Take five

• helenraven wants wasabi flavour Fishermen's Friends.


• Talking of Fishermen's Friends, the Ukes have a rousing a capella version of Pinball Wizard.


• Max's grandmother took him on a puffin cruise. Telling us about it, he did a startlingly accurate imitation of a puffin flying desperately back to its burrow, shoulders up, head down, wings (arms, then) flapping for dear life.


• In a 2009 television profile, art spiegelman described one of his early, small circulation books (might have been Breakdowns) as 'not so much published as privished'. This is a useful word, and I will probably be borrowing it.


• We found desperance in the pub, and dragged him off to the nearby tapas bar (can't find a website, but here's a write-up in the local paper. Warning for the sensitive: it's heavy on dangling participles.) The food was good (recommend the gambas), the house wine was a very drinkable garnacha and the price very reasonable - but the best thing was that they made me feel relaxed and comfortable, let us sit upstairs where we were the only customers, turned down the music for us and generally created a setting where we could talk and catch up.