Heaven knows it's good for my soul.

Utterly bored with the cabbage and vegetable soups now so I've batch-cooked about one metric tonne of chile sin carne for lunch over the next two or three days. After umming and ah-ing I decided I wasn't yet ready for the nuclear option pictured yesterday. So good old Dave's Insanity "normal" (!) it was. Have had a taste and it's bloody hot;hopefully by tomorrow luchtime it will have developed nicely and I can sit in the canteen and dissolve into sweat, tears and snot. Bizzarely, this is the first time I've ever added some pickled chiles to the dish.

Went on to Amazon earlier and finally bought a spare battery pack. Since I've started blipping I'm amazed how many times I've taken a couple of pics only for the sodding thing to die. Also got me a book on getting the most from my D3000 - at the moment, I most certainly am not!

I'm feeling some primal stirring drawing me to Wales this weekend. I've not caught a Grayling nor slept in a tent since September. And that is too long for any man.