Footpath closed

This sign is available to view on my street. I like it because it makes it quite clear that the footpath is closed. If the sign hadn't been there, I might have tried to slip through the gap to the left of the white board and walk along the footpath. I'm better with unambiguous instructions.

I tried to make cakes yesterday. The recipe wasn't really too ambiguous for a person who is used to following recipes but in the first bit of the recipe you put everything on the list in a bowl and mix it and in the second bit you don't. Well, if you're me, you do, but you aren't meant to. I've made the fudge topping for the chocolate tray bake four times now. The first time my friend watched over me and I did it right. The second time I went upstairs to do something while I waited for things to melt and when I came down they had melted and started to boil. They are allowed to boil but not til after you've added other stuff to what's melted. The third time I pretty much did it right except for trying to sift stuff together straight into a pan rather than sifting it into a bowl before putting it into a pan ready sifted. To be honest, that just made a mess on the cooker and the floor rather than ruining the recipe. This most recent time I forgot the fudge topping had to be made in two separate processes and I put everything in the pan together, melted it then ran out of time for it to boil because I have a Rayburn cooker and I was in a hurry to get to a Governor's meeting before going to serve coffee and cake at a corporate viewing of the England match. The result wasn't wholly successful on either count.