Something made me sad today and then I thought about it and realised I should be happy.
It's pancake day and traditionally people make pancakes to use up things in their cupboards as a sign of giving up things for Lent.
I'm not going to get all religious, but I may reminisce a bit - it's about how life has got better.
When I was young, pancake day was something special. It was, as a child, a feast day.
I used to look forward to pancake day. Most of the dinners I sat down to as a child were awful, really awful. I cried often, the food looked horrid, tasted horrid and if you didn't eat it, there were harsh lectures on the starving in other parts of the world or how I wouldn't grow up good and strong.
Pancake day was different - my Mum could cook pancakes.
On pancake day we had nothing else for dinner and I remember thinking that something first might have been nice (if it was faggots). On them, there was no syrup, ice cream or sauce, just sugar and lemon juice from a little plastic Jif lemon. I ate the pancakes and smiled. My Mum used to make them one at a time, then bring them to the table, one by one, where me and my hungry siblings would argue over who had the next one. She stood for what seemed like hours; mixing, flipping and cooking.
Today I made pancakes for my children, really tasty pancakes. I made them beforehand and there was no hungry waiting. We had dinner first - calzone - so everyone was well fed. With the pancakes, we had ice cream, syrup and butterscotch sauce.
But the kids didn't eat the pancakes. I felt like something had been lost.
Try them, please - I begged - but no luck. Neither Isis nor Eve would even have a go.
You can see why I was upset
But then I got to thinking - that was my life, that was my experience.
No doubt all my three little horrors will have their memories of times like these. No doubt they will have their pancake days. Why should I be sad that they aren't so willing to take part in my miserable reliving of my past. Pancake day isn't what it used to be and nor is life. Things have gotten better.
We can moan about horse meat in our burgers and the processed sugar in our cakes but if we stand back, dispassionate, with the eyes of a historian of the future, all we will see is people who have the opportunity to live as well as the kings of old. Well fed, warm, transported around in vehicles which we do not power ourselves, safe and secure in our own little castles where marauding Vikings don't tear down our walls.
And the word in the last paragraph is opportunity. We have the opportunity.
I'm glad my children don't want to eat pancakes. An egg, flour and milk isn't really an advert for a modern society. There are better things.
Just to get my own back though, I did tell them they have to give up something for Lent and bored them with tales about what this would mean. I also told them not to tell me what it was - like a wish, keep it secret. Tomorrow, when they have forgetten about yesterday, it won't matter, but at least they may have tried.
The calzone was made from some pizza dough I made some time ago and froze: 23/1/2013 and some bolgonese sauce also frozen for a later day: 23/1/2013. I also used some mozarella cheese. Roll out the dough like a pizza, put filling one one half. Put some water on the edge to help it seal and fold over. Bake like a pizza.
The pancakes - Google these, there are better explanations that I can give. Have a go, they are really, really easy.