american pancakes and hidden treasures

Last Saturday I had both the most gluttonous breakfast and the largest amount of exercise, since returning from New York. The reason why? My lovely friend Alex and I spent the day together. First off, he offered to come round in the morning to make me American pancakes - wasn't exactly going to say no to that! He's originally from Michigan and an a-mazing baker/pudding maker. He's promised to send me the american pancake recipe, which I will deffo be bugging him for - they were sooo tasty, especially with chocolate chips, sliced banana and a generous drizzle of maple syrup (yeah, I told you they were gluttonous). Perhaps when it arrives I could post it on here...how do you all feel about monstrous pancakes?

We had quite a bit of mixture left over so Alex made a mickey mouse shaped beast of a pancake. It was massive but we couldn't let it go to waste.

After our brunch Alex introduced me to Geocaching. I'd never heard of it before so he, v.patiently, explained it to me. All over the world people hide caches which are basically boxes (varying in size) containing trinkets for swapping, travelling objects and an all important log book to note down that you've found it. The caches are registered online along with their location (using latitude and longitude) and a clue to help you find them.

log book

We spent a good few hours searching for geocaches around Brixton and Clapham Common. It's kind of like a big game, only not everyone is playing. At first I did feel a bit silly looking on the floor and clambering through the bushes, especially in the more busy public areas. But eventually the want to find the cache takes over, although stealth and subtilty are key. We went on six searches and found only two caches. It was a little disheartening when we couldn't find the first two caches we attempted - but since then I feel better because one, we discovered, was only about 2cm long! And I think that's what makes it hard, you really don't know what you're looking for. On a positive note, it was pretty fun finding our first box in windmill gardens. And here it is!

Inside, amongst other bits and pieces, we found a tagged golf ball which had originally come from Germany, and, as good people, we moved it onto another location on Clapham Common. It was an exhausting but fun day and I can see how people can get addicted to it. Two things are for sure: 1. we definitely walked off the pancakes and 2. I will not be able to look at certain areas of Brixton and Clapham in the same way again, particularly because of the four caches we couldn't find...they're out there still, waiting to be discovered.