1. We have no bread to go with the soup – but a pack of cardamom crispbreads coordinates nicely with the Goan lentil soup. The crunchy bread and smooth soup also contrast well.

2. John DEMANDS a kiss before I leave the house and that makes me miss my bus — but the cheap one is running late and I get that one instead. John insists that was his romantic moneysaving plan all along.

3. Dry snow falling as I leave, coating the ground in speckles that stick rather than melt away. By the time I reach home, certain angles of our dry stone wall are covered with white.