AWOL

 Yes, I have been away. Away from cooking, for reasons I've covered fairly fully (back is improving, back is not better), and then Away away. Sleeping elsewhere! Inna hotel! 

Well, an aparthotel. I'm not much into dining out alone, and I'm pleased to cook for myself. Especially given that I have lots of fave London places to shop and have barely seen them this year. And, you know, eating indoors with others at the moment isn't the most reassuring thing. Unfortunately for you, what I did was buy excellent stuff at excellent London food places and not take any pictures of it. Apart from these very tired nachos from first night. (There is also a Tesco Metro nearby. Carrying things wasn't much fun early in the week.)

So, for the record:

• Ole and Steen, for bread and for a Danish
• Paxton and Whitfield for cheese
• O Craquelin for an extremely fancy pudding
  
• Scandikitchen for snacks (I have popcorn chocolate, and it made it home without going squishy yay)
  
• A takeaway pasta from Caffe Murano Pasticchio (which advertises takeaway but is weird when you order it, so, hmm)
• And, brilliantly, a picnic box from Honey & Co, which did my last three meals with glorious salads and nice nibbles. So much so that I brought shortbread and nuts home with me, packing minimalism be damned.
  

I went to exhibitions (Copernicus: fun; Nero: nope; Hockney: perky, and bonus I got to have a drink in the Burlington House courtyard with Kat beforehand, which is always a happy thing; Unfinished Business: fiiiirrrre). And I went to the Mousetrap, because what else do you do when you're being a tourist in London? Masks were worn (though less so on buses). Timed tickets were timed. Distancing was... pretty much. I'm glad I did it this week, let's say. 

Cocktails tomorrow? Yes please. I might even join you, depending on how weaning myself off the big painkillers goes. It may be too soon. Technically, this should be the last Confined Cocktails but for a number of reasons I'm going to keep on hashtagged tweeting on a Saturday night - I'm going nowhere, I do not feel at all unconfined yet, and I had plans involving a bottle of fizz for our official Unconfining which are not now going to happen sigh.