Today would be a good day for gardening. It is strangely quiet outside with little wind and warm when the sun comes out. Then I realise the quiet is because my ears are as bunged up as my nose and after shuffling a few leaves I have to come inside to rest. A bout of man flu is a desperate thing to be combatted with long periods of doing very little at all and waiting for the pubs to open.

I thought that lasts nights Fideus would help beat the man flu into submission but it doesn’t seem to have worked so I have been feeling sorry for myself for almost 48 hours. Having said that fideus was very good. Nuggets of monkfish and prawn nestling amongst the thin strands of pasta which were coated with the thick tomato sauce well flavoured by the halibut head. No-one else was keen on the clams so I picked at those myself. They were small and sweet and salty.

The leaves in the garden will have to wait until next weekend by which time it will no doubt be freezing cold and lashing down a gale!