It wasn’t until quite late in life that I became someone who was in any way involved with proper cooking. Unlike our children who learnt to cook with their mother from quite young ages and who are now, all three of them, excellent cooks and Stuart for food preparers, I would consider myself to still be on my L’s in the world of cooking.

I can cook chops, steak, eggs, make toast, put hot water on pre-prepared vegetables, and that’s more or less it. The worst experience I’ve ever had would be admitting to burnt toast. Fortunately, none of the toast I have burnt has ever caught on fire.

I can cook sausages, heat up and cook rissoles, and do a couple of other things. But my culinary capacities are very, very limited.

I really can’t fail this topic because I’ve not had enough exposure to warrant much consideration about what I can do and what I can’t, in the world of cooking. I often wish I had learnt to cook, including sweets, cakes, and a whole variety of things but alas cooking to me is largely foreign. It’s pretty hard to muck up on coming steak, particularly when you want it very well done or cremated. Similarly, the other items I’ve mentioned don’t lend themselves to too much spoiling. I simply do everything on a timer so get things ready in that regard.

One thing I do is to make sure the dirty dishes associated with cooking and eating are cleaned up as soon as they have been used. So though I might get an ‘L’ and even a fail for cooking, I get top marks for cleaning up and making sure that all utensils, plates, cutlery and everything else are clean and looked after and never allowed to clutter the sