I realise this is a badly-done version of a cliché shot and I’m sorry. I’m honestly trying to make myself pick up my camera every day again because (and I’m aware that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” as they say) I have found myself not picking up a camera for weeks on end and that’s not good for me when I’m trying to develop a small supplement to my meagre student loan selling stock images. I wouldn’t dare submit this pic to a stock agency because it’s….. well, let’s face it, pants……. but if I don’t pick up my camera to take any photos at all then I’m also not going to find the odd gem to upload to the agency I use.

Anyway, I’ve never claimed this photo diary was a matter for lapidary precision in terms of how I would go about it, nor even that the photos would be great every day (to be frank, I’ll happily settle for one good day a week).

The use of basil, chilli and garlic had to be postponed from last night because I was nervous about treating a total stranger to “pasta puttenesca”, if that’s the right spelling, when I make it hot enough to blow your socks off (or even a tart’s draws). So last night, for the stranger in our home, I made something a little less pungent.

That means, because I don’t have enough imagination to do otherwise, that tonight DM got the pasta puttenesca that was meant for last night. In turn, that meant that this is my photo in the light of my tiredness after yesterday’s adrenaline rush left me. Yep – in my world anyway, this is the first tired old “making do” shot of the preparation of dinner.

People sometimes call the combination of basil, garlic and chilli the holy trinity of food and I can see why although having had my head bitten off for being blasphemous on pbase before I’d never dare to use such a phrase myself so I’m calling this the unholy trinity of food…….considering it’s about to make a dish that translates from the Italian as “whore’s spaghetti” I think, then it’s an alternative that works for me.

Today I got myself some results from last term’s efforts – a stonking 91% in my Chemistry exam (go to the top of the class, Linda Mingay, yes, it’s where you belong) and therefore a course average of 86% (6th in the class of 121 students). I think I might just be turning into a proper Chemist instead of just a food alchemist. Add this result for Chemistry to my Maths exam total (97%) and half of my results are in and are pretty good for the not-very-clever one.

Last year, I was worrying about my image. In 2004 - about a year after staring my photo diary, I was also worrying about my image....though only if I'd been run over by a bus - I was chucking out my knickers!