Oh dear - minor disaster!

Complete lack of discipline again yesterday (Wednesday). I had to visit a client and as he lives in central London, nearly 200 miles away and because we invariably have a very nice wine to go with our lunch, I always go by train. I always book well in advance too as I can save £100 by doing that. Trouble is, the cheapest ticket I could buy for the down trip to get me to London for a sensible time when I booked back in December, was in First Class. It was only about £16 more and I wasn't paying, so I got it. I've never travelled first class before because usually the cost is extremely prohibitive. What's more, a friend of ours who knows about these things told me "Oh, you'll get a free breakfast. Nice." Nice.

Now, British railway companies have traditionally had a bit of a bad press when it comes to their food offerings. The Pullmans don't exist anymore and my line is operated by Virgin, who the media have been out to get at every opportunity. All I can say is that as soon as I tasted the wholemeal toast and had a bite out of the sausage in my "Full English" I was sold, and for a day at least, any pretensions toward a healthy day's eating went straight out of the window. "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper" is the saying and I was quite happy to do this until my client suggested we went for lunch . He dines well and usually at either of one or two restaurants locally. Yesterday was one I hadn't been to before and I was good, I didn't have a starter. That would have been whitebait, which I love, but I resisted. But I did have duck with apple sauce, green beans, petits pois, spinach and sautéd potatoes. And a very large Irish whiskey and half a bottle of splendid wine and an absolutely divine creme caramel (served by the campest waiter in London and real laugh!).

Too much fun. Salad tomorrow. Grrr!!