And on the back of having a job, I no longer have to panic about money – hurrah! I don’t actually get paid for a month, but I can totally spend it now so there.

So with that in mind I went for a potter around Chorlton today to find food-based goodness. I don’t think I’ve really even scratched the surface of Chorlton’s foodie delights, but my parents are coming to visit tomorrow and I thought we’d have a wander as well so I didn’t want to exhaust it.

The highlight of my day has to be the Chorlton Sourdough I bought from the Barbakan Deli on Manchester Road. It’s so good – soft and chewy and acidic and lovely. Yum. They were frying up some epic looking sausages on the BBQ outside as well which I gather is a weekly event, but I think I’ll save that one until next week when Duncan is with me.

I also discovered the Unicorn Grocery wholefoods shop, which has a nice range of fruit and veg but more excitingly (is that a word? Not sure) for me a really good choice of dried herbs and spices, including chipotle and ancho chilies. Hurray! Not cheap, but then when is organic food ever cheap? I think I will have to combine trips to these various shops with trips to Tesco and Morrissons. That’s until I’m rich.

So that’s my day so far. I think the rest of it will consist of watching Sherlock and Skins (not at the same time, that’d be weird) and sitting on the sofa. Things that start with S then. Good.

No other news really; a bit of potential job-based luck today but not sure how it’ll turn out. It’s just so hard to know what people are looking for. Something will turn up I’m sure, I’d just like to to turn up sooner rather than later because I want to get exploring (when I say exploring I mean drinking and eating). Found out today that a deli literally around the corner holds a monthly supper club which looks scrummy, there’s a really good fishmonger near here and lots of good bars. Money is definitely needed. Oh and we have sheets at the window instead of curtains so it’d be good to do something about that as well before people start to think we’re squatting…

The internet isn’t the only thing to arrive in our house recently either. We are now back in possession of one Mr Hobbes the cat. He doesn’t seem to happy to have been moved, but we’re managing to bribe him with expensive cat food. He was even seen pottering around purring this morning which is a rare occurrence. Exciting times.

So our new flat is cool. We have all our furniture now, and my chairs are in situ along with the lovely table I’ve been wanting for about 5 years. I have yet to make curtains and cushion covers; apparently nice fabric isn’t actually cheap when you need about 10 metres of it. So the blankets that are up at the windows may have to live there for a little while longer. It’s a work in progress though.

My new dining room

As for jobs; still no joy but I seem to have been contacted by a few more agencies and other people now so I’m not feeling too down in the dumps about it. Went to sign on for the first time on Friday which was not a good feeling, but hopefully it won’t last long. Job hunting is sucky; the worst bit is that people don’t get back to you or give you a closing date for a lot of jobs, so you don’t know whether you’ve been unsuccessful or whether to just wait it out. I’m not entirely sure why it’s so difficult just sending out an automated email to let people know, but apparently it’s just not done any more.

Anyway, that is all the news I have for now. Bits of life are good and bits of it suck. Hopefully the bits that suck will resolve themselves soon because I want some money and to go explore Manchester. Please. Thank you.

Anyway, this weekend Duncan had our first go at house-hunting in Manchester. You’ll be happy to hear that we failed on a spectacular level. One of the houses we looked at had a drug dealer living next door. Unfortunately this isn’t a joke, unless you can take any other meaning from “no, I don’t have any, but try Dave at number 41.” Sugar perhaps? Or eggs? I highly doubt it. Also, the house looked out over scrub land and the remains of a street of terraced houses most of which had been knocked down. Lovely. We also went for some nice pizza, had a go on the tram and went for a drink. Oh and our hotel looked out over Old Trafford cricket ground which was weird.

So Duncan has a job and I don’t. I’m applying and keeping my fingers crossed for interviews. I was good at what I did in my last job and I would like to do that again, so hopefully someone will recognise my boundless potential. Also, I got some spiffy interview clothes today which need an airing.

A little, Aloud: A lovely book.

In other news, I got a lovely new book today in the post. It’s called ‘A Little, Aloud’ and it’s full of lovely poems and pieces of text for reading aloud. Now I just need to find someone who will listen to me… easier said than done.

My lovely friend Miles is making a film in York in the next two weeks and I, like the flipping dork I am, volunteered to do the food.

We started last night, making sandwiches, biscuits (flapjacks = fail) and plenty of hummus for the troops. I had help from the lovely Miss Helen Batty and from Jonic. It was actually a lot of fun.

Tonight is a similar night but instead of 15 people to cook for, there are 40. Two of whom are allergic to eggs. When I was vegetarian I found it really annoying when people didn’t take that into consideration and I was a bit of an afterthought so I’m trying to make most things egg-free.

With that in mind, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make some oatmeal raisin cookies without egg. I’ve been googling and apparently you can substitute half a mashed banana per egg in a lot of recipes. I didn’t know that and I’m really intrigued to try it out. I’ll let you know if it works. If it does then that might be the first recipe I put up here. Exciting stuff!

I will try to take some photos as the catering continues. Fingers crossed that everyone enjoys it and I don’t poison them.

(Written on Sunday night)

It seems that it’s already the beginning of week 5; I can’t believe how fast the course is going by.

This week we finally got to make white yeast bread which is really exciting (no, really, it is) and I’ve already made a few loaves at home. White yeast bread dough is really versatile and is definitely my favourite so far. You can make pizza, breadsticks, rolls, loaves and flatbreads all out of one type of dough. Yesterday, I made a couple of loaves with seeds on and fougasse, which is a flat bread which they used to use to test the temperature of the bread ovens in bakeries in France. It’s basically a flat white bread, but you cut or tear holes in it and cover it with olive oil, sea salt and rosemary. Mine didn’t look too attractive, but it tasted pretty sexy.

The other exciting yeast-based event of the weekend was the near escape of Trevor the sourdough starter. It seems that he thought his tub was too small and I woke up this morning with flour and water all over my bedside table and floor. Luckily, most of him is still left and it can only be a good thing that he’s so active. I think it’s because I was making bread yesterday, so there was probably a lot more yeast about for him to chomp on. I’ll be able to make my first loaf of sourdough next week, so I’ll be sure to report on that. I’m feeling like some kind of mad scientist at the moment – who’d have thought you could make life with just flour and water?! MWAHAHAHA etc…

Being here is really making me think about what I’d like to do for a career when I grow up (if I ever do). I’m really loving all the bread and baking so I’d love to hone my skills in that a bit more. I think I might look for a chocolate course when I leave, as well as one in patisserie. If anyone knows of any good courses in those things in the UK then let me know. Perhaps I’ll open up my own bakery. Or deli. Or something. It’s a pity that one of my other ambitions is to live in a castle; I don’t think the two things really go together.

Right, back to my homework which I have left to the last minute as usual. Tomorrow I am making Ballymaloe bacon chops with whiskey sauce and piperonata. Hopefully it won’t be too stressful!