When life gives you lemons.....

... I normally like to lie in a darkened room for an undetermined period of time. Or at least loll on the sofa watching back to back episodes of Friends (it still diverts my attention after all these years.....) drinking martinis, eating chocolate, enjoying the misery. Yes.... fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more..... to quote Blackadder. My friends don't want me to wallow, they say: get back in the saddle,  you show them, what do they know anyway. They tell me stories of their on failures, their friends' failures, famous failures. It's all good stuff. The thing is the older you get the harder it is to get back in the saddle and show them. When you're a kid you fall over all the time, I fall over I'm going to need a new hip.

But hey, life's too short so I've counted my blessings and when the going gets tough ....... I get out the paint brushes. It's time to leave what the Americans call, the pity party.

Fortunately, under my sink seems to be a secret portal into B&Q and all the paint and brushes and, yes, sugar soap, I needed was on hand. I mixed a few colours .... 4 years at art college not wasted..... and today I painted my sittingroom pink.

And rewarded myself with cherries and a slab of Beauvale, a delicious, creamy cheese made by those Stilton chaps, Cropwell Bishop. Gorgeous.

 Top tip: think pink!!

Lazing on a sunny afternoon.....

Last weekend I went to a music festival in a meadow in Crouch End in north London....

 and a park in Camberwell in south London.

Who needs to live in the countryside?

When did it become the norm for cars, vans bikes etc to drive straight over Zebra Crossings while you are actually still crossing?

Top tip: look left, look right and run for your life........

Bunny, bunny, bunny......

I have a confession, I have a new guilty pleasure......

I'm addicted to MaltEaster bunnies. I was on one a week now it's almost one a day. If you haven't tried one yet approach with caution.....

Top tip: always start with the ears.

Is it raining with you........

This wet 'n' wild weather maybe wreaking havoc elsewhere, but here in north London my rhubarb is coming up roses....... let the harvesting begin.....

Top tip: Go see Her, it's a brilliant movie and that comes from a technophobe-sci-fi-hating-not-very-keen-on-Joaquin fan!!

I'd just like to thank.......

...... the NHS.
I had to go for a routine breast screen...... getting your tits out for the nurses is where it's at when your old. Fortunately I have spent very little time in any hospital but when I do I am always blown away by the people who work there. All of them. But, as someone who is so squeamish putting a band aid on a child's scraped knee has me practically passing out, I think nurses are astonishingly brilliant. How they get up everyday and go and do that often thankless job, taking care of us, I do not know. Thank God for all of us they do. The nurse was efficiently caring, giving clear instructions and constant reassurance that it would all be over very soon. Any woman who has been through it knows it's not pleasant but it is quick. How utterly brilliant that we are offered this service, without even asking. How utterly brilliant that these nurses are there to help us. Yes, hospitals can kill you but most of the time they are looking after us really, really well. My appointment was over in minutes, I thanked her and with a smile she was gone through the door and on to the next one.

And a big thanks also goes to Patti Smith. Regular readers will know that 'fan' hardly covers my love for the woman, I practically need a restraining order. Billed as an evening of words and music at the Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, it was, by any standards, a blinding gig. Such is the age of her fan-base that even I feel young, always a bonus, but it didn't stop a grey wave surging the stage as we stood and danced, arms aloft, screaming out G. L. O. R. I. Aaaaaaa Glooooooooria!!

Top tip: when suffering from a touch of sciatica, dance wildly with your arms stretched in the air for a while..... works wonders!!

Soup story.......

Having covered winter drinking it's time to do winter eating. Personally, I like soup ..... making it and eating it ....... smooth, creamy, chunky or broth, it's all good as far as I'm concerned. Currently, I'm enjoying Persian Chicken Power Soup by Sabrina Ghayour, by way of Gizzi Erskine out of her, Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts.

So easy, so delicious and highly nutritious. Flavoured with turmeric and lemon it is the perfect winter warmer. What's not to enjoy?

Top tip: for puffy eyes and dark circles, slap on a slice of Granny Smith for 15 minutes and let the tannic acid go to work.

Make mine a double.......

"See you later, oh and I'm not drinking this month."

How many times have you heard that since January 1st? What is it with the rush to abstain the moment the new year starts? Yes, we may all have started drinking earlier than the norm on Christmas Day (I like to start any birthday celebration at breakfast ......) and some of us even had one over the eight on December 31st, but honestly, going dry in January?

It's is not a great month and February is worse, surely if ever there was a time to crack open the Malbec or shake up a Martini it's now. It's winter, it's wet, it's dull, cold and getting colder. Isn't that what vodka is for, to get us through the dark months?

Surely spingtime is when we should cast aside the cocktail and cork the wine for a few weeks, clear up and clean out. Until then, as Withnail might say, I plan to enjoy the finest wines available to humanity.

Cheers...happy new year!!

Top tip: soup, the other tipple to get you through winter. Nigel Slater's dal and pumpkin (I used butternut squash.....) is utterly delicious.