A day late this week, but it doesn’t matter. I read Melanie’s post last night but was too tired to respond. Every week, Melanie asks a few questions and here are her questions this week:

In your opinion what animal is the most majestic?

A cat, maybe? I’ve always liked them. It’s not just majestic in terms of poise, it is regal in terms of attitude.

What seemingly innocent question makes you think “It’s a trap!”?

You’re not working, are you? My wife will often use those words if she comes into the room and sees me tapping away on the computer. Okay, mostly I am not working, although I probably already lost whatever concentration I just had. But this is my wife, and over the years I have learned to drop whatever I happen to be doing, and resume it after the conversation is over. Yesterday, she was thinking of breaking lockdown to see if she could find a shop open selling hairdresser’s scissors, she has decided her hair is too long and needs to self-operate. I offered her the use of my clippers – I could give her a decent #4, if she likes! It worked for me.

Fortunately her own common sense came into play in the end.

What weird potato chip flavor that doesn’t exist would you like to try?  (NOTE:  Potato chips are called ‘crisps’ over the pond in the UK and Europe, I think.  Thanks to Sandmanjazz for reminding me we all don’t speak the same English!  😆   )

Okay, because Melanie already explained above, I’ll use the word crisp, and nobody has any excuses for not understanding me.

My favourite crisp which does not exist in the UK, but which does exist in France, is vinegar and shallot. That one is sublime, it is very sharp and similar to salt & vinegar. As much as anything, the crisps taught me the French word for shallot!

I’ve also tried paprika crisps over there, which were okay, and hazelnut-flavoured crisps. What’s the point in that?

Crisps which do not exist in the UK any more include flavours by the UK store, Marks and Spencer. As a boy, I remember a roast lamb and mint sauce flavour. I tried some once and the one thing they didn’t taste like was… roast lamb and mint sauce! Maybe they should try again?

My father’s favourite, though, was one called Barbequed Beef and Onion. We didn’t go to Marks and Spencer’s much so they were a nice treat. They were everybody’s favourite (in our house, at least). Over the years these crisps morphed to just beef and onion. They’re not the same. The Barbeque made all the difference!

But I guess Melanie is really talking about crisps which never, ever existed, anywhere.

How about porridge flavour? But that’d be a bit bland so it’d have to be something-flavoured-porridge-flavour! Sticking with breakfast, how about Sausage Sandwich flavour? (as we pretty much already have bacon sandwich flavour). How about a Full English Breakfast flavour?

Or if we’re talking about other meals, how about Big Mac flavour, or Hot Dog and Ketchup flavour? Hold the mustard.

Best of all, how about something like celery flavour crisps? So people could get that lovely taste of celery, without having to eat all that crappy salad stuff along the way? I’d better stop now!

Gratitude Section. Share some gratitude with people if you like.  Images are certainly appropriate! 

I’ve been pleased this week to have looked at the virus graphs for the UK, and hopefully we passed the peak new cases/day a week or so ago. Frankly, I think it could have been a lot worse. But we’re still hovering consistently at around 5,000 new cases per day. I know we’re a population of 70 million, but 5,000 is still a big number.

So I’m glad that I still feel OK, I’m glad that most of my friends are as safe as me. The couple of people I know who have had it, I’m glad they got through it. I understand that not everybody was so lucky.