1) This week’s “laugh out loud” moment was brought to me by Twitter and the hashtag #bakingfails, under which many people had been posting pictures of disastrous baking attempts. The Thomas the Tank Engine Cake above almost made me choke on my (misshapen) scone – it’s a work of absolute genius. Evil, demented Thomas. Bad Thomas. I want an exact replica of this for my next birthday.

2) Mr Bear and Dexter the Dog are getting on very well with their temporary reunion; they have passed the “friends” test and can be confidently left alone together. They are actually more chilled out with each other than they ever were before – no crazy chasing sessions and broken vases – so let’s hope that when the permanent reunion happens in late August they remain on their best behaviour. I’m still up at my parents’ house – what started off as a “cat-sitting week” has turned into “I still don’t have a house to live in fortnight” and may well develop into a month-long stay, as I’m getting quite used to my Mum helping out with the baby! Incidentally, my Mum has written a blog post about having us all living under one chaotic roof – if you’d like to read it then the link is here.

3) I’m drafting a book post at the moment and that should be with you soon, but one of this week’s devoured novels was Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being. It flits between the story (told in diary form) of a fifteen year-old girl living in Tokyo, who is hideously bullied and abused, and the woman who finds the girl’s diary washed up on a beach. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing until about three quarters of the way through when it all went a bit touchy-feely and wordy and it lost the humorous edge that had kept the first part so lively and readable. (I know, you’re thinking “abuse and bullying? Humorous?” You’ll get what I mean when you start to read.) It all just got slightly too serious towards the end, when it was mostly the woman who had discovered the diary liking the sound of her own voice a bit too much, but it didn’t ruin the read for me. I’d still thoroughly recommend. You can find it on Amazon here. If you join Kindle Unlimited then it’s free to read – and the membership is free for the first month too. I’m about to cancel mine because there aren’t enough books available that I want to read (there’s LOADS of chic lit!) but it has been worth it for the past few weeks as I’ve been sitting for long periods of time breastfeeding. Kindle Unlimited is here.