Bare bones and old cans

I’m making preparations for my daughter’s visit tomorrow with spouse and little one (GD2). I suddenly remember the sheets weren’t changed on my granddaughter’s bed since the other ones were here. So a last minute wash, etc.

Also I’m off to Sainsbury’s soon for fruit for tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, followed by some cooking.

There’s much talk at the moment of food wastage with emphasis on the usefulness or otherwise of sell-by dates and also chucking away of leftovers. I do find that my kids and spouses have periodic purges of my food cupboard on the look out for tins of beans dated 1998, etc. I do try to rotate food, so that this doesn’t occur, but I think sometimes they are over-conscientious. The person who spoke on Radio 4 today was a man after my own heart. He said he had some honey which he finally consumed five years after its sell-by date, and it was perfect. As someone else said today, ‘It’s a matter of seeing how something looks and smells and using common sense. I also have a policy of freezing leftover cooked food, which often comes in useful when we’re in need of a quick meal. This too has to be dealt with stealthily and speedily when the next generation are visiting, otherwise anything left on the serving dishes will be binned.

I went to Guildford Writers last night (www.guildfordwriters.co.uk). We were a small select group and all had time to read. I managed to finish off my ‘Going nowhere’ story and received some useful advice. Although I’d managed to give it an ending, it really was the bare bones, but now I have it down, I can work on it. It’s only 1,200 words long at the moment and needs another 500 or so. We shall be alone over Easter, so I’ll deal with it then. The Writers’ News (www.writersnews.co.uk) competition is due in on the 15th, I think.

Two trails on the radio for tonight’s listening/viewing. A big story is about to break on The Archers – I’ve heard hints of a spoiler in one of the papers and discussions have taken place on the Archers Website too. I doubt if I’ll be surprised by the outcome, but the Brian/Siobhan story was very well done at the time and kept Archers’ fans on the edge of our seats. This is something new on the same story. Apart from that, I’ll be watching the fun on The Apprentice. No good me trying to learn how to be high powered. That’s never been my style, but the bright young things are interesting, just the same.

Later – just heard The Archers – Brian and Siobhan as good as ever, together.