This morning I was up at 7am, out the house by 8:15, on the bus, and in the supermarket. I'm cooking dinner tonight for my flatmate-to-be (17 days to go!) Pardon the excitement, but it'll make quite a difference to have a flatmate who's actually there from time to time, and is not so much of a flatmate 'in theory'.

Anyway, I'm making a particular favourite of mine - lemon, chicken and artichoke risotto, which is not only fabulusly simple to make, but tastes absolutely dreamy, and is just what the doctor ordered on a chilly, misty day like this. But, like most good risotto recipes, it calls for a glass of wine to be added in - although I've come across a couple of risotto recipes recently that actually don't include wine. I mean, really. What is the world coming to? There's nothing that can't only be improved with a glass of wine .... except, possibly, a bad mood and a headache, but I digress.

Since I scarcely pay attention to....well, anything really, I wasn't sure what the licensing situation is these days. I remember once you couldn't buy alcohol before 11am (not that I tried it .... ahem..). So, I trotted up to a helpful-looking youth who was stacking shelves, to ask him.

"Excuse me, can I buy alcohol now, or do I have to wait until 11 o'clock?"

He looked instantly taken aback. "Er.... yeah. Yeah, you can buy it...whenever you want to, now." And then he gave me a look that seemed to say "Surely not.... this early?"

Now clearly pegged as an alcoholic, and actually feeling embarrassed to be buying wine for a perfectly legitimate purpose, I grabbed the first likely-looking bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and legged it out of there. And as I turned to go, I'm sure I saw his eyes widen as he mouthed an incredulous 'Wow '.

Or maybe it was 'Wino'