Thursday and I’m already hazy about the day given that I am writing this on the following Saturday morning. I sometimes think that I am using the blog as my own private memory clinic. The days seem to go from one to another in rapid succession dropping and shedding events and details along the way until only impressions are left or, in some cases, nothing. I find myself referring to my food diary and exercise diary, social media messages and call records to piece together my day. Certain events trigger vivid memories and bring chunks of the day back to me. Using my reference sources also means that I can piece them together in roughly the right chronological order. My sources tell me that I started my day early in a work meeting, which I do remember. A colleague who is a Rangers fan was still mourning the defeat in the Europa cup final the previous night. At the end of the meeting my colleague and I chat football for a while and assess Rangers chances of lifting the Scottish cup on Saturday. We go our separate ways and I head for the garden.

I hang out my washing and then set about planting the excess plants from my partners mothers patio pots. I discover I have a couple of pots that need filling and some spaces in the garden. In truth there are always spaces where I can find room for one more plant. It takes me more time than I expected but eventually I am satisfied with my use of the plants and tidy my garden stuff away. Slightly tired I gather up some recipe books and begin to put together the menu for our guests on Saturday. I settle on crustless bacon and mushroom quiches, Southern Style Chicken with a potato salad finished with a cherry and chocolate tart with ice cream. I am quite pleased with my choice as I can prepare two of the courses the day before, thus allowing for disasters. By now my partner has finished work and presents me with my favourite tuna past before she goes into her singing lesson. I watch some TV until she finishes when we watch Wanted together. Prior to bed I make toast to eat with my antibiotics and then its off to bed to try and sleep but the ache in my kidney region makes that difficult. I could do with out this right now.

Friday and I wake up after a disturbed night with my back aching. I am slow to get think about getting up adn before I can a friend ring me to say hello. We chat for a while about a range of things before she sets of on her day. It was a good way to star the day and prompts me to get a move on, I have ingredients to buy. I get up, have breakfast, take drugs and check my shopping list. I drive to Sainsburys and meander round the aisles following the random order of my shopping list. There are some items where is difficult to know where to look. Buttermilk was one that took a while as was baking parchment. I also indulge in a the purchase of individual quiche dishes, which will make my life much easier with the crustless one I am making later. I pay and put the good sin the car and return to the store intending to have lunch but after looking at the menu and the queue I decide to go home and have lunch there.

Of course once home I am focussed on cooking. I am a “weigh it all out first” kind of cook, so I set about the quiche first. There is something deeply satisfying in cooking. There is the magic of chemistry, the alchemy of heat to create something golden and the suspense of outcome. Burnt or not, looking like the photo or not and of course tasting wonderful and not like the plastic crap from the shop full of guar gum and monosodium glutamate. I toil over my cauldron and behold Quiches appear, and I am pleased and relieved as they cool on the rack.

Onward to preparing the chicken thighs and putting them in the marinade to soak over night. Another task completed so I can move onto the cherry and chocolate tart with chocolate pastry. I already have the cherries soaking in brandy and lemon zest as I set about making the chocolate pastry case. While it blind bakes I clear away and prepare the custard ingredients, full cream, chocolate and fresh vanilla pods. My partner goes to the gym and leaves me to it. Finally it all comes together like a spell and it sits in the oven for its final bake. I am in luck it goes well and comes out of the oven to the cooling rack in good condition. I am a happy culinary warlock.

I have just cleared away when I get a phone call from my doctor. Unknown to me they sent my sample away to be cultured and my doctor is ringing me to tell me that I have won a kidney infection and that I need new and more suitable antibiotics. My doctor is a lovely man and talks me through all the possible options and eventually selects one that’s good for the kind of kidney infection I have. We conclude that my kidney infection is coincidental to my passing blood after exercise and decides he will refer me to urology for a camera down (or up depending on your view) of my knob. Just to check that my cancer has not reached my bladder. He says it in such a nice matter of a fact way that I take his openness as a compliment to my resilience and maturity with which I deal with such material. The referral will take anything up to four weeks. He cheerily says farewell telling me to go to A&E if I start to run a temperature, vomit and get diarrhoea otherwise the new antibiotics will be at the chemist in the morning. I watch some ice hockey until my partner returns from the gym when we eat tea and have an evening of Wanted before going to bed.

Saturday starts with coffee and then a walk to the chemist to get the promised new antibiotics. Once home I integrate the new pills into my medicine wallets and remove the old antibiotics that the doctor has told me to stop taking. So I have breakfast with the family and start the new meds. My partner and I post some birthday cards and walk round the village. On our return I settle down to catch up with the blog, which takes me ages, in fact all the way to lunch time. As I said at the start of this episode it takes time to retrieve the days gone by. I know I have omitted at least one phone call from my golf playing friend and one or two other things but I am now preparing to bring together the full book of spells to lay before our guests this evening and I realise I have no grapes to go with the cheese. I am already panicking, give me a doctors call to deal with everyday rather than a culinary challenge.