Saturday: a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast. A little freshly cracked black pepper on the eggs.

The cats relaxed and soaked up the sunshine on their favourite couch in the spa room. This couch used to belong to my grandma.

This is Billy Lee’s idea of “relaxed”.

Sunday: we’d bought these beautiful portobello mushrooms specifically for grilling. Jac topped them with butter and crushed fresh garlic before placing them under the grill. She also grilled us a couple of cherry tomatoes each. The day before, she’d thawed some leftover cooked herbed fish that had in the freezer, and made them into little fish cakes, and she served these up with the mushrooms and tomatoes. This made a most delicious brunch.

I just love big, juicy, meaty mushrooms that I can carve into chunks like a tender steak.

After brunch, we took advantage of the extended shopping hours for the festive season and did a little shopping. Laden with bags and pestered by growling tummies, we stopped to grab a late lunch at Nandos. We shared a Thigh Pack with chips. I must say I was very pleased to see that Nandos are serving up bigger chicken thighs than they used to. But then, maybe it’s just this particular store (Nandos Carousel)? The chicken was absolutely delicious and succulent and that marinade was plate-lickingly-good. I didn’t lick the plate literally – I used chips and fingers to mop up every bit of marinade. So perhaps I needed to say the marinade was finger-suckingly good, because let’s face it, licking doesn’t achieve the level of satisfaction that sucking does, when it comes to eating chicken.

With her sweet tooth still feeling dissatisfied, Jac bought a couple of items from Miss Maud on the way home. First, a chocolate slice topped with chocolate icing and walnuts.

And an apple and almond slice, topped with flaked almonds and dusted with icing sugar. When I took the slices out of their cardboard box to take photos, I realised they were really dry, I guess from having been sitting in the display case for too long. What a shame. Jac ate a little of each, and ended up taking them into work, where she knew they would be consumed, regardless of dryness issues. She was right!