What do five things make?

• Yesterday, in honour of World Book Day, I may have ordered a book. It's a bit uncertain, because I was so excited about it being available from Waterstones that I tried to order from them - and I may have succeeded in doing so, though it felt as if there was a final step missing (possibly because payment is due on dispatch, and there are still a couple of weeks to publication ...)



• Oddly, the other book I was thinking I needed, and for the first time this year, is a diary. It felt odd at the end of last year not to be shopping for a diary, but I haven't actually missed having one - until now, with the year a quarter passed. Suddenly there's a Bank Holiday weekend I hadn't been expecting, and I want to be able to consult an actual paper diary before saying 'yes' to appointments (and then to write down what I have said 'yes' to...)



• Am I just jumpy because I have agreed a time and place for my second vaccination, and don't want to get that wrong? This is, like my first vaccination, out of sequence: durham_rambler has a long-standing appointment for the day after the Bank Holiday, but despite being younger, I will be a week ahead of him.



• Last night we attended a virtual 'wine tasting and tapas' event, organised by local wine merchant Guest Wines (they took over the business of Michael Jobling, expecting, I think, that Michael would be retiring, and so acquired both us and Michael): they work with a caterer, who turned up on our doorstep with a selection of little dishes and little bottles. At the appointed hour we fired up Zoom and (with two other couples) were talked through a tasting of the wines, and then encouraged to consider how each wine worked with the food. This was slightly awkward: we wanted to, and eventually did, start eating while we were still supposed to be tasting, and actually this was the right call, because if we'd done the tasting properly we'd have had no wine left to go wirth the food, and where's the fun in that? But our guide surprised himself at how well the fino sherry worked with the chorizo and bean stew, and I was sorry not to try that - I ate it wirh the Monastrell, which was good, but not startling. The star of the show was probably the white rioja, completely atypical and out of my price range. A glass of PX to accompany the dessert was a treat, but had me checking the Wine Society's list rather than tempted to order this one. Outstanding taste of the evening: the prawn croquetas.



• What can I say about the lead story in this morning's news, other than that I was not expecting to be lectured about integrity by Dominic Cummings? This, possibly: how far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserves would you say Boris Johnson fell when he made the Downing Street rose garden available to you, Dominic, and backed your explanation of why you had broken lockdown, and vouched for your phone giving 'proof' (which he wasn't going to share) that you had made no second trip?