the dog in a suitcase and dad in the boot.........

Well where to start, this time last year I had just lost my dad, he had died, unexpectedly and had left me feeling very confused, and angry with him, but also desperately lost without him.  As we had had him cremated, I had arranged with the funeral directors to collect my dads ashes directly from the crematorium as i passed it each day on my way too and from work.  However when I rang the crematorium to check what time they closed each day, I discovered that my dad was not at the crematorium and i would have to contact the funeral directors directly.  When i rang the funeral directors a nice lady went to check and see if dad was with them, then came back and told me that yes he was with them, but they had no idea how as all the paperwork said  I was collecting his ashes from the crematorium,  but it wasn't a problem I told her I had an appointment that afternoon and was leaving work early so would be able to collect my dads ashes later that day.


I arrived at the funeral home and rang the bell, the nice lady appeared and asked me to wait in the lounge, while she got dad's ashes (to be fair she said deceased's remains) but that sounds weird.  Now i am not sure what i was expecting but it wasn't what happened next as we had asked for dad's ashes to be in an eco box as we intended to scatter them alongside my grandparents so there was no need for anything fancy, the nice lady entered the room carrying what can only be described as what looked like a Posh london stores (beginning with H) gift bag!!  and i am sorry but i was desperate to laugh, making my excuses I left.


Now my appointment was with the grief counsellor at my doctors surgery, and the carpark there is tiny, so i planned to park in the side street, but I was now in a quandary as i had my dad in his posh gift bag strapped in with the seat belt on the passenger seat (had a nightmare about collecting him and him spilling on the floor of the car as I had to do an emergency stop)   he looked expensive and stealable, i would have to put him out of sight and the only place for that was in the boot, which made me think about the story of the dog in a suitcase, which in turn made me laugh till I cried..........     You see I had a friend who was dog and house sitting for some elderly family friends in London while they were away for several weeks in New Zealand seeing their son and new gradnchild, and while they were away my friend came down to find their dog dead in his basket, now she's not the sentimental type so she looked in the very well organised info file and found the number of the vets the family used and rang and asked if they knew if the family had pet insurance, which it turned out they did and this would cover the dogs cremation and all she had to do was get the dog to the vets and they would take care of everything.......  which would have been great if my friend could drive or had a car,  so she sat a thought for a bit and decided after looking at google earth that the vets was only one stop up on the tube and if she put the dog in a suitcase she could just wheel it to the tube station and then round to the vets....... sorted.   So she hunted the house and found an old suitcase in which the dog would easily fit, and she set off to the tube station which was only at the top of the road, she got on the tube no problem BUT when she got off at the other end she realised that the only way out of the station was up a large flight of stairs, and the dog was no light weight (more of a dead weight) so she began dragging the suitcase up the stairs huffing and puffing like the very unfit person she was, until a tall dark stranger in a suit  took pity on her and asked did she need a hand with her bags, my friend was so grateful and she and the stranger began dragging the bag up the stairs together " man what have you got in here" said the tall dark stranger,  this is where my friend lost all her composure and started rabbiting about being a student and constantly having to pack all her goods in to a suitcase and move you know like her laptop, cd's dvd's etc etc you get the picture, eventually a few agonising minutes later my friend and the tall dark stranger got to the top of the stairs and onto the street at the front of the station, which looked very different from what my friend could recall from google earth and as she looked around her for a point of reference she recognised to be able to head in the right direction for the vets surgery, she realised that the tall dark stranger in a suit had left without her thanking him, THEN she noticed that not only had he left but he had TAKEN the suitcase!!!!!!!!!!!!   She stood in shock for a few minutes not sure what to do next, its not as if she could report it to the police, as all the man had stolen was a dead dog in a suitcase, and an old suitcase at that, they might think she was weird, so my friend did what any sane person would do she turned and ran back down the steps and got on the next train back to the house.  


so you can see why i found myself laughing whilst putting my dad in the boot so that no-one would steal him in his expensive looking gift bag from the passenger seat of my car while I was at my appointment with my grief counsellor.....................  actually it was my first and last appointment with her as she just didn't get me or my sense of humour,  however the ladies in the Boots Opticians have eaten out on this story for months and were much more helpful in me getting over my loss......  so from me a big thank you to them.  Hope you have enjoyed how i got from a dog in a suitcase to my dad in the boot

The Great Princess Castle Birthday cake part 2

Stage one the Base, covered in buttercream

OK well the great Princess castle birthday cake continues we left off last time with the cakes made and ready for icing.  This is the maideria cake covered in vanilla buttercream ready for the sugar paste in pastel pink to cover it.  


I also had bravely decided to place the castle in its one grounds and have a moat, yeah i know.


so first of all i needed a cake board and this had to be strong, so a tray that my grand-father had made was dusted off from my mums larder and washed and covered in clingfilm ready to be made into the grounds.
 we started with the lawns, 

the lawns

the I looked at the moat and had a big discussion on what colour the moat should be, then i rummaged in the kitchen draw to find something that I could use to make flowers and grass, which i made out of a star cutter and a christmas tree cutter that i used only one side of,  then i rolled some read icing and made the centre of the flowers,  it looked pretty good i thought.




then it came time to position the castle base once it had been covered in the pink sugar paste, that i made from scratch!!!,  It was really easy as i followed the directions in the Lindy Smith book that my darling biker boy bought for me.  

then I had to make doors and windows for my castle 

then i had to work out a way to make a drawbridge

then it was time to make the lilac sugar paste to do the next level 

then finally the morning of the party and the birthday girl safely off to school, the towers and the princess and the prince were added to the castle 

The smile that was on the face of the birthday girl when she saw the cake was worth all the hard work.................. and it tasted great too.......... RESULT