80 Breakfasts

05/24/2013 02:17 AM

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Fried Fish with Garlic Lemon Butter Caper Sauce

As I watch little C march out into summer school in her fluffy skirt and sleeveless top (summer!) and her electric blue flats, I realize, once again, how quickly time flies. It seems like only yesterday she was a helpless little thing who would wake up every 2 hours needing to be fed, breath smelling sweetly of milk. Now she is a far from helpless, fiercely independent little fire

80 Breakfasts

05/16/2013 11:42 PM

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Breakfast #67: Frittata with Fried Bread and Cheese

Days have been busy and the summer heat is not letting up. I console myself with the hypnotic, almost unbearably sweet smell of summer fruits ripening in my fruit bowl, mangoes and pineapple. The fruit bowl I put square in the middle of my dining room table, serving as both a receptacle for sustenance and colorful decoration, making me feel smugly thrifty.I do like to think that

80 Breakfasts

05/09/2013 12:18 AM

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Nigella’s Mother-in-Law’s Madeira Cake

I am that type of person that usually drifts towards the more chocolate offerings on a dessert menu. I am, by far, unapologetically and absolutely, a chocolate person. The darker, the better. The more layers of it, the happier I am. Chocolate chip brownies a la mode with chocolate ice cream? I am all for it. Chocolate soufflé with chocolate sauce? Ye

80 Breakfasts

05/02/2013 10:20 AM

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Baked Fish Fillet with Tomato, Olive, and Capers

Do you know that time between grocery trips when your vegetable crisper, fridge, and pantry are at their leanest? I know that time all too well. Despite my love for cooking, and my aspirations at domesticity (what with homemade stock, cookie dough in the freezer, and all that jazz), I am nowhere near the experienced homemaker. I haven’t yet perfected the art of regularly s

80 Breakfasts

04/24/2013 11:18 AM

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Breakfast #66: Spanish Chorizo Breakfast Skillet

Just when I think that this summer could not get any hotter. Every year I find myself saying, “this is the hottest summer ever”. And every succeeding year, the summer blazes its way to my doorstep to top last year’s performance. On some paranoid (yes, I am and not too proud of that) and sci-fi-loving (yes, I am and proud to say it) level I can’t help thinking that we are s

80 Breakfasts

04/16/2013 10:48 AM

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Red Wine and Short Ribs Adobo

I’m always thrilled when another Filipino cookbook is published. When it comes to the world stage, our cuisine has always mysteriously darted to and fro between the light and shadows. Now you see it, now you don’t. Now it is a no man’s land of fear-factor-esque bites, now it is a treasure trove of secret recipe passed down from generation to generation. Now reviled,

80 Breakfasts

04/07/2013 10:13 PM

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Breakfast #65: April Bloomfield's Porridge

Summer is here with a merciless vengeance. The air is so hot that it hurts just to sit still. Right now the only thing I can imagine that would hurt more would be the electricity bill this month, which no amount of hardcore scrimping intentions can ever hope to bring down. And when you work from home, and not in some cushy, fully air-conditioned office building, you find y

80 Breakfasts

03/31/2013 12:31 PM

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My Favorite Banana Bread

How is everyone enjoying this fine holiday weekend? Stupendously I hope! We spent the long break at home, despite the siren call of sunny beaches, and were rewarded with a quiet city, no traffic, much needed lazy days, and many occasions to get together with the family and friends who also decided to stay put. A lovely barbecue and swim at a friend’s new home (little C cer

80 Breakfasts

03/23/2013 05:22 AM

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Baked Salmon with Mayonnaise and Dill

I was snuggled in bed the other night, way past my bedtime, watching, as I love to do, reruns of Nigella Bites. I love Nigella. If you don’t, that’s fine, just please indulge me. Yes, yes, and yes…like the vast multitude I have long fallen for her turn of phrase, the way she makes eating and cooking so sensual (which it should be! It is about the senses after all), t

80 Breakfasts

03/12/2013 10:48 PM

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Lamb Fried Rice

Sometimes life hands you a little fright to remind you of how lucky you really are. Not that I am in any way unaware of the gems life has strewn across my path…but, as with most people, I am no stranger to trivial discontent and the worrying mind-whisperings it brings. We all fall victim to this, if we are honest, and I certainly am no different, despite my best and most valiant

