Eric is moving over his stuff to his new apartment, and odd gaps are appearing in the furnishings here. (The half-empty bookshelves looked particularly sad, until we moved the empty shelves as well, and consolidated what was left into a smaller space.) Now it was time for the houseplants. Many of them were more his “babies” than mine, so it made sense for him to take them with him. And overall he’s leaving so much more than he’s taking, so anything he is even remotely interested in, I’m happy to let him have.

(I know I have photos of what this space usually look like, but no idea how to find them.)

I took a trip to IKEA for some completely unrelated things, but realized that they have a decent houseplant department, and for the usual great IKEA prices. Nothing fancy, but that’s exactly what I wanted.

I made the brandy sauce for the Christmas pudding based on BBC Food’s recipe and it’s almost like a jelly in texture. I could probably cut it into shapes. You’d think the BBC would be a reliable source for a recipe like that! When my mum saw the sauce, she immediately guessed that it was the BBC recipe – “that’s the one with 55 grams of everything” – because she’s had the same experience. So it really is the recipe that’s strange, not me mis-measuring anything.

But if you can get past the odd looks, it’s rather practical. The sauce stays where you put it on the plate, and you can take precisely as much as you want.