Chocolate, chocolate is all I can think about. Well, not quite all. There’s also the Pret –A-Manger smoked salmon sandwich I used to eat for lunch at least twice a week before Lockdown and the Itsu sushi we had on the other two days and, on the weekends, when we were feeling over-stuffed, the Pret tuna salad.

I’m noticing how our eating habits have changed during Lockdown and wondering whether we city folk are having a different experience from those in the country. I know Trisha and Tod, for example, are still shopping at the local bakery and eating food without the added flavour of Sanitizer. Friends in Wales are doing the same. To be fair, so are some people in London, though many, like us, are depending completely on deliveries, friends or both.

“The Writer” is craving pizza but won’t have it delivered because of the cardboard box it comes in and I’m dying for linguini from Vapiano, our local Italian slow food chain and Sen Chen Pad Thai from Busaba, neither of which are doing Takeaway.

Before Lockdown, we were horrified by the outrageous sums of money we were spending to eat in smart restaurants, though that didn’t stop us doing it – but it’s the food from the more modest chains we long for now.

We’re trying to eat a balanced diet but every time we fancy a treat, like the shortbread biscuits in the painted tin  we were given by the Scottish Hotel in which we spent Christmas, we think, “Why not?” and then, “We deserve it”. But we don’t “deserve” it. We have done absolutely nothing but stay happily indoors for a few weeks in our comfortable apartment. And, though my husband is losing weight through not eating baskets of restaurant bread and not drinking wine with every restaurant dinner, I’m putting it on because all I want  to eat are sugar or fat, or, preferably, both at the same time.

Porridge or fruit with yoghurt are what we always had for breakfast and still do, sometimes with the addition of honey from our beekeeper friend in the next door apartment. Lunches are harder because, pre-lockdown we used to drop in somewhere while out walking or bring something in. Nowadays, baked beans, sardines on toast, tuna or jacket potato are the staples of our lunch menu. And, on Sunday, we were so missing going out for breakfast with friends as we usually do, we had to re-create it at home. I have to say, it wasn’t the same.

Dinner can be a bit hit and miss, because, when I order the ingredients to make something and only half of them turn up, I’m not a creative enough cook to change course.

We have had roasts – a chicken with all the trimmings cooked by “The Writer” and I cooked a slow-roasted leg of lamb, seethed in middle-eastern spices, which looked so fabulous when it came out of the oven, I forgot to photograph it in my excitement!

(Strange how reluctant we are to have a roast on any day but Sunday. It’s as though our weeks retain some vague imprint of their pre-lockdown shape – like the muscle -memory of an exercise or a dance).

Our favourite salad has always been Greek, mainly because it’s an excuse for “The Writer” to turn a healthy salad into a fattening cheese dish. And, since Lockdown, we’ve added Italian Caprese salad, because so few people seem to eat Buffola Mozzerella, I can always get hold of it. Sadly, my basil, such a vital part of the look and taste of Caprese, has given up the ghost, as you can see below. The chives are doing OK though, and turn up almost all the time time in our favourite standby, the Omelette. A more daring friend who goes out for her shopping, reports that eggs are hard to come by, to the extent that her local supermarket hides them, bringing them out, surreptitiously, for regular customers only. So far, I’ve been lucky and had no problem getting them delivered.

In order to accommodate the umpteen tins of sardines we feel will give us at least a bit of Omega 3, we had to have a big cupboard clear out last week. These are just a couple of the tins we found. Look closely and you’ll see the date.

We do well for fruit, mainly because I’m doing the ordering and I love it. And, we were given a fabulous fruit box by “The Writer’s” family. Less well for vegetables because I don’t love them. In an effort to cram some veg down us, I’ve made so many batches of soup – butternut squash with creme fraiche, vegetables with barley, pea with yoghurt, spinach, leek and courgette – I’m now having to wear a wrist brace as a result of too much chopping.

Since “The Writer” is actually writing, I undertook to be in charge of food, though he is dishwasher- loader and microwaver in chief. (I think he believes only men can do those things anyway). I confess we’re both getting tired of thinking about what to eat twice a day because we were so used to lazily eating bought sandwiches and salads. I’m now looking for Ready Meals wherever I can find them but their quality varies wildly. The one we like most of all is Marks and Spencer Cod Mornay. Trouble is, since they don’t include that range in their only recently-introduced deliveries, we’re dependant for these on kind people offering to make a special trip.

But, I digress. I have digressed from my favourite subject. Behold, I present the shrine to my beloved – our chocolate drawer. We both pretend this doesn’t exist, never go to it at the same time so we don’t have to discuss it, and never mention the fact that its contents mysteriously diminish day by day, or that they get equally mysteriously topped up when I bag the next delivery slot.

Oh, and I missed out a bit of chocolate. Here is a traditional ‘Before” and ‘After”shot of my Easter egg. The only reason the milk chocolates inside it remain uneaten is that I only like plain chocolate. Trisha is the one who likes milk and she and Tod are still leading their normal-ish life in the highlands. No doubt within sight of a less colourful version of our bovine friend on the biscuit tin above.