This is a Jamie Oliver ‘Flavour Shaker’ – an extremely tactile, rather strange gadget designed to take the labour out of mixing up toppings and dressings for food. It was a Crimbo pressie off my little sis, Jan.

I think they’ve marketed it wrongly – it’s a wonderful ‘adult toy’ (NO, not THAT sort of adult toy) – you know, I could see it in those catalogues of things like those rows of metal balls that when you ping the ball on one end the one on the other end jumps away from the pack and flies up in the air – dunno what they’re called – Newton’s Cradle maybe? It could even on a par with those walls of tiny metal rods that you push your hand or face (or whatever takes your fancy) into and your face or hand comes out in relief on the other side – again I have no idea what the name of these things are. Yep – this flavour shaker would sit alongside Rubik’s cubes or any of the above in my book.

Basically, it’s a clear but coloured plastic pear-shaped thing that has a horizontal split in the middle with a screw thread. On the outside, it’s covered in grippy surface and it’s hollow but with something rather gorgeous inside.

I have a real thing for tactile things. It’s one of my peculiarities. If something doesn’t feel nice, I don’t take to it at all. This thing feels so wonderful, it’s hard to describe. It’s the size of a large marble and similar weight, maybe slightly heavier but its surface is just amazingly smooth. I think it may be an unglazed pottery ball but I have to say, I’m not completely sure of that.

Anyway, not only is the ball gorgeously smooth, when it’s inside the flavour shaker, the whole thing feels really fab. It’s like a Weeble for adults!!! The ball rushes around inside it and I could play with it all day.

You are supposed to put in herbs and oils and ‘stuff’ then shake it all up and use it to dress salads or as a marinade or whatever other use you can think of. Personally, I think I’ll just sit on the sofa and play with it for a bit, having done very little in the way of cooking recently and tonight we’re having real ‘comfort’ food, in the shape of shop-bought pies.

I think its function as a stress-reliever after another day spent sitting on a motorway in heavy traffic is much more relevant to my world tonight. None of these horrid journeys make me want to venture over the Tamar much.

Oh and BTW - I have had something of a small personal victory tonight - I set a custom white balance on my own, unaided and without a parachute!!! Hurrah says Linda, Hurrah echoes DM.....dunno how long it'll stay in my thick skull but it's still there a couple of weeks after the four million, seven hundred and twenty five thousand, four hundred and thirty fifth time of being told how!!!!!!!!

Two years ago, I was on my way home from a Spurs defeat (and tonight we are trailing the Baggies away too) and last year, I was taking a rare journey into black and white photography.