Am hating all this unrest and destruction. Plus my bike is not getting mended as the shop keeps having to close early in case of trouble. Monday night my pal Anita came round with her 16-year-old son for a post-holiday roast chicken chat. After we ate, he said he was off to his pal’s house, slap bang in the middle of Hackney. I didn’t like to interfere (but wanted to say, ‘Are you CRAZY, letting him walk the streets at 10pm in all this trouble?’). Yesterday I overheard my Ewan saying to his pal, ‘I didn’t even ask if I could go out, as I knew Mum wouldn’t let me.’ (I think the truth is probably that he had no desire to take the risk of leaving the house, and I was a handy scapegoat).
Big son Rory (20) is home from music college and his band (Georgie and
the Georgia Boys) are rehearsing every day as they’re playing at Green Man Festival next weekend. I LOVE their music, but alas my admiration is not shared by all our neighbours, one of whom came to the door looking very agitated and saying she was having trouble working. I’d never seen her before…and it’s because her house is quite a long way away. Mmmm – maybe it was a bit loud. The band obliged and toned it down quite a bit.
My lovely living room has been completely taken over with all the kit, but I do like having teens around the place, messy as they are. Another thing I also like doing is baking for them (drives Rory mad for some reason…probably thinks I’m overstepping the mark and should butt out of their lives). Anyway I take no notice and made a batch of pancakes for them yesterday for when they finished rehearsal. Here’s the recipe…
SCOTCH PANCAKES
2 cups self-raising flour
Half tsp each baking soda and cream of tartar
Tablespoon golden syrup and knob of butter, melted together
2 large eggs
Cup of milk
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Put everything in a large bowl and mix like mad with a balloon whisk. Heat a flat griddle or large frying pan, melt a tiny amount of butter, then place three separate tablespoons of mix in the medium hot pan, well apart from each other. When bubbles appear on the surface (takes about 30 seconds), turn over with a palate knife and leave to brown on the other side. Transfer to a cooling tray and continue with the rest of the mix. We had them with maple syrup Ewan brought back from his trip to Canada (more of him very soon). Yeeumm…
aggiemackenzie 
Looking forward to the publication of your cookbook Aggie!
all the best
Sandra (in Aberdeen)