80 Breakfasts

03/02/2013 12:19 AM

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Breakfast #64: Ruth Reichl’s Perfect (for me) Pancakes

Have I mentioned that my husband does not like pancakes? I’m sure I must have. In any case, he doesn’t, further illustrating the universal truth that no one is perfect. Like many of my countrymen, he prefers a more savory breakfast consisting of rice (preferably sinangag or garlic fried rice) and one of our local breakfast meats/fish, of which there are, in all fairness, a

80 Breakfasts

02/22/2013 08:38 AM

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Pork Steak with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Versatility. The ability to adapt, to change, to evolve. To be resourceful enough, and flexible enough, to know when a set course may not be the best one, at least not for now, and the ability and chutzpah to roll with the punches and see alternate routes…some maybe even better than what you initially planned. The clouds hide some very lovely silver linings for those brave

80 Breakfasts

02/15/2013 12:45 AM

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Chickpea and Eggplant Masala

It’s only February but I have to say…summer is upon us! We had the most fleeting spell of cool weather this/last year. The Christmas season (when we usually feel that mild chill we look forward to all year round) was unusually bereft of cool days. January saw a couple of weeks of cool wind that had us quite excited, until it left just as suddenly, leaving a blazing hot sun

80 Breakfasts

02/07/2013 08:10 PM

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Breakfast #63: French Toast "Suzette"

Do you have a grand aunt? A grand ole dame of a grand aunt? I do. And let me tell you, they are the best ever. Mine ran away to Spain in her youth where she spent many years doing what I probably will never fully know. She played flawless bridge, if the many trophies on her shelf speak true, and even flew to Monaco for a tournament, many moons ago, where she saw

80 Breakfasts

01/31/2013 03:02 AM

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Asian-Style Pork Stir-fry

I have some very exciting news to share! I am now contributing recipes to Yahoo! Philippines! One of my resolutions last year, which continues to be something I want to pursue this year, is to share more recipes for simple home-cooked meals that, hopefully, inspire people who have never really cooked before to take those first tentative (yet ever so important) steps into the kitc

80 Breakfasts

01/26/2013 03:26 AM

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Garlic Butter Prawns

Who doesn’t love Saturday mornings? The weekend is just beginning, with the promise of seemingly, at that sun-kissed moment at least, endless time and possibilities. The load of work rolls of our backs, even if only for a little while, and we are revitalized. That’s what it feels like for me in any case.My Saturdays are, for the most part, fairly simple and non-glamorous.&n

80 Breakfasts

01/18/2013 09:53 PM

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Duck Confit Fried Rice...and some links

Hello weekend and hopefully some down time!It’s been a wringer of a week and next week looks to be more of the same so I’m hoping the weekend will bring me a spot of lounging around…even if it’s just a couple of hours with a good book and a chocolate croissant. I’ve decided that, aside from the big goals that I’ve set in the beginning of January, I will set small goals every week.

80 Breakfasts

01/13/2013 10:09 AM

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Mongolian Chicken

Batten down the hatches. Looks like a storm’s coming.I am sitting at my desk looking out of the window. This very spot is one of my favorites in our little flat. Perhaps that’s why it is exactly here where I decided, three years ago when we moved in, to locate my writing desk and laptop, facing this window, which looked out into the world. When you live in a fla

80 Breakfasts

01/08/2013 01:16 AM

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Oatmeal Walnut Cocoa Nib Cookies

Happy New Year!Another year dawns bright any sunny…if not literally, then at least, hopefully, in our figurative perceptions of it. I for one am chomping at the bit to launch myself head first, with arms wide open, into 2013. Before hurtling down the unknown but promising adventure of this new year, let me take one last look at the year that was. 2012 definitely had its moments o

80 Breakfasts

12/21/2012 11:28 AM

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Sichuan Chili Salt and Happy Holidays!

