Another thing you can make in the toaster

I've been getting a bit creative in the run up to Christmas. It seems probable that Jo, Thom and I will be cooking Christmas dinner for the masses with two gas rings, a toaster oven and a fish grill, and faced with these daunting odds, I thought I'd better do my homework before it got to 8pm on Christmas day with me desperately trying to squeeze a turkey into our 30cm by 15cm toaster.
We were talking about Christmas desserts at work today, soiling student files with dribble as we dreamed about Christmas cake and sticky toffee pudding. I came home and looked up a recipe online. Sticky toffee pudding - uuuhhhh. Guessed the weight of the ingredients, made a few of them up completely, threw the whole lot into a takeaway tray wrapped in tinfoil (Granny would be horrified) and stood well back. It's bloody gorgeous.

Things I've learnt this week

1 - You can travel 5000 miles away from the UK and still be tortured by Slade and George Michael every time you step into a shop in November and December.

2 - Japanese christmas cards, when you get them home and read the messages, are more like Valentine's cards.

3 - Christmas dinner will be cooked this year by people who admit they can't cook. Duck and cover, everyone.

4 - If you start reading a Scottish book (The Pure Land, by Alan Spence, about Thomas Glover) written in vernacular Scots, you will revert to an impenetrable Scottish accent unintelligable to anyone other than your own countrymen. Gonnae no dae that, ken?

5 - I really need to study more. I went to a meeting at my new school, Shioji, where I talked at in Japanese and every word I thought I knew flew out of my head. So I said, "?" and it was really impressive. I need to study more.