I so want to tell you ALL about it. But I can't. Not yet anyway. Soon... hopefully.

Yes, I do realise that I am a bit of a tease.

And finally...

Winning the World Music Networks Battle of the Bands: For the past year I have been a member of the Choir Invisible. And we've recently won the World Music Networks Battle of the Bands, which means that we are going to be recorded for one of their albums! Absolutely fantastic news you'll agree, so I have to go now and brush up on my swahili...

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