Better late than never...

I made soup on Wednesday.

I didn't write about it. Mostly because I was actually busy and then yesterday I was gallivanting about being a lady wot winez. Oh dear. More of that in a bit.

So I made soup and last night my lovely flatmate added baconz to the soup to create something quite different. She's a smart cookie. Not that cookies are on the allowed list, I hasten to add.

What I put in the soup. Note that this shouldn't be considered ingredients. Too prosaic.

• 2 leeks
• 3 celery sticks
• 3 carrots
• 1 parsnip. At this point the lady on the vegetable stall gave me a knowing look and said she knew what I was making, I do like proper market stalls :-)
• Some white wine, in this case Australian fizz left from my flatmate's weekend of debauchery
• A decent squeeze of tomato puree
• A couple of bay leaves
• Percy the parsley plant
• Ground black pepper
• A dash of cayenne pepper
• 2 veg and 1 chicken oxo cube made in to 1½ litres of stock. Because that's how much the kettle holds.
• About 100g of Pearl Barley, or, as I do it, glance at the bag and decide what a fifth of a full bag looks like. Precision.

Make up the stock and leave to simmer in one pan, along with the pearl barley.

Chop the leeks, celery, carrots and parsnip into little bits. Put the leeks in a second (big pan) add the winez and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes on a medium heat. Or the time it takes to get the music playing correctly through both speakers. Add the rest of the veg and leave to simmer for a few minutes more, remember there isn't much fluid so try not to burn the pan (I didn't). Finally pour in the stock and pearl barley, bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for half an hour or so.

This was a good point to lay on the sofa with a good book, in my case I read some more of Poetry of the Taliban, a really good read!

When the daylight vanishes and your very hungry flatmate appears, throw in the parsley, give it a little stir, set the table and...

Eat.

I must admit, it was lovely. And if it wasn't for the chicken oxo cube it would have been vegan.

Sadly, my halo didn't last.

I was popping in to town to meet with a philosopher friend, but stopped by Holborn for coffee with my flatmate. I was bad and had an iced latte, not even a skinny one. She had sensible camomile tea, her halo lit up Starbucks like a beacon.

Dear diet, it's not you, it's me...

Later in the afternoon I was invited to coffee with my friend @obotheclown, which sounded like a very civilised thing to do. All could have been virtuous if it hadn't been for... My bezzie :-) So we didn't get coffee and instead headed to Covent Garden for a quick drink and chat with @PrincessofVP. The trouble was, after one drink bezzie and I decided we needed to eat. And I'd already broken the diet with the winez. So we giggled our way round the corner in search of the legendary cheez board at the Globe.

Unfortunately, we didn't get there, as we found, much to my surprise, a restaurant next door. When did that appear? We were at least good enough to share a starter, then moved on to a steak, chips and healthiez tomatoes. We didn't have pudding. We might have had winez.

Just to make sure the diet was well and truly ruined we stumbled next door in to the Globe and had a cheez board with a bottle of something or other red. My virtue was ruined for ever.

I did though walk home from Mile End station, which has to count for something. Yes?

Sadly I think my diet is in a lot of trouble this weekend. I'm going to try to be good, at least in the eating sense. But I fear I shall fall ostentatiously from grace.

As you do.