I went to the big supermarket a mile from here just now, to stock up on stuff which I should have bought yesterday from Stokes, the local grocers, but didn't for various reasons. I shudder at how much more the fruit and veg is, and how much further so much of it has come (why are the potatoes from Israel? Why?) but:

• I was amazed how my only thing not from the fresh section was the frozen puff pastry for making the morning pastries. This is the influence of the How to Cook Like a Grown Up weekend, I think. My cupboards now contain all the dry essentials and I have zero urge to buy any ready-made things. Not that I had much urge before, I just wasn't confident enough in my own cooking skills to know I can make a healthy meal from scratch in the same time as I'd be waiting for a readymeal to cook.
• I can cycle back from the supermarket with all my food in my rucksack including a carton of eggs. I am rather chuffed I managed that. I also didn't change gear on Old Vicarage Road whereas a month ago I used to have to go up one on the slight rise. But I think cycling a mile with a carton of eggs without breaking them is pretty damn cool.

I have rewarded myself with a fresh fruit smoothie. Banana, apple juice, orange juice, lime juice, ice and a dash of milk.

It's sunny enough to cycle in a tee, pedal-pushers and little girly ballet shoes as well, which is deeply satisfying after a winter using bicycle clips to keep my cords out of the chain. It's clothing which suggests cycling is fun and doesn't require sepcialist equipment. I saw a speed cyclist on Old Vicarage Road and I'm sure the goretex top, tight leggings and special shoes are great for speed but they do suggest cycling is a specialist sport instead of a way of getting from A to B and back.

Ha! I am retagging all my music, and Housewive's Choice (mp3) - a theme which practically screams "cycling along country lanes like the Famous Five" - came up. Thanks to being back on the desktop, I've reorganised the organically evolved filing structure this PC has to match the more structured filing system of the laptop. This means my music has moved from \samples\songs to \music (because when I first got this PC I didn't keep music on it - the mp3 revolution happened afterwards) and therefore needs retagging into playlists. I have a surprising amount of ska and french yeh yeh.

I am also working on the Contractually Signed Thing. I've ended up going back and combining elements from two drafts and I might pull in some things from the third attempt as well when I get that far. Amazing how a deadline concentrates the mind.