After a month of no baking I returned to the wooden spoon with a banana bread. No, we haven’t jumped back two years and are back in lockdown again, I just love a bit of b bread. I used to say I didn’t like it because I don’t like bananas, but then one day I tried banana bread cookies and I kept slotting them into my mouth before I finished chewing like a child and I knew banana bread and me were meant to be.

I moved home for a month from November to December and my parents’ house isn’t made for baking so I had to take a break. By the end of my six weeks, I was dying for my own space but in general, I enjoyed being at home. My Mum likes to keep the house warm and is liberal with turning the heating on. I remember coming home from university during Christmas break the heat closing up my throat and leaving me gasping for breath. But then again, when you’re a student you obviously don’t turn the heating on until January at the earliest so I don’t think it was that warm in reality. I’m looking forward to having my home fish and chips. Something about the takeaway you grew up with is so basic but better than anywhere else. I remember walking to the chip shop with my Dad when I was a kid and I’d have to do a mix of walking and running to keep up with his pace. We’d get in from the cold and the woman would greet us cheerfully and tell me how tall I’d grown even though she’d only seen me here last month. There’d be a long queue and as we waited I’d lean my whole body weight against the counter and let the fish and chip warmth make me all hot and clammy and leave me smelling of grease. Then I’d watch my Dad accept the food over my head and he’d pass it down and let me hold the bag as we walked home, telling me off if I started swinging it back and forth too wildly. When we went back this time the woman was gone and no one remarked how tall I’d grown and I knew better than to lean against the counter even though my lips were turning blue and my teeth were chattering.

When I told people I was going home for a month the common response was, ‘Oh no, how are you feeling about that?’ and I didn’t know. It felt like going backward and like my life was split in two, one-half full of friends, work, drinking, and fun plans, and the other like I was seventeen again, hiding away in my room and giving short snappy answers when I was making coffee in the morning to my parent’s interrogating questions. My parents and the house are the same, but outside of that, the area is so different now. The people have changed, the weird everything for 99p shop is now a fancy barber, and the bus routes have changed so I jump on with blissful confidence but then end up stranded. I saw my secondary school friends and we went to get bubble tea in the town at the same place we always used to meet growing up. When I got there I was surprised to look down and see that I wasn’t wearing my school uniform and that my prepubescent eczema wasn’t all over my hands — thank god. The roads are the ones I passed my driving test on, the roundabouts where I stalled four times as my sister yelled at me from the back of the car, and the corner my teacher tried to teach me to reverse around where I answered ‘What’s that?’ to her instruction to ‘look out the rear window’. Our next-door neighbours have moved and I no longer had to be frustrated by the yapping of their dog, only without it felt like something had died and everything was horribly quiet.

A month flew by and while I was home I was like a special guest star on a show so my parents were very accommodating. I ate a lot of my mum’s Japanese food and it was wonderful not having to pay rent – yippee!

I’ve now moved into the new place and wanted to make banana bread because it’s simple and quick and I thought I would need something easy to get back into the rhythm. It is delicious and very soft, although the top doesn’t look all that exciting. I did consider making something fancier like a miso banana bread or adding chocolate chips but sometimes there’s no beating simple things executed well. I will share with my new flatmates and eat for breakfast in the mornings.

I have lots of baking planned for the future and hopefully no more long breaks!

Goodbye for now.

Watch the reel.