Isn’t food such a sensual pleasure. Just take some simple, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil – the really good stuff that has depth of colour and flavour. Add some balsamic vinegar – the thick, dark-brown type that coats the side of the bottle when you shake it, not the thin watery stuff. Bring to the table some fresh, warm bread and you can’t fail to have a superb and deeply satisfying experience.
Mix in a warm evening in the garden, good music and DMs scintillating company and you have a perfect scenario. MMMMmmmm I can taste the fruitiness of the olive oil and smell the potency of the vinegar, even though I am in my office typing this and it all sits downstairs on the side waiting for me. (Well, except for David who is in his office along the corridor from me rueing the day he agreed to do a project for my company that’s causing both of us aggravation.)
I intend us to eat well tonight, especially as tomorrow night I am working until very late. I don’t know, call it a defiance thing – it’s me proving to myself that there is no place like home, especially when it comes to food. It’s really rare that I eat out and find myself eating a meal that is better than we eat at home. It happens a couple of times a year. I have a sneaky feeling that tomorrow night’s meal is going to be in the restaurant of the hotel we are meeting in for two days and that’s always bad. I’m firmly of the view that you sleep in hotels and eat in proper restaurants – not the hotel restaurant. Why does my instinct tell me that won’t happen tomorrow? Let’s just call it a hunch and I’ll report back tomorrow night.
After yesterday’s doom and gloom, plus a grim day at the grindstone today, including one particularly frustrating experience, has led me to consider some of the finest things in my life. I’m harping on about simple pleasures again – just the very act of eating with someone is special……all the better if it is at a table where you can look at the face of the other diner. So often we eat off plates balanced on our knees on the sofa in front of the TV while News at Ten is on.
Tonight will be different.
Strangely we’ve taken to watching it on Sky 957 (which is the BBC South West version) so we get to hear what the weather will be like in Cornwall tomorrow and their local news stories. That’s another simple please come to think of it – I hate technology for technology’s sake but I do love to be able to see ‘home’ on the news.
Last year I was dragging up memories of the past that were deeply traumatic for me - in fact, I think the week of writing that I did starting a year ago today was my finest hour on my photo diary. It was certainly the most personal stuff I've ever written. Two years ago, we'd been away for the weekend and got very wet!