Coconut marble cake

We were shopping in See Woo the other day doing an exotic stock-up. The kids were more than impressed with the dragons left over from New Year.

At the check-out Thomas noticed a tiny bottle marked 'Coconut Pandan Emulco'. At about a quid, he was intrigued so asked the check-out operator what you use it for. She had very little English so simply replied 'cake'.



So we brought it home and asked for ideas on Facebook. This recipe was suggested. Not seeing Malaysian as a hindrance, Thomas rustled up something Lots could work with and a few hours later, Granny had a very coconut, glow-in-the-dark birthday cake that tasted wonderful! I definitely think we'll be stocking up on more pandan emulco next time round!

A shoe solution

Amaia has grown out of her black indoor shoes for nursery, so I have replaced them with the next size up. Nursery has two rooms, each with fifty morning kids and fifty afternoon kids, every day. That's a hell of a lot of identical black shoes, so they name the shoes in each child's group colour. Amaia, as you can see, is in the yellow group.

Occasionally, when Amaia grows out of something before it looks worn, I pass it on to one of her two younger cousins: Catriona who is two, or Elisabeth who is one. Today she tossed me her old black shoes, that look as good as new, and announced: Just give these to Amanda the next time you see her and then as an afterthought, Oh, and remember to tell her she'll just need to change Catriona's name!

Cute definition

Cute conversation overheard by Thomas on passing the bathroom...

Anna: ... and he fainted.

Amaia: What does fainted mean?

Anna: It's when you fall asleep from shock.

Amaia: Oh, right!

That certainly conjures up some strange images in my mind!

Anna's granny

Once a month the primary sends home the kids' classwork for parents to see how they are getting on.

While checking through (7 year old) Anna's, this weekend I came across this piece about my mum...

French, through Scandinavian eyes

Léon has a very Scandinavian outlook on language (funnily enough!) Completely out of the blue today he remarked: The Danish alphabet is quite like the French one, but they pronounce 'h' really differently.
Me: How good are you at both?
Léon: Well, I know the Danish one perfectly but I'm not as good at the French one.
Me (trying to be helpful): Tell me which letters you're unsure of and I'll teach you them.
Léon: Well, I only know A-Z.
Me: Huh?
Léon: I just don't know which order they add in à ç é and the other ones in at the end!

Isn't that sweet? Because I learned Swedish and Danish much later than French and German, I spent countless hours trawling through the A or O section of dictionaries never finding words like: år or øllebrød. I simply couldn't conceive of them as being different letters elsewhere in the alphabet, but Léon, as a native Dane, can't conceive of the French mixing écureuil, être and the likes in with espèce!