Z loves getting ready for a party. It makes me very happy.

 I did cook the fish, as well as cabbage, last night.  I still have some of the fish left - when I think that, back in the day, my parents cheerily tucked into a pair of kippers for breakfast or a whole Dover sole for dinner - the sole would overlap the plate at each side, it was enormous.  Now, none of us can manage half as much and I'm not sure when it changed.  I know that we never snacked.  A couple of olives or cheesy biscuits, with an aperitif, perhaps, but no one munched on anything between meals.  But nor do I and I still can't manage a fillet of plaice.  Tim and I often used to share a steak or a big piece of fish.

Today, I have done all I planned to do, remarkably.  I have cooked two gluten and dairy free cakes, ready for Saturday, which will be wrapped up and kept cool.  Everything else is planned and will be done on Friday and Saturday morning.  I'm energised by the anticipation, so not tired unless there's good cause.

Tonight, because the fillet steak I took out of the freezer was actually two, I'm making Boeuf Stroganoff for dinner, to use up the second one (I realise that I won't eat it all, so I'll frugally squirrel one away in the freezer.  I've opened a bottle of very good red wine.  I've been saving it, but who's better to use it on than me?  When I ask people over for dinner, we're all too busy talking and eating to notice what we're drinking, unless it's rather poor, so I might as well savour a glass or two.  Two, frankly.

All the same, I've noticed, over the years, that when a wine is very good, I drink less of it.  I relish and appreciate it, so it's more satisfying.  I've also noticed that it diminishes in quality on the second outing and, by the third day, it could be any decent plonk.  I do have a gizmo that's supposed to remove the air from a bottle, but I've forgotten how to use it.  Ho hum.

I also had trouble removing the innards from my coffee machine to wash it.  I fiddled about with it yesterday, without success, looked for the instructions this morning, also without success and sprayed water around in case something was stuck.  Without success.  Then I found another small moving part and moved it and, hurray.  Success.  The rest was easy, except that I forgot that it has to be reinserted on the huh, so it took a couple of minutes.  Then I made coffee, obviously.

Oh, I made a loaf of bread too.  Such industry.  Now, time for the beef.  I've soaked some rice in preparation, because I'm totally on a roll.  Which has nothing to do with bread.  I'm very tempted to make bread rolls for Saturday, because I'm making pulled pork as one of the dishes, but I hope I'll have more sense, because cooking them will be really fiddly without the Aga.  And, since a heatwave is forecast, I don't want to turn that up.  Also, I'm limited for time.  I'm busy tomorrow and Thursday.