A shopping treat.

Sophie went to the gym this morning, for the first time in what felt like ages, and then returned home to work in the conservatory. She brought croissants home with her for my breakfast, and they were delicious with a little jam and a mug of coffee for breakfast.

I spent the morning catching up with jobs and trying not to disturb my daughter when she was in a meeting, of which she had many! To make a head start on tonight's dinner, I chopped up celery, onion, carrots, parsnips and two peppers to make the base for a bolognese sauce, and added garlic, tomato pureé, red wine, mixed herbs and mince. I cooked it for a while, let it cool, and popped it in the fridge so all I'd have to do later was reheat it and cook it slowly for a couple of hours.

The cats were in and out all morning and enjoyed having Sophie around today. At one point, Gomez was on her lap and I'm sure he appeared in one of her meetings!

In the afternoon, I collected my Mum and drove to the Waitrose at Kingsthorpe for a treat and to make a change from going to Tesco at Kettering. We had a cup of tea first, and I munched on a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich as I'd eaten nothing since the croissants this morning.

Afterwards, we wandered around and I picked out an Italian wine to go with dinner (we don't drink a lot of Italian wines, and had none in the house) and some lovely crisps to enjoy before we ate. Mum chose some Christmas cards and chocolate treats, and we returned to my house to pick up some items she needed, and to ask Keith to come with me to take her back.

Back home, Sophie had finished work, we put the heating on, lit the candles and sat in the living room with James Martin and his travels through Spain. I cooked the bolognese sauce slowly, Sophie made garlic bread and we cooked tagliatelle to go with the meaty sauce. The meal was delicious, there was enough left for our lunches tomorrow and some that we froze to go with pasta in a future meal!