A fine morning and, as I set the bath mat on a rack by the open back door to dry, I thought how good this weather is for drying clothes and other fabrics. No expensive tumble drying! We are between heatwaves and these days are glorious, the glory amplified by the extremes on either side. 

I am feeling good despite an ever-so-slight increase in weight, unexpected after yesterday’s salad. The tomatoes, olives and lettuce were good in health terms. However, I suspect the salami, cheese and my own potato salad – which probably has too much mayonnaise – did not help, but that’s the way I like it. I force myself to eat lettuce but in all honesty I do not really like it.

I learned an important food quality lesson yesterday. Having used M&S garlic-infused olive oil for many years – decades even – I was fooled into buying a cheaper version that turned out to be not so cheap.

The Filippo Berio garlic flavoured olive oil is okay but not a patch on the M&S infused olive oil. I dare say there are better garlic olive oils out there but M&S is readily available to me without travelling to a city with exotic deli’s. The Berio has a ton of garlic granules at the bottom of the bottle, which I guess they are hoping customers will think looks good, although such superficialities rarely fool me. It is also a bit of a cheat: the garlic is added to the oil when made and sent straight to the supermarket shelf. The M&S oil has no granules – no ‘bits’ of any kind; the oil is properly infused – steeped – with garlic, which is of course time consuming but which gives a subtle and superior flvour. Rather like a good coffee bean roasted with vanilla pods – the pods are discarded but the coffee takes on a gorgeous hint of vanilla when it comes to making a Long Black or a cappuccino.

I shall never make that mistake again. The M&S garlic infused olive oil (extra-virgin) is more expensive, but the quality and value are higher than either the Filippo Berio or the Napoli I also tried recently in a desperate attempt to save money on my grocery bill. Lesson learned!