This week there was a certain amount of white space in my diary, so I immediately put it to work by going down with the sort of cold that makes you want to lie on the sofa with a hot water bottle and all the episodes of Masterchef that have been on this week. This is not entirely what the master of the house was expecting a couple of years ago when he blithely supported my plan to stop doing a proper job and spend more time at home. I do tend to have his dinner on the table when he gets in from work, but that’s often because I have to rush out to start an evening antenatal class on the other side of the county.

So that’s my needs covered: packet of biscuits, mug of lemsip, and maybe a pint of cider later if the post-school-run part of the afternoon proves stressful. Or earlier, if really stressful.

We have got the giant 72″ plasma screens out again for this afternoon, and only one of them is showing Elf. And that’s the one in front of Asta‘s sofa, where she lounges with a barrel of wine. Sadly there was no clip of Will Ferrell downing a 2 litre bottle of coke for Mike‘s, erm, coke. Also on that sofa, though it’s unlikely for long owing to gas leaks, Lyle has a new look.

Dr Pockless has requested a pint of beer, but we just weren’t expecting that today, and I’m afraid we’re all out. It’s off. There simply is no beer. Howmsoever, we are grateful for the notification that Borgen is returning to our screens, with all of its excellence, and will do you a nice pint of akvavit instead. Danish beer was also requested by Lisa, and as you no doubt know, Denmark features heavily in The Simpsons, but isn’t where Duff Beer comes from. And we don’t have any of that, either, sorry Graybo. Akvavit all round! Or cherry beer, we’ve got some of that, because it doesn’t really sound like beer. This is good news for the star of this week’s Where Are They Now, Pewari.

Returning us to our cocktail roots, Pete ordered a Heisenberg, which contains many obscure ingredients. Luckily, although we have no beer, we have every other alcoholic beverage known to man, and can easily whip up one of these. Just give me half a day in the Alberquerque desert. There seems to be some disagreement about the recipe for a Pangalactic Gargleblaster, so I’ve made one of each for Clair, and I’m sure Pete can be persuaded to watch HHGG instead of Breaking Bad.

Thought we might have a bit of a television themed week, as the nights are drawing in and we all need something new to watch. Is anyone up for that? Not looking for long posts, more a short starter-post to be followed by lots of helpful suggestions. Not like this one.