Oat what a beautiful morNING!

Ah i've just arrived back in my flat after a dreamy evening away. Went to visit my friend Dani and her boyfriend Sparkles for dinner.

I was quickly settled down infront of the beautiful balcony views of London with a plate of Roquefort cheese and crackers. I very much felt like I was in a film about 20 somethings in London. I think I should eat more cheese and crackers. It feels very grown up and elegant.

For dins we had stuffed peppers.

Recipe: Boil pearl barley like rice, add salt (oh hi Maldon- nice to see

you), ground cumin, cayenne pepper, chopped garlic& red onion, goats cheese. Tuck that all up in a yellow pepper. Roast for about half an hour. The pearl barley slipped down a treat. A refreshing change from rice.

Then Sparkles turned to me and said, 'Now Fran, we've had quite light dinner so far but it's about to get stodgy..' Ooh how intriguing. The apparition of stodge that appeared before me was a cake that a friend's mother had made for Dani. It was showered with pretty sprinkles and looked like the richest most chocolatey chocolate cake ever. But, it was actually more like a fruit cake in taste but not texture. Very strange. Dani hadn't realised when eating it and had found herself questioning the cake, 'woah, what are you??' I imagine it felt similar to when this girl in my halls poured sought after chocolate sauce all over her sponge cake at dinner but once tucking in realised it was gravy. What a shock. Well, anyway, this was a tasty hybrid. I'd eat anything with custard poured over it to be honest. Tip: Dani put nutmeg in her custard. Added a whole new dimension.

Well you'd think dinner would be over by then but imagine my delight when Sparkles turned to me and requested I share a massive mince pie with him. A lady at Dani's work had given them to her, 'to feed up her boys.' What a mum. I was full

by then but Sparkles wanted someone to share the greed shame with and I would never let him down. We accidentally then ate another one but this time filled the space between filling and pastry with custard. Had to eat it over the sink. Dani had nipped out the room just then so we could pretend we weren't being so disgusting with no audience.

We then watched three whole episodes of Summer Heights High all cuddled up together. As regular readers will know, I love a boxset. It feels so indulgent to watch more than one episode at once. What a thrill.

Had a beautiful sleep and woke up to tea AND porridge.

It was really good porridge. Sparkles' Dad has tried all the porridge oats he claims and he says this type (Sainsbury's taste the difference jumbo rolled) are the best you can get. Well he says he's tried them all but Sparkles says he probably just tried Tesco's too, wasn't as fond, then got stuck in his ways on these. Parents love repetition.

Anyway, after all that I feel very happy hence the title of this post.

Bye for now ladybirds xxxxxxxxxx