It’s certainly been a while since I have been back in this space! And how I’ve missed it so. But December being December, there have just been too many things pulling me in all sorts of directions, that I have once again neglected the cozy little haven I’ve cobbled for myself over here.Work is the main culprit…as I’ve mentioned before, December being one of, in not the most, busiest ti

80 Breakfasts

11/28/2012 11:51 PM

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Creamy Mushroom & Bacon Pasta

When I was pregnant with little C, I, like all expectant mothers, had my own hopes and wishes for my daughter-to-be. I didn’t have her whole life planned out from before she even arrived though, not at all. To this day in fact, I am, admittedly, not as organized in the child-rearing department as I ought to be. Nursery rhymes? Arts and crafts time? Daily schedules? Pl

80 Breakfasts

11/17/2012 10:02 PM

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Breakfast #62: Bacon and Eggs en cocotte

I've always been a touch shameless when it comes to adapting inflections and expressions from other cultures. I take what I like and use it without thought to the language police that may soon come knocking at my door for blatant misuse of material that does not, rightfully, belong to me. Sometimes, I don't even know where a certain pronunciation comes from...I just like the way it rol

80 Breakfasts

11/08/2012 12:46 AM

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Chocolate Crinkles

How are you all holding up friends? I hope all is well wherever you are! Over here it been busier that ever. Work has been, well, work. Hopefully I haven't accumulated any more white hairs than I already have over it, because really, I honestly don't think I am blessed to be one of those people who pull off white hair with elegance and panache. As it is, it's been 38

80 Breakfasts

10/25/2012 08:52 PM

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My Favorite Sandwich (and a list)

I am such a delinquent. It's been almost two weeks since I've been here last and I have nothing to show for it but a sandwich. I know. And I promise, or at least very fervently hope, to have something fancier for you when I next post. But for now, let me just say with as much passion, that this is one of my very very favorite sandwiches. Ever. In the histor

80 Breakfasts

10/14/2012 10:59 AM

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Vanilla Bean Pound Cake (and the winners!)

Hello all! I hope everyone is having a happy Sunday! Whether it be enjoying the sunshine or cozy-ing up inside, out running around or in being lazy, being with family and friends, or even just quietly recovering by oneself from a tough week...hope you are well!I myself am recovering from a particularly tough two weeks so this will be a short post. I did not want to end the week,

80 Breakfasts

10/06/2012 10:50 PM

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Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup

What a week this has been! As I sit here on my desk I can barely manage to keep my eyes open and my shoulders from drooping with fatigue. I won’t go into the gritty details here, because really, who wants to hear about that? Work has just been a wringer with curve balls left and right – throw in intense technological dramas with the hard drive and you have quite the birthday week

80 Breakfasts

09/29/2012 02:39 AM

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Vanilla Bean Éclairs (and a giveaway!)

When I was a little girl I hated ballet class. I was never one for intense negative emotion, not for any virtuous reason, simply because I was, and am, a generally mild mannered person. But ballet class I hated. I can’t really recall any other thing from my childhood that provoked that fierce a dislike. Not even chicken livers nor tennis lessons…and that is saying a lot.I w

80 Breakfasts

09/21/2012 11:38 PM

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Smoky Roasted Oyster Mushrooms

Do you believe in signs? That the universe speaks to us in certain ways and we must make sure that we take the time to stop and listen? That when we listen to what is truly in our hearts and take action, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, the energies-that-be will show us tokens of reassurance that we are indeed doing the right thing and provide us with enigmatic helping h

80 Breakfasts

09/15/2012 01:28 AM

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Boquerones en Vinagre

I was in the market the other weekend and spotted the loveliest looking little fish. Their smooth bodies, no bigger than my finger, were translucent white with a shiny silver stripe down its length. They were plump and clear-eyed and fresh and absolutely tempting. These little fish are called dilis in our local vernacular and, to the best of my knowledge, are some sort of anchovy

80 Breakfasts

09/08/2012 03:25 AM

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Grilled Cheese and Jalapeño Sandwich

I have the most peculiar restaurant bad luck of having my favorite items on the menu suddenly disappear. It has always been this way. I like something. I fall in love with it. I keep coming back for more. Then suddenly, one cursed day, I go back to find it gone. Into thin air. Without a trace. Uncanny.Because of this, I think I have unconsciously tra

