It is plastered with advertisements for classes: life drawing, guitar, baking, dance, English lessons, capoeira, a beauty school, personal defence, fabric painting, zumba and kung fu – the list is endless.
Laine in particular remains caught in her dream of childhood: "a ball of sun, the pollen of privet hedges... misty locker rooms at the club, lessons spent baking on the clay fields, sunk in sunny lethargy".
And then subdivides within those to cover a range of services, from cleaning and handyman repairs, to language and acting lessons, to baking, event catering and even customised jewellery.
She was always doing something, whether it was entertaining friends, trying out novel recipes, taking intricate Batik lessons, conducting baking classes or helping underprivileged kids read and write.
Family Twist (020 3130 4853; family-twist.com) offers a special two-night pre-Christmas break in Paris, featuring a chauffeur-driven tour, private treasure hunt in the Louvre, Christmas photo workshop and a lesson in baking festive patisserie.
This week's Poetry Pairing matches Calvin Forbes's "Momma Said" with a 2009 article about a mother giving her adult son a lesson on baking Irish soda bread — "Nanny's Recipe, Still in Demand".
For example, at Uppigard Natadal, had we made arrangements beforehand, we could've ridden the donkey for $11 an hour, or spent $22 for a one-hour lesson in baking Norwegian flatbread; large groups can arrange guided hikes to the top of Maelefjell mountain or to a nearby waterfall.
The King Arthur Flour book is extremely thorough and often technical, offering what amount to lessons in whole grain baking.
I certainly learned my lesson with the enamel baking dish.
Cake baking is an art and mistakes are all lessons in perfecting the art.
