Thursday 29 January 2009

Going Large

It's been that kind of week. Everything has just been bigger than usual. Like, for example...

1. My smile (and Orlando Winterton's head, probably) when I found out that Mistress: Hired for the Billionaire's Pleasure had won a Cataromance Reviewer's Choice Award.



2. The cover of At the Argentinean Billionaire's Bidding which, along with that of Sarah Morgan's The Prince's Waitress Wife, was blown up to larger-than-life proportions in Borders in Oxford Street at the launch of the International Billionaires series on Tuesday.
(Felicia Field is the girl with the ball. She's the partner of England flanker James Haskell, and the gorgeous face of Mills & Boon's partnership with the RFU.) (Thank goodness.)


3. My sense of gratitude and good fortune to be doing what I'm doing after an evening/late night spent with fellow Presents authors Susan Stephens, Sarah Morgan, Carole Mortimer and Abby Green at the rugby launch party (and afterwards in the hotel bar...) Intelligent, interesting and talented to a woman, these girls know how to laugh and drink champagne in exceptional style. (The hotel barman couldn't stay the distance and went to bed long before we'd finished. )

4. My hangover the next day.

5. My status in the Birthday Cake-Creation division of the Domestic Goddess Stakes , thanks to the impromptu construction of Krispy Kreme doughnuts bought as I hurried back from London on Daughter #3's birthday on Wednesday. In all my years of sobbing and swearing over elaborate crinoline Barbie confections and fairy castles painstakingly engineered from ice cream cones and swiss rolls, none of my efforts have ever been greeted with such delight as this one, or eaten with such speed and relish.

I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere...

11 comments:

Michelle Styles said...

Love the cake.

Hooray for you for doing the launch and for winning the award.
YOu know what I feel about Orlando!

Anonymous said...

Dear India,

I'm with Michelle--the cake was a masterpiece!

I'm so pleased your mid week was so utterly glamorous, you've really earned it. And didn't the Rugby launch look fantastic? It takes a very gorgeous woman to pull off a full length yellow frock doesn't it? (Bitter and twisted mutterings about the unfairness of it all).

Will just have to content myself with Alejandro. And quavers.

Lots of love,

Rach.
XXX

Unknown said...

Thanks Michelle. The award is very like the cake, actually-- unexpected and fantastic!

God yes, Rach. Yellow is NOT an easy colour to look gorgeous in, but she carried it off with effortless aplomb. I'm sorry to have to tell you that I met her at the party and that as well as being stunning she's also a very lovely girl. An M&B heroine in the flesh.

But you're right-- there's always Quavers. The only kind of yellow accessory I'm ever seen with.

Anonymous said...

Yay! Congrats and hugs for the award! Love the cake! What a fabulous thought! I too have been a slave to all manner of birthday cakes. I recall daughter's first...it was a Wilton Pooh Bear, and I mixed the icing with her stuffed Pooh close by, determined as I was to make sure the icing matched him exactly. Just imagine the expression on His face over the course of the HOURS it took to make the darn thing...

So glad you had a blast at the party! You deserved it, darling!

xxTrenda

Donna Alward said...

India - major congrats on the award and more celebrating with a night out with authors and champagne - perfect.

And when I saw the donuts I laughed. I remember us talking about you needing to get Krispy Kremes to take home when we were in London.

Large weeks are wonderful, aren't they?????

Anonymous said...

Many congratulations on the award - very well deserved. Cheers!
And the launch looked the best fun!
As for the cake? Genius. LOL

Anonymous said...

India, love the cake! It was a great week, so lovely to have been able to do it together and with Sue, Sarah and Carole. It's not often we get to meet like that...
x Abby

Kate Hardy said...

Well done on the award, the launch... and the cake. (I have never had Krispy Kremes. And as I know I've been a bad influence on you, perhaps you and Daisy might like to educate me after lunch next month? *g*)

Jane said...

I love the donut cake, too.

Unknown said...

Trenda-- it's amazing the lengths we used to go to, isn't it? I remember staying up most of the night smearing pink butter icing and jelly tots onto My Little Pony when daughter #1 was about 3. Did she appreciate it? I doubt it, but somehow that wasn't the point.

Donna, the KKs are now an un-negotiable part of the deal whenever I go to London. Thank goodness they don't stock them up here because otherwise my guaranteed maternal brownie points are blown right out of the water!

Thanks rayanne! (How come my genius is only manifesting itself in donuts these days? I wish some would creep into the book I'm trying to write...!)

Abby, it doesn't happen nearly often enough. We're just going to have to try a bit harder in the getting together for lots of champagne stakes this year.

Kate, I cannot BELIEVE that you haven't had Krispy Kremes! This is an outrage and must be rectified as soon as possible...Leave it to me!

Thanks Jane! (I'd give you the recipe, but there's probably no need!!)

Anonymous said...

India, when we lived in Jacksonville, Florida (only for a year, 2006-2007), we were near enough to a Krispy Kreme shop to pop in when the HOT sign was lit...OMG! I miss that HOT sign...maybe even more than the beach!

Have you ever made Bread Pudding with Krispy Kremes as the bread? I read a Linda Howard novel once which featured a recipe and lord, have mercy, but it was...well, there really are no words...

Hugs,

Trenda

P.S. Is daughter #2 on the mend? Hope so!