Week of
The week’s sky 26/10: full moon at 4.12am, in Taurus. 1/11: last quarter at 8.28pm, in Leo.
Fourteen cakes and a scorecard
You have been asked to judge the charity bake-off at work on Friday, on the grounds that you once said something perceptive about a Victoria sponge. Monday brings the list of fourteen entrants, several of them friends. By Wednesday the hints may begin: a colleague mentions, very casually, that their lemon drizzle is a family recipe. On Friday you choose one cake and say why, out loud, in front of everyone. The weekend can be savoury.
Love
At home there is a rival entry: the person you live with has been testing a chocolate cake on you all month. It is good. It may not be the best. Tell them on Monday that you will mark it like any other, and mean it; winning as a favour would spoil it for them. If you are single, the baker whose cake you liked best deserves a word afterwards, about the cake first.
Work and money
Away from the cakes, there is an email to a client you have drafted three times, each version politer and less clear than the last. On Tuesday, write a fourth in five sentences, with the unwelcome part in the second one. Send it before lunch. A client forgives a plain message more easily than a charming one they had to read twice.
Body and mind
Fourteen slices, however thin, is a lot of sugar before lunch. Have eggs for breakfast on Friday, ask for slivers not slices, and keep a plain cracker by your scorecard for between entries. Walk home the long way afterwards. On Saturday, cook something sharp and green, a salad with plenty of vinegar or a broth with ginger, and eat it slowly.
Friday, for choosing one cake and saying why, out loud