a slight increase in convenience

Being people of taste and discretion we haven't returned from a holiday with any sort of ethnic or destination-local souvenir beyond photographs, receipts, local foodstuff-gifts (baggage permitting, though the chocolate-coated waffles I took into work today didn't weigh much) and tourist-info-issue streetmaps for many years apart from a couple of fruit-bowls from a potteryshop in Barcelona. I returned from a holiday in 2002 with a mug, simply because I'd been looking for a sensible, practically-shaped mug for a while (a nice wide stable base and a small opening for slower heat loss) and eventually found one in Amsterdam. I think it was possibly the same holiday from which I returned with a few bottles taller than but similarly-stoppered to that above in which I intended to store garlic- and chilli-flavoured oils to speed up the cooking process whenever chopping things would usually be required. Though used for a while, eventually I got out of the habit or drifted onto different sorts of food with the result that the half-forgotten bottles were left in a cupboard a little too long with the result that the garlic and chilli started visibly decaying. Eventually the bottles were emptied and cleaned and stored in plastic boxes in a cupboard along with all the other bits of crockery we have no immediate requirement for or no space to store in the everyday kitchen cupboards. I've always quite liked the Grolsch-bottle-style bottle-sealing method and have always vaguely poked round whenever poking round kitchenyshops for something along the lines of the previous bottles but small enough to keep in the fridge to slow down the garlic-rotting process whilst decreasing the likelihood of it occurring by ensuring the volume of oil to be used is unlikely to exceed a couple of weeks' worth. I was quite pleased to spot a shop in Bruges selling exactly the sort of thing I was after, though despite arranging to walk past it a few times more than was strictly required for our destination at the time I never went back in to get anything. Luckily there turned out to be another branch of the same shop in Ghent; baggage restrictions and the distinct lack of any significant space at home meant that getting too many would be daft but when I popped back in on our last day in the town I restricted myself to a couple of small bottles and a wee jar with a wider neck for easier transmission of bits of garlic. One has now been filled and fridged with oil, vinegar and chopped chilli to enable quick and easy preparation of my preferred salad-coating which I intend to have most days this week in order to counteract any incipient effects of two weeks' mild inactivity and large-meal-eating (along with resumption of running/cycling and walking decent amounts at a respectable speed) and a probably resumption of constant grazing on oatcakes whilst at work.

The first day back at work was remarkably painless. For the first time in several years I'm underneath the theoretical permitted maximal flex-time accrual level and only gained 32 minutes today after finding no nasty surprises in my inbox. I turned out to have correctly remembered everything on my current-state reminder-email except one thing which was only an optional extra anyway.

Another thing I definitely shall remember (but shall make a note of in case someone else forgets what they said) must also be recorded: as we're off down to parentville again this winter festive period I asked if it would be OK if I were to bring down "my big amp and stuff" to store in the capacious and barely fifth-filled (by floor area) parent-loft. Although mother's "weeelllll, I suppose so," was grudging (and granted only on the proviso it is only a temporary measure) it was nevertheless granted. Obviously, the "and stuff" could mean anything and the precise contents or overall volume might not be disclosed and the movement of the stuff from car to loft might not take place in parents' presence (though getting anything into the parent-loft without them spotting it will be considerably more difficult than previously now that they're both retired) whereas the amp-movement will be ostentatiously public. As there's a chance they might read this (they exhibited knowledge of the website name whilst we were on holiday) they should at least be assured that any stuff will be securely boxed and appropriately labelled (as well as discreetly tucked behind some of the existing loft-contents).