Lunch in Spilsby

Yesterday I was joined by K, my 17 year old. She's had to move in with a friend in the city because the amount of travelling she had to do to get to college while living at home made her life a nightmare. She has a little scooter that I got her when she turned 16, which she's been driving with a provisional licence and CBT, and a year later I gave her a choice: either I'd get her a car and get her through her tests for a full driving licence, or I'd help her leave home and pay her a weekly living allowance as long as she's in full time college.

She chose the latter, partly because she'd rather not have to do all the travelling in the first place, but I suspect largely cos she's 17, and wants to make her own way. Her time at boarding school made her more used to independence than the average teen (I suspect), and when she chose to come home and go to college rather than continue boarding for sixth form, the relative freedom of home as compared to the strict timetabling and control-freak rules of the boarding house soon gave way to frustration with Dad's rules!!

Anyway, she was over visiting at the weekend, and my best pal Wayne also joined us for that dinner yesterday. Today K decided to skip college and come with me and Wayne to meet Charlie for lunch in Spilsby. First though, I had to take S to school in Boston.

On the way back I went to Handson's in Mareham Le Fen and got my hands on a mixed grill pack (£5.99) which includes two beef steaks, two pork steaks and a couple of Lincolnshire sausages, and 300g of minced beef. I also stopped at a bungalow in Carrington and got another 7lbs of spuds for £1 and a dozen eggs for £1.30.

Monday is market day in Spilsby, and the little town really comes to life, with hardly a chain store in sight. We chose the Just E11even Café on Market Street, which I wanted to try out as I saw it advertised in the latest Good Taste (the magazine from Select Lincolnshire). After a satisfying lunch, we all agreed we'd recommend it and I left with a jar of orange curd and a plum loaf. I happen to believe that Moden's plum loaf is the best there is - better even than the famous Meyer's - but that's a personal thing.

I went around the market stalls and in a couple of greengrocer's shops, which made today's yield look something like this:

The eggs not included as they couldn't fit in the frame! Suffice to say that'll keep us going for the week, especially as I still have stuff leftover from previous scavenging. That's some cheap shopping - I'm feeding me and Soph for barely over a tenner this week and as you can see, we're not exactly roughing it.

However, the whole reason why all these people were visiting me was to help me with decorating the kitchen. So as you can imagine, nobody was in any mood for cooking from scratch in a disordered kitchen, after all that hard work. So the vote was cast and it was takeaway time. Was this going to mess with the local food project? Was it heck! Fresh Grimsby fish and chips from Boston potatoes at Mermaid Fisheries in Horncastle - I timed the journey at 9 minutes from the shop to my front door, which should convince my friends that my house isn't quite as remote as it seems!

Now I suppose I'd better finish off that kitchen!