Getting my kick from champagne.....

The weather, as we all know, has not been good and the knock on affect means getting stuff done seem harder. So, I thought, I'll channel John Mortimer, who I believe believed, a glass of champagne every morning was the way to a long and happy life. And as I had some urgent stuff to complete before a looming deadline, who better to channel. And as my mate Dave had been given an enormous amount of champagne for his birthday..... what better way to start a Sunday?

The night before Dave's darling husband had treated us all to an evening at the theatre: we saw A Flea In Her Ear at The Old Vic, a bawdy farce involving a lot of doors, a case of mistaken identity, Tom Hollander twice and a man in rather revealing long-johns ........ terribly silly and very funny. I stayed the night at Dave's to enjoy the planned birthday breakfast, mindful that I had work to do and a bit worried about the amount. Breakfast become brunch and one glass soon became two. I began to feel better about the day. We had creamy scrambled eggs, toasted muffins and bacon, hot coffee and more champagne, croissants and buttery brioche. And finished the bottle. But this was good I thought, no need for lunch. In fact no need for anymore food all day, more time to get that work done. I was feeling a lot better.

I finally left, full of good intentions and quite a bit more champagne, and took the tube from south to north, the whole afternoon a head of me to get stuff done. But first, I thought, I'll just nip into Tesco, pick up some bread. And milk. And then, fuelled with new found energy, I thought I might as well get a few more things, save time, no need to do it later, and I'd have food for the week and that would give me more time to get more work done.

With so much extra time I thought I'd have a cup of tea, take the edge off the champagne, and a quick glance at the Sunday papers where I saw a recipe for slow cooked lamb and Puy lentils, all of which I just happened to have. So then I thought, even if I wasn't hungry the son would be, so I thought I'd just stick that in the oven first....... and then I wouldn't have to think about it later and that way I'd have even more time.........to get the important work done.

However, as the champagne high dipped along with the sun, day became night and after my efforts in the kitchen and all that reading, I felt far too exhausted to start any work. Clearly John Mortimer was made of sterner stuff...........still, the lamb was delicious.

Top tip: drinking champagne for breakfast may not make the weather any better but it does make the day feel a whole lot sunnier, do try it.