Another birthday celebration

Day 23

Every day, I wake up and I think, “right, this is it, this is going to be a great day of eating and exercise and the first of many” but something always seems to prevent that from happening.

It’s Monday, so that should be fairly free of distractions. I wait until 11 am for breakfast — a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea. A couple of hours later I have a packet of Merchant Gourmet Italian style grains. A couple of hours after that, a portion of mixed nuts.

Then, as the afternoon draws to a close, my wife calls to say that her mother-in-law is in town for her birthday and would I like to join everyone at the local posh pub/eatery. Well, it would be mean not to. We have a very nice time while there — helped along by a couple of pints of Birra Moretti. I had a delicious smoked salmon salad, but I didn’t think it would come with potatoes so I ordered a “pint” of “hand cut” chips on the side. When a menu offers “hand cut” chips I think of artisanal food, all cut to a regular shape, with a distinct flavouring of the oil that they have been fried in. Strangely, the chef at this place had mastered the art of hand cooking and frying to match the exact flavour and consistency of oven chips. And the salad came with boiled potatoes — lots of them.

What I think of when I think of hand cut chips | Dan Counsell on Unsplash