In an attempt to conjure a traditional British Easter, Kate made hot cross buns for the first time… and they very nearly worked! So hooray for Rachel Allen, whose recipe she used.
Kate rather likes hot cross buns, not only because anything that delivers a carbohydrate hit – and with cinnamon! – is dear to her heart, but because of the rhyme, which she’ll provide for the many people who access this site from outside the UK and to whom it may not be familiar:
“Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!”
As a daughter, and a mother of daughters, the implied preference for girl children in the traditional nursery poem/song appealed: if you are unlucky enough not to have daughters, it seems to say, well then, you’ll just have to make do and give them to your sons, but now she thinks about it, she recognises that it’s probably more about the exigencies of rhyme than any proto-feminism. Hey ho.
Happy Easter!
Oh, but, before Kate goes to hit the Creme Eggs big time, here are some reviews of the iPad:
“When I eventually got my hands on one, I discovered that one doesn’t relate to it as a ‘tool’; the experience is closer to one’s relationship with a person or an animal. I had been prepared for a smooth feel, for a bright screen and the ‘immersive’ experience everyone had promised… I was not prepared, though, for how instant the relationship I formed with the device would be.”
Stephen Fry, Time
“The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch. The simple act of making the multi-touch screen bigger changes the whole experience. Maps become real maps, like the paper ones. Scrabble shows the whole board without your having to zoom in and out. You see your email inbox and the open message simultaneously.”
David Pogue, New York Times
“Think of an iPad as a new arrow in your technology quiver. I had high expectations for the iPad and it has met or exceeded most of them.”
Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle
“Is the iPad a perfect product? No. And the omissions will give the anti-Apple crowd plenty of ammo. Why do I need this extra device that’s not a fully-fledged laptop? Where’s the camera? What about Flash?”
Tim Gideon, PC Magazine
“I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop.”
Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal
The big problem I had was in trying to understand what the iPad was for: the answer, it seems, is everything… For anyone who loves new technology, getting the first touch of a new Apple device is a little like laying hands on the Turin Shroud.”
Bobbie Johnson, Guardian technology correspondent.
