Day five Sunday. A request for eggs Benedict this morning, so a team effort produced the desired result. The extra crispy, hickory smoked bacon was excellent. Someone had a lot of Hollandaise on their egg. Raining again.

Yesterday, Lady P roasted some pumpkin, garlic and red onion and a good job of it she did too. Today she says, ‘Chef, make me some pumpkin soup, nice and spicy.’ So I did. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2  to 1/3  a pumpkin - skin on whole piece

6 big cloves of garlic - skin on

½ red onion - skin on

25 mm fresh grated turmeric – scrape skin off with the back of a teaspoon

25 mm fresh grated ginger – scrape skin off with the back of a teaspoon

1 large red chilli, blackened, skin removed and flesh sliced

1 stalk of finely chopped lemongrass - optional

1 cup chicken stock. Make your own you lazy person!

1 330 ml can coconut cream

½ coconut cream can of water

Salt, pepper

Olive oil

Coriander

Method

Roast the pumpkin, garlic and onion in a 180 C oven until just beginning to brown. Remove and cool then remove the skins. Gently fry the ginger, turmeric and red chilli slices in a little olive oil to soften. Add all ingredients into a large saucepan and bring to the boil and stir. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Use a stick blender to blend to a smooth consistency. Taste and season. To serve, add chopped coriander. The lemongrass is optional if you want a citrus note. As with most things, best next day.

In keeping with my reconnaissance responsibilities, we did a patrol to the north on our bicycles today. All quiet on the northern front. All quiet everywhere it seems, apart from a 'shots fired,armed offender' and a crashed police car at Holloways Beach area this morning. Penny stumbled on to the Police radio when internet surfing. That's a surprise eh? Be on the news tonight I guess.

Now, when I was a wipper snapper, I had a bicycle. Nothing flash, just a solid steel frame, no gears and cotter pins in the peddles. What it did have though, was a very comfortable seat. Why is it that modern, 21 geared, carbon fibre framed bicycles have the hardest, narrowest seats in history?

Nearly time to go to the pub. We are meeting Graeme for a vodka/gin and tonic. Virtual, thanks to Zoom.