Hi!
So, apologies for the frankly unforgivable gap in blogs, but I do have a pretty good excuse, honest.
See, at the end of July I packed up my things & moved halfway across the country, to the tiny seaside town of Southwold, to start work at the Two Magpies Bakery. (I was lucky enough to have two weeks work experience here in June, & even luckier that Jim & Rebecca offered me a job!)
So I moved into Southwold & was initially stayed with Hanna, the cafe manager at the Bakery, as she had a spare room & lived just a short walk from the Bakery. Luckily, Hanna was very accommodating, as it took me an awful lot longer than I thought it would to find anywhere to live!
It's crazy here in the summer; half the houses are holiday lets, the town is full to bursting & there was pretty much nothing to rent in town. Then this one place came up, but the landlady was a mean old woman with unreasonable demands, so we let that one slide... There was this one tiny flat, right in the centre of town, which I'd looked at & passed on as really it seemed too small... There's one bedroom, & my lovely fella & I were really hoping for something with two bedrooms, maybe even somewhere to grow tomatoes & the like...
So we kept looking. And looking, And looking. Until finally, we gave in & went for the one bed flat, & actually it isn't that small. There's a window seat, so that's where the tomato plants are going to go =)
So finally I'm housed! I have a place to call my own, until my lovely fella moves down here in November, then we'll have a place to call ours =D
So basically, I've had near on no proper internet access since the end of July; just wifi, & that was sporadic at the best of times... Hence no blogs posts. Now, I have genuine proper actual internet, & it's glorious =D
But enough of my housing woes... This is supposed to be a record of my adventures in baking, so let's talk about baking!
Honestly, it's hard work. I'm working 10-11 hour shifts 5 days a week. Before the summer season ended at the start of September, I was working 6 days a week. I come home & parts of me ache that I didn't even know existed before. I feel like an old woman sometimes; my knees ache, my hips are sore, & don't even get me started on my back...
But I love it. Even with the long hours & the aches & pains, I love it. I wouldn't do anything else now =)
Jim trusts me to run the bread bake, while he deals with the laminated goods; croissants, pain au choc & sausage rolls & the like. I do the Tuesday night shift on my own now, so Jim & Rebecca can have an actual weekend, with proper days off.
It's been quite a learning curve so far, & I'm still trying to get the hang of the Friday night bake, which is huge compared to the other nights. I'm determined that this week I shall tame the beast & successfully juggle the 14 or so breads to be baked that night! But it's wonderful to be able to put into practise everything I learnt at School, to be an actual proper baker (although of course I'm still learning). It's such a thrill, to stand there at the end of a shift, look at the shelves full of bread, & think, 'I made that'. It's brilliant! =D
I'll try & keep this updated a bit more regularly from here on. It should be easier to do now that I have actual internet access (not that I'm excited about actual internet access, not at all...)
For now though, I need to go find some food before I head off to bed again!
See you later! *waves*
