As our schools Harvest Fair is tomorrow all the kids were sent home last Monday with white cake boxes for us Mums to fill for the occasion. As I have two young ‘uns at this school I was presented with two boxes – thank god I don’t have triplets!

I baked two chocolate fudge cakes and was careful to follow the instructions of the Principal by writing on the boxes if the cakes contained nuts or not. This sort of thing – people with these food allergies – is new to me as when I went to school I knew nobody with allergies. There was one girl with asthma and the usual kid – a boy – who suffered regular nose bleeds, but we all ate anything and everything that the canteen sold at break time. But because you never know exactly what goes into the flour or cocoa that you buy I decided to cover myself and declare the cakes as containing ‘traces of nuts’. I think it is easier that way…

While I was baking last night there was a knock on the door and an elderly lady was standing there asking to see Arnold’s Mum. I have to say she was quite odd looking and as pale as a ghost – it was unusual to see such an old person out so late and in such cold weather. After speaking to his Mum for about ten minutes she left and disappeared into the darkness – the weird thing is during the conversation she told Arnold’s Mum that she had died several years earlier while taking a bath and had not been happy with the way the police had treated her corpse afterwards…

Arnold’s Mum swears she had never met the woman in her life – we don’t know what to make of it!