susie_flo | A jumped up pantry boy (every home needs one)

T'is Saturday - hoorah! What are you all doing on this fine day off work? If you have hangovers, shame on ye.

As for me, BE AFRAID. I have a nostepinne ...and I don't know how to use it.

Last night I had a tame evening in and watched a recording of 'Kirsty's Homemade Home'. Has anyone seen it? Kirsty was her usual, slightly-out-of-breath self (like a naughty head girl caught in the act of doing something lewd with a hockey stick.) The premise is that she's doing up a palatial, derelict house, where everything in the house will either be second hand or home made, and "spending as little money as possible". Except it took about twenty minutes for me to notice that what she actually does is drive around the countryside in an enormous 4x4, visiting a multitude of skilled crafts people and pretending to learn the craft for five minutes, before paying them to create lavish bespoke items for her house. Cheap, n'est ce pas? Still, I can't help liking her in the same way I like LLB.... am sorry I missed last week's episode cos it had knitting in it.

In other news, I'm delighted to have finally fed

rosamicula and

steer. Given Rosa's culinary standards, there was performance anxiety. So I deployed my secret kitchen weapon (aka G) who created what can only be described as cheesecake of the gods, while I faffed around in the fraudulent territory of baked camembert with compotes. The main course was one of those wonderfully effortless meals where you do a bit of chopping, stuffing and wine-sloshing and then let the oven do all the work while you have a drink or three. I notice I am left with an enticing bottle of Primitivo and some Fleurie in a pretty bottle, which may become tonight's slosh of choice.

Thanks to a stirling suggestion by

moral_vacuum , we also invented rhubarb and custard martinis which were sweet and pink and looked v. pretty with strawberries floating in them. (I think the proportions were something along the lines of a hefty glug of vodka to a random slosh of rhubarb & vanilla syrup, shaken over lots of ice...)

Moving on to next week... I am looking forward to Monday. Yes, I am feeling ok. It's because I'm off to see The Gruffalo at the Albert Hall (or in other words, lovely Morrissey, undisputed king of curmudgeons). I have never been to the Albert Hall before, and I am hoping that it might bring out the overblown lounge-room singer in him.

I suspect the Star Trek movie might feature in the week's plans somewhere too (I wonder if I will be able to get past seeing Sylar with silly ears every time I look at Spock?)  From the magazine pics I've seen of the chap playing Kirk, he seems to have that soft-around-the-edges Shatner-ish look about him.   According to most reviews I've read it is going to make Star Trek cool again...

EDIT: as it turns out, we went to see Trek this afternoon... and I liked it!   I had no expectation, having never been a Trek fan, and most of the in-jokes went over my head. But despite all of that I thought it was jolly good fun and managed to forget about Sylar remarkably quickly.   (In any case, I would probably go for Spock over Kirk...)