80 Breakfasts

08/31/2012 08:55 AM

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Spicy Korean Cucumber Salad

I have a good friend N, who loves everything Korean. She waxes enthusiastic on anything from K-pop, to digital perms, to where to get the most authentic Korean food in the city. Yes, she’s been to Korea and is going again next year. Yes, she knows the names of all those cutie Korean singers. Yes, she refers to Korean dishes by their proper names and not by “the yummy grille

80 Breakfasts

08/26/2012 03:18 AM

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Dulce de Leche

Whew. What a week and then some. As I sit here in my ‘office’, catching a much needed breath, just for 2 seconds, before I go off again, I literally force myself to, as Max so succinctly put it, ‘be still!’.Be still --- how hard can that be?Harder than it looks.With the world, and life, moving so much faster than ever before, filled with so much more (more things to do, see, say, buy,

80 Breakfasts

08/17/2012 11:30 AM

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Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Goodness. Since when did a Friday behave like a Monday? What that we could have all Fridays dawn bright and sunny, and unfold like a circus parade with dancers twirling and flags waving and a big band proclaiming TGIF to the whole world!If only that were true.But, what can I say; real life has its hills and valleys. Or, as we like to say in the archipelago, its high tide and low

80 Breakfasts

08/09/2012 12:43 PM

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Breakfast #61: Steel Cut Oats with Vanilla Poached Pears and Creamed Honey

As that first ray of light tentatively broke through the clouds and then, with much more certainty and resolution, hit the pavement, it was as if you could hear a crowd cheering. Had we been living in a gloomy gray world for so long? Had it been that long that we hadn’t seen the sun? Had it been that long since all we could hear was the incessant, merciless machine gun patter of

80 Breakfasts

08/04/2012 06:43 AM

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Rum and Date Cake with Caramel Sauce

It’s been quite a wet and windy week over here. While the Western world is somewhere in the middle of summer frolic, we are stranded (pun intended) in our rainy season…monsoon rains, buffeting winds, floods, wonky internet, and the occasional power outage. I swear next year I’ll be buying myself some cute rain boots instead of stubbornly amassing flip flops and sandalsall year long.&nb

80 Breakfasts

07/28/2012 05:19 AM

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Creamy Squash Carrot and Longanisa Soup

Sometimes we get so lost in our own doldrums that we miss out on all the goodness that is around us, just waiting to be noticed. The worse is when we get so entangled in small problems that they soon feel like mountains (which once were molehills). Life is too short for fretting over molehills. Heck, life is too short for fretting over mountains either. There is much too be

80 Breakfasts

07/20/2012 09:00 AM

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Breakfast #60: Baked Egg in Avocado

Hi All! How has your week been? Good I hope. And, if it’s not going exactly as you wished, less than stellar so to speak, well come sit by me and let me practice my amateur gin tonic mixing on you. I’m getting pretty good, if I do say so myself, but I need guinea pigs. Things are going as usual over in my corner of this dusty, but loveable, city. Work, work, and

80 Breakfasts

07/13/2012 10:34 AM

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Brown Sugar Cookies

Friday is snack sharing day at little C’s school. Of course this has put me in an absolute state thinking of what to make. I don’t know anything about pre-school and its customs. What is de rigueur? What is taboo? My only other experience with pre-school was when I actually went myself, and try as I might, I can’t recall too much detail. I am quite familiar howe

80 Breakfasts

07/07/2012 08:08 AM

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One-Banana Banana Bread

I know, I know. Not another banana bread recipe. I can’t help myself…I love a good banana bread! And although I do have my favorite “best” recipe (which I haven’t shared yet…so I have to warn you that there will be at least one more banana bread post hereabouts), I can’t help trying out new ones. Especially now that little C is off to school and banana bread makes such an ex

80 Breakfasts

07/01/2012 12:42 PM

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Munggo with Gata and Kalabasa (mung beans with coconut milk and squash)

The windows of our bedrooms face due east so we get the sunrise every day. As much a sunrise as you can get in the middle of the city. Which, actually, has its own special magic…at least to me. Rays of light suddenly bursting into being like so many bright yellow arms reaching around towers of concrete, all at once being reflected and fractured and reflected again, like a beam go

