Roasting

It was 39C today; nevertheless, I switched the oven on and roasted vegetables, courtesy of Nigel Slater's Observer column. I left the room while they were roasting, and we had them for lunch at room temperature, with a large dollop of Greek yoghurt. They were good -- I'll probably put them on my blog so I can easily find the recipe in future. Incidentally Nigel said to put two tablespoons of harissa in it. I think harissa in the UK must be quite feeble. If I'd used that much of the ubiquitous Tunisian harissa in tubes that we get here, it would have blown our heads off. I used a teaspoon -- it admittedly could have been one and a half.

First thing in the morning we had hastened to the local garage due to disorganisation on my part. Bruno the Peugeot's CT (MOT) ran out yesterday, and when I belatedly called the local garage ten days ago it turned out he was just about to go on holiday for a week. So we agreed to take the car in today, his first day back, and he would sort it. Soon he was begging and pleading on the phone to the local test centre, who had no appointments till next Monday. "Tell you what," they said in the end, "bring it in at 11 o'clock today and we'll squeeze it in." It was 9:45 at this point. "No problem!" said Michel. "I'll give it a quick check and take it in." So we left him to it.  By 3 pm, all was done and dusted -- Bruno was legal again with no work needing to be done. Not bad for a 17-year old car with 220,000 km on the clock.  Admittedly he's only done 3,000 km in the last two years. Still, we were pleased at the efficiency and lack of hassle -- it pays to be a faithful customer!

Other than that a brief morning swim, with the water a too-hot 28C and uncomfortably crowded. We stayed indoors for the rest of the day apart from a brief gossip session on the bench outside at 6 pm.