We're on covid tenterhooks here. Mrs Steve and I attended a function on Friday afternoon, over 60 mostly elderly people in attendance in a fairly small room. We've heard already tonight that three of our friends who were there have tested positive. We both tested negative this evening (even though I have a stinking cold!). Fingers crossed, eh? We've decided that we'll test ourselves again on Wednesday evening.

I wouldn't eat those olives meself, Charmion. They won't see you off but I'm pretty certain that their quality will have deteriorated. Mrs Steve and I are infamous round here for eating out of date food. I used some crème fraiche this evening that was three weeks out of date, and we had a ham sandwich a couple of days ago with ham dated 4 December. Olives that are not in jars will go at least a week beyond. We've eaten cheddar three months out of date that was lovely. Shrink-wrapped smoked mackerel fillets are still great at least ten days out of date. We are having a Marks and Spencer pork pie for tea tomorrow evening that has the date 17 December. I ate some eggs a few days ago that had gone a week past their date. They were delicious.