26/12/2017

This morning I went for a slow run by the Cam, armed with my disposable camera because it was a beautiful bright day. I took a picture of a yarn bombing on the Lock, a beautiful yellow and pink sun and next to it the story of how a woman had contacted the artist saying her yarn art and the positive messages that accompany them had stopped her from jumping off that bridge. I took a picture of the little horse that reminds me of Scruffy from the Starhill Ponies, after feeding him a carrot that a family feeding them offered me. I took a picture of fen ditton in the sun, my happy place. So many families were out for walks, almost all with happy smiles on their faces, and I thought of how boxing day is a much more joyful day than Christmas day sometimes, when people can be happy rather than frenetic/perform happiness - as Alex said, Boxing Day is like Christmas Day except there's no pressure of an audience to perform to.

Today also marks the day I saw my first ever nudist, went for a river kayak, got rather wet and subsequently felt so cold I wondered as I sprint cycled back to my house if people were looking at me because my lips were a frostbitten purple (they weren't - I looked entirely normal and I suspect 'people looking at me' was simply a self-conscious imagination on my part a la Sasha from Good Morning Midnight)

In other words I have joined the riverbank club in Cambridge (costumes optional - hence the sighting of the nudist) which encourages wild swimming and owns its own kayaks and has a little garden perfect for reading in. It's a very peaceful, safe space, and the people there are so kind and easy going, and (as they repeatedly tell me acccompanied by much chuckling) 'all mad' - but then, all the best people are.

There is nothing better to warm one's self up, however, than a hot mug of cocoa and a maple cinnamon bun with coconut yogurt and almond butter. (Did I tell you I made my own coconut yogurt? Sadly I will be away for too long to use the current batch as a starter for another batch and so I'll have to buy more yogurt as a new starter but the success of this try has convinced me to make more next term.)

Easy Hot Chocolate (If this hot chocolate were a chocolate bar I'd say it would be about 85-90%, since I like my hot chocolate quite intense, but feel free to adjust ratios as you like)

3/4 mug soy milk
1 heaping tablespoon (basically almost 2 tablespoons) cocoa powder
1 less heaping tablespoon brown/coconut sugar

Heat the soy milk up in the microwave, spoon in the cocoa and sugar and stir it very vigorously with a whisk until the powder dissolves and the milk is all nice and frothy. Add more soy milk to cool it down. (I once had a cup of hot chocolate when I was just as cold after wandering around London, and it was made with coconut milk and tasted divine so I'm very much planning to try that as well!)

**The picture on this post is not of my hot chocolate! I don't photograph my drinks, just scarf them down.