@Muse I'm trying to cultivate the habit of smiling at everyone, especially people working in shops. If it helps just a tiny bit I think it's worthwhile.

[Pablo] What, the first ever? Wow :-)

Discovering that plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose is actually true.

A warm, but slightly overcast day with a pleasant breeze.
Means I can sit in the 'garden' and 'work', and see WTH I'm doing on the laptop. Yes, I would be more productive if I sat indoors at my desk with a keyboard and the bigger monitor, but perfect days like this are rare and should not be squandered. And I've squandered more than a few, so let's start appreciating them.

The prospect of baking a cake tonight for the first in-person team meeting for a while tomorrow & being able to make it lactose-free for one particular colleague who often misses out.

I wasn't very bold, was I? Maybe a good thing. You'd all want to come to our team meeting for a piece of Devonshire Honey Cake (see the BBC's Good Food website recipe)

My mother, who was quite a good baker, once decided to make honey cake. It wasn't good at all, and nobody wanted to eat it, so we left it out for the birds. After about a month we came to the conclusion that neither the birds nor any other beast would ever touch the stuff, so we had to throw it out.

I also have a honey cake story. My mother, also quite a good baker, once decided to make honey cake. The whole house smelled of honey while it was baking, yet the result was an ordinary sponge cake that hardly tasted of honey at all. Maybe it’s like brewing coffee, where the optimal temperature for extracting the flavour will send the flavour flying off into the air given any chance. Is there a baking equivalent to the espresso machine, that bakes the cake in a sealed oven?

I've never had honey cake, only honey buns, but those are good. Reminds me that I should get some next time I get some groceries.

The recipe calls for boiling the honey, butter and sugar together. I kept it under a boil - I reckoned I'd lose all the honey aromatics by boiling. It seemed to work. But the cake needs 50% longer in the oven than the recipe states.
The prospect of going to try out a new (to me) car later this afternoon. It's got heated seats.

(pen) Heated seats? Wow! Can we call you Ms Winterbottom?

[Rosie] Not for much longer. Presumably that's the point

I'm not sure if this is a little pleasure, as I only did it for the lulz, but toasted cheese Brevilles. I have a sandwich toaster, which has been used maybe once since my student days. On a whim I decided to randomly use it again. Mmm. Hot toasted Breville sandwiches.

They were all right. In fact they weren't a bad lunch.

I think that does count as a pleasure, but, yeah, only a little pleasure. Still, that's on topic for this game.

Cleaning the toaster, on the other hand... well, I was reminded why toasted Breville sandwiches are primarily a studenty novelty.

[Simons] Is that like a grilled cheese sandwich? I do love grilled cheese sandwiches, but even if I had a kitchen, it's too hot for grilled cheese sandwiches.

I did remember to get some honey buns and I got some chocolate muffins, too.

The Breville is supposed to seal gloopy fillings inside the bread. It's basically a waffle maker with different shaped heating plates