Hatching.

Urgh, Monday. It took me aaaaages to hatch this morning. When I was eventually vertical, I headed off to work to do a quick hour or two before catching a taxi to Altens to pick up Dad's paintings that weren't selected for Aberdeen Artists' exhibition. The taxi driver was horrified to hear that they hadn't been picked, and even asked me how much he wanted for them both. I think he was genuinely considering it and I left him with Dad's website address.

Got back to work and carried on with my report all day. It was lovely and sunny outside, but cold... It still made me pine for the beach though! M was working late so I got home and started cooking. I made dinner (chicken casserole, butternut squash mash), then started on the food for tomorrow night. We've got guests over and I'm planning a 3-course meal, but I want to be able to spend time with them rather than cooking when they're here. I made a loaf of soda bread with a mackerel pate, slow-roasted tomato pesto and aubergine caponata for the starter. For our main, we're having roast lamb, which I'll have to do tomorrow - but I pre-made some individual potato dauphinoise in the lovely mini Le Cruset dishes M's sister got us. Finally, for dessert I'm planning a plum crumble, so I baked the fruit with cinnamon and sugar. All in all, about 4 hours of solid cooking. I love it, it makes me feel so relaxed - and excited to serve it to friends! M offered his help and ended up doing some washing up - although I did save him some dark chocolate from the caponata to reward him :o)

I'm reading an odd book on my Kindle just now: Never Let Me Go. I know it's quite popular but I don't know the storyline - I never read blurbs as I think they give away too much. At the moment I'm in a state of complete confusion over what's happening - and I'm already nearly 25% into the book! It's un-put-down-able... I read a little before I went to sleep and ended up staying up far too late... Idiot.