Growing up as a schoolchild in the seventies with red hair could be challenging. My mum always used to say, “you’ve got to learn to fight your own battles”. A harsh lesson I thought, as bullying is a difficult one to overcome. But look at me now, standing on my own two feet, with my own little business with the support of my lovely family and friends. For the last four days I have been fighting another horrible battle, which couldn’t have come at a worse time for me. Chicken pox is a pretty awful disease in it’s own right and if unlucky enough to catch it in adulthood, it is 10 times worse. (No I am not making it up, check it out on the internet!) Thankfully today, I had my mum with me who has prevented me from going into mental decline of continued isolation and my mother-in-law keeping my son entertained at hers for the day. I am so grateful to them both and also to my friend who stepped in to look after my boy yesterday, despite having 3 kids of her own.
I have had lots of SMS well-wishers, calls and also emails from complete strangers empathising with my situation.
So at precisely this moment in time, I was supposed to be at a proper bakery, mixing up some 55 kilos of dough, in preparation for a big bake-off in their bread oven at some unsociable hour of Friday morning. As I reported last time, I was supposed to be representing myself at the Kings Walden Farmers Market at 11am on Friday [ok, ok, you don’t have to plug it anymore… inner monologue]. I am devastated that I can no longer fulfil that obligation, owing to the growing number of blisters breaking out in every area of my body. According to my research, I could still be manufacturing these little blighters well into Saturday, so I am not yet sure when I will resume ‘normal’ baking. New information will be posted up here and on my Jo’s Loaves FaceBook page as and when I am creating nice little crusts of my own… (sorry, couldn’t resist!)
I was going to put some pictures up that my mum and I took today, but you’ll be pleased to know, I thought better of it. Not a pretty sight, but we had fun doing it.
Next Bake Day: TBC