Corona Diary: Days of Summer

The sun is finally back. Today, we decided to eat outside. Goose, naturally, had been outside since before first light and was now happily ensconced under the lavender bush, letting the radiant heat warm his fur while he dozed fitfully. We sat at the table, soaking in the warmth. Sue even insisted on revealing her legs and, once we’d got over the blinding white, we quickly followed suit. Then we served the pasta and pretended we were holidaying on the riviera.
I’m pretty certain that, if we were actually on the riviera, shorts would have remained an excellent choice, even when the sun went behind a cloud. When the sun was out, our Italian fantasy was easy to maintain, but while the direct sun warmed our skin, the actual air temperature was still very much Britain in April. Perhaps why the pasta almost immediately went cold. Still, we were in the ‘riviera’ so Sue and I boldly tried to hold on to our fantasy while we shivered in our shorts and ate cold ravioli.
“This pasta’s slimy,” complained Joachin.
“It’s not slimy,” I told him. “It’s sophisticated.”
“Perhaps if you heat it up,” suggested Sue.
“Then it’ll be hot and slimy,” said Joachin.
“Just stick it in the microwave and put some parmesan on it,” I suggested. “Then it’ll be more authentic.”
Joachin made a face, so Sue took a mouthful of her own to prove how delicious it was. “See,” she said. “It’s lovely. It’s spinach and ricotta.”
“It tastes like someone’s pureed up some pasta in order to stick it in some other pasta,” said Joachin.
Bethan, on the other, hand, had a different problem.
“I can barely taste this,” she said.
“It’s arrabbiata,” I pointed out, “and we added extra chile.”
“Nope. Can’t taste it. Have we got any mustard, or chile flakes?”
She knows that we do. She puts them on every meal. Including corn flakes. I suggested that this might be the problem.
“No,” said Bethan, “definitely not.” She then doused her salad in pepper and balsamic and went off in search of a bottle of Sriracha.
“So,” I said to Sue, “are you glad it’s finally summer?”
Sue scowled at me and went off to find a pair of long trousers.
Goose continued to lie under the lavender bush, drinking in the heat.