THE MASSES HAVE GONE AND IT’S TIME FOR MY CHOCOLATE CAKE 11th JAN

It is overcast this morning and cool, as is the atmosphere at home, yet again. We all rise and head for the stables. Luisa and I round up the horses and they go in to feed. There are 4 clients to ride, one of which is Joel. I love seeing Joel. He is always so happy to see us and very affectionate. I give him a big hug. We tack up. I am riding Apollo. As we leave it starts to rain lightly. The ground is wet. We head out on the road. It’s drier. Cheryl goes directly to the beach with Joel. She will try to teach Joel to post today, so we can get him trotting. The rest of us head towards the cliffs. We pass the Morgan Bay Hotel and turn around at the Mitford Hotel. It is too wet to go to the cliffs. We head for the beach. The beach is almost empty. We have a number of canters back and forth on the beach. It is now really raining but the canters take our focus off the rain. We are drenched and the horses soaked through. We head back to the stables, untack, say our goodbyes and head to the shops. We have no ride this afternoon. I grab some lamb to make a curry. Luisa grabs stuff to make my double layered, caramel topped chocolate cake. We can all rest this afternoon.
We get home and I get the curry going. We can chill for the afternoon. Cheryl has passed out on the couch. Don has gone to bed. Luisa is in her room. It is a pleasure to get on the bed and read a magazine. Luisa is now making my chocolate cake (I don’t do baking!). It is still raining and has become very chilly. Curry is good for tonight. We still have no Internet connection (for almost a week it has given problems). We eat and pig out on cake. I am too tired to shower and retire to bed.