Sunday, 10th August

We were denied boarding at either The Castle, or Manny’s, last night, as both were closed for private parties. This sent Troy and I into a tailspin of indecision, Saturday night, pouring with rain, and no convenient watering hole. Eventually we decided to go to the smart Thai behind the house, which has a bar. We had a civilized drink, blogging, and flipping the papers, and I was amazed to be reunited with my copy of The Real Greek At Home, which I had left there back at the end of March. We went home and watched No Country For Old Men. What the fuck was that all about, and who in their right mind thought it was great? I am not having a great time with films at the moment. Rock on Hellboy II. As you can see, I have a highly sophisticated taste in movies. Just like books, the more blood, guts and forensic evidence, the better. Life's too short to stick to the worthy stuff the whole time, or any of the time, come to that.

Down to the Arndale, sorry – Southside Centre, armed with a list of stationery items that Fluffy needs for school. How the hell can a couple of pencils, biros, marker pens, and a rubber add up to £59? Admittedly, twenty quid of that was for a Dymo labeler, all retro style, mechanical, none of your electronic nonsense, just letters squeezed out in white from a coloured plastic strip. Very Seventies. And I probably didn’t need to buy the cute stapler that uses coloured size 10 staples. Or the mini Oreos. But at least most of the stuff was genuinely for Xants. I went into Claire’s Accessories, to buy some hair hoojits for myself, and came out with three pairs of silver earrings for her for £11. So that redressed the balance a bit.

Tonight we are having fillet steak, on crushed potatoes, with tomato petals, and truffle infusion, followed by pineapple soup with fromage frais foam.

I’m enjoying this cooking lark.