80 Breakfasts

06/22/2012 11:11 AM

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The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since I had had so much success with these Absolute Best Brownies, despite the universal skepticism towards any recipe that claims to be the “Absolute Best” or “Best Ever”, I decided…why not try my luck searching for other “Best” recipes? What would I have to lose? On one hand, it could turn out disappointing, in which case I will only be one batch of something or other worse for wear,

80 Breakfasts

06/18/2012 09:37 AM

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A Winner...and Another Breakfast

I hope you all had a wonderful Fathers Day weekend...especially the men of the hour, those stalwart fellows we call papa whose broad shoulders and strong arms keep the monsters at bay and whose wild tales water our imaginations. It was a full weekend for us. Not of the jetting off to some fantastic locale full, but that of the Saturday night sleepover with the little one type full. &nb

80 Breakfasts

06/09/2012 08:55 PM

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A List, A Giveaway, and A Breakfast

Hello!! I have missed you so terribly much. You stalwart souls who remain readers of this little blog. You who have just now dropped in (nice to meet you!). You who leave comments on every post. You who have never commented at all. This space where I feel so at home. I miss you, and it, all when I am (figuratively) away.Life has been, to say the least, hec

80 Breakfasts

05/31/2012 01:23 AM

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Absolute Best Brownies

I’d like to apologize, firstly, for my longer than usual absence here. We have been eking out as much as we can from this summer (the hottest on record so far I’ve heard!). That means spending our precious weekends and holidays in search of a cool body of water in which to immerse ourselves. Now that little C has grown to be quite the beach bum that also includes finding a sandy

80 Breakfasts

05/17/2012 10:40 AM

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Rice Cooker Mushroom Rice

This has been a cruelly hot summer. Particularly and most especially in the city. Steaming pavements, blazing sun, heat-headaches and the sticky lethargy that comes upon you when you feel like you are trapped in an oven. The slow roast…that’s what this summer has been. It is driving people bananas and electricity bills sky-high.Which is why we have been escaping to the beac

80 Breakfasts

05/11/2012 12:53 PM

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Breakfast #59: Peanut Butter and Honey Granola

One of the things I resolved to do this year is to make more things from scratch...to make more of our basic commodities (as far as food is concerned that is – I haven’t yet reached the exulted heights of making my own detergent or conditioner) and condiments . I love the feeling of smug satisfaction I get from having homemade jams and chutneys in my pantry, stock in my freezer, and jars of

80 Breakfasts

05/04/2012 10:41 AM

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Grilled Figs and Cheese

I have a friend called T. She can leave a person quaking in their shoes with a word and can slay dragons with her eyes. She is certainly no one you would want to mess with. She walks with a confidence that is both hard-earned and natural-born, can look anyone in the eye, and can wring success out of even the most stubborn situation. She is also not scared of frogs…which is

80 Breakfasts

04/27/2012 12:57 PM

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Mushrooms with Chinese Goose Liver Sausage (and a giveaway)

Through almost seven years of blogging I realize, with a start, that I haven’t really changed all that much. Well, I have grown somewhat I’d like to think. I believe I can safely say that my photography skills have improved to some extent – although, truth be told, I suspect that is largely due to my camera upgrade than from any amazing talent on my part. I have also, finally, ma

80 Breakfasts

04/20/2012 10:35 PM

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Filipino-style Chicken Curry

Having a little one around, in particular one that seemsto be, for the moment at least (fingers and toes resolutely crossed), enjoyingthe discovery of new foods, turns my thoughts to my own childhood foodmemories. And, inevitably, to thoughtsof recreating them for her.Without even realizing, I have already started, as mychildhood favorites have become adult favorites as well. Monggo gu

80 Breakfasts

04/13/2012 11:59 AM

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Breakfast #58: Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Banana Pancakes

It’s been a whirlwind past couple of weeks. Exciting but absolutely hectic times at work,the details of which I cannot reveal lest they take away my super secret spybadge. Ok, not that exciting. But absolutely hectic yes, with lightsflashing, sirens wailing, and a psychedelic cherry on top. After which, and thankfully, we had a lovely beach holidayover the Easter weekend.&n

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