Talking in the supermarket and perhaps not surprisingly it transpires there is a certain pattern that men of a certain age have taken to on a Friday night.

It normally involves an indulgent piece of meat to start, perhaps helped along with a glass or two, hey why not a whole bottle of red wine, before settling on the sofa to try follow the jokes on Graham Norton. Once the show has finished the man usually finds that the rest of the family slink off to bed allowing the man to catch up with a half episode of The World at War on The Discovery channel before settling down with BBC4 until the early hours of the morning.

Last night it was Genesis’ turn on BBC4. Now I am not a fan of Genesis but there I was sat rigid watching a stream of their performances on Top of the Pops (all naff) followed by a documentary I have seen before and will no doubt watch again.

Another pattern was followed for todays lunch. A bowl of tomato soup made from a box of cheap tomatoes from the greengrocer.

Today the tomatoes cost just a pound.

I sweated a couple of onions in olive oil with garlic and an aubergine. Seasoning was some crushed cumin and coriander seeds and chopped coriander stalks. Once all that was soft the tomatoes were chopped and tipped and cooked down for an hour until pulpy and swimming in their juice.

I sieved the results and we ate it with bread.