Whilst chatting to son no.2 when he was laid up in hospital we came to the conclusion that university was going to have to be postponed for a year so we came up with a few ideas which would we hoped allay the isolation from his uni friends and at the same time give him some new skills. One of these plans was to have a regular Monday cookery slot, hopefully to teach him some new skills, although to be honest he does okay and can provide a reasonably balanced meal for himself when he wants to put the effort in.

At the moment he’s not really up to cooking proper meals, but heating and mixing ingredients into a batter he could do. So we put together a gingerbread cake, which smells lovely and is taunting us with its gingery treacly scent. I think he did a lovely job and now realises just how quickly a cake can be put together. I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, but as he has lost nearly four stone since the start of all this and is still losing three pounds a week, I don’t think it will do him any harm.