Of all the challenges I might have imagined my raising a teenager would bring, I did not envisage the auditory onslaught of Northern English accents my small Canadian male currently speaks in and medley of quotes from Top Gear and constant demand in said Northern accents “can we go to ASDA and buy some jaffa cakes”, not least because we live in Vancouver, Canada and I, who lived many years in London, can’t ever remember ever going to ASDA.

Even more startling is his invocation of Terry Wogan.  Eventually I will have to introduce him to Terry Wogan on youtube. Ironically the biggest stand off between my mother and her offspring was her insistence on listening in the car only to beeping Radio 2 and none other than Mr Wogan. I will never forgive Terry Wogan for standing between me and the possibility of listening to Culture Club.

I did have quite a jaffa cake habit in 1990’s Dublin, so perhaps that sailed down the genetic lineage.

Fortunately my son does not take my haphazard approach to baking and cookery — which will be a blessed relief to his tastebuds. I take my cooking instructions from him these days to better outcomes.