Ellie Stole My Title

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

Shenée had wanted to do something at her place for a while. And it just so worked out that today was Ellie's birthday so Shenée somehow morphed this into "Friendship Day/Ellie's Birthday/Signature Dish Day".

Really what it comes down to is that this team loves each other and CANNOT leave each other alone. We just can't. The project will never end. 

Jefe and Manda couldn't make it, so it was Corrie and Siu, Ellie, AJ and Aubrey, me and Caro and obviously Shenée and Craig. 

Shenée had made her spectacular Cob Loaf with her signature dip which always has us all fighting over it. Ellie had made a creamy, beautiful kumara and chickpea curry and I took an old recipe of Bokhara's* which is just chicken thighs with shitloads of pesto, basically. 

Corrie, enterprisingly, stopped off at a bake sale and got cake from some kids at the side of the road, which made us all very happy. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent laughing and celebrating Ellie's birthday. Shenée had set up a piñata and Caro bought another "Circle of Friends" candle-holder as a present. 

We'd just bought one of these for Loulou and Tiger and they had loved it so much that we decided to get another one for our OTHER circle of friends. Ellie was touched by the gift, but not nearly as much as Shenée who actually teared up when Ellie read the story of the candle-holder out loud. 

"Touch! Touch!" said Shenée. This is a very Shenée thing to do. When she is especially emotional she wants to touch hands with the person or people who have triggered her feelings. So Ellie, Corrie, Shenée and I all held hands and felt all warm and fuzzy inside. 

Siu, Craig, AJ and Caro just peered at us like we were quite bonkers**.

"We're just the husbands," sighed Caro, and rolled her eyes. All the husbands laughed along with her. But fortunately Craig is used to us all by now and took this lovely photo.

But - I'm sure you want to know - what IS the story of the candle-holder? For that you will have to go and look at ELLIE'S blip! Yes! She too is now a blipper and in fact STOLE THE TITLE I WAS GOING TO USE TODAY. 

Not that I mind. I'm delighted that Ellie is here. Stop by and say hi if you like. She'd love it. You might even be invited to join in her circle. 

Ooh, but her blip is currently OPEN TO THE PUBLIC so no names. But you know who we all are.

S.

* I told them the story of Malcolm "Bokhara" Burnes and how he used to live in our cupboard in Edinburgh. I'm sure he'd be happy to know I still use his recipes.

** No comment.