Writing and Rum Baba

I'm in heaven. Audrey and I have come to my favourite place in the world to complete the first draft of Beyond Temptation. At this moment in time I feel like the luckiestwoman alive. Every day I wake up to blue skies and sunshine, I can have a dip in the pool or a walk along the coast. I have a coffe and the lighest broche I've ever tasted and then I sit down with my sister (and best friend) to write about what I am most passionate about; women and their relationship with food and their bodies.

I can't describe just how much fun the process of writing is. I sit propped up on a comfy couch (overlooking the pool) with the laptop, Audrey lies on the other couch, feet up and we write all day and all evening and into the early hours of the morning. We debate each sentence, argue, grapple, get stuck, keep talking. Oh, and we laugh and laugh. Last night while we were writing about overeating triggers, we just seemed to find everything hilarious. We laughed so hard our sides hurt and we had tears running down our cheeks. It was two o'clock in the morning and I hope we didn't disturb the people in the apartment next door! Writing this book is so satisfying and exciting. We're really getting to the nub of overeating and it feels so empowering to be putting into words the work we've been doing both personally and professionally for the past few years.

Last night, after writing for several hours we headed up to Ostuni (the little white washed town on the hill) for our favourite dinner - a panzerotto. A panzertto is a sort of pizza with mozzarella and tomato inside, folded in half and deep fried in oil. It is light and crisp and absolutely divine. I hope that it's the last thing I ever eat. I've been eating panzerotti made by the two Torino sisters since I was 8 years old. After our panzerotti we went up to Ciccio's the ice-cream bar. Audrey didn't fancy ice-cream and had her heart set on a Rum Baba and to her dismay when we got there they'd run out of the little individual ones. She had a taster of pistachio ice cream and some almond one... but nothing hit the spot. She really wanted Rum Baba. They did have one, a rather large 8 portion beauty for £18, but nothing smaller. She sat there with me as I ate my ice-cream looking miserable, consoling herself with the thought of coming back tomorrow when they'd have a small one. And then I thought, why not just the buy the big one? So it's £18 but we'd only spent £5 so far on dinner and Mrs Ciccio had told Audrey it would freeze perfectly. "Get it" I suggested, "Why not?". Her face lit up like a child's! She was up like a shot and came back with a huge box holding her treasure. When we got back to La Rascina she had to wait an hour or so for it to de-frost and when she finally took her first bite she was transported into Rhum Baba heaven... it was the lightest, fluffiest, most delicately flavoured Baba ever, with sweet whipped cream and cherries on top... her huge grin and moans of delight were worth every pound. Giving ourselves what we want is so good for us, even when we tell ourselves it's indulgent or unnecessary. I am sure that our writing was more productive and fun for it. She was happy and satisfied and relaxed... all thanks to the Rum Baba but most importantly because she didn't shy away from giving herself what she wanted and satisfying her desire.

More writing today - we're aiming to complete three chapters on tuning-in to feelings, thoughts and BodyTalk... a chapter for each, a lot of detail... my heart flutters at the thought, spending the day doing something I love is just so wonderful, I am a very lucky woman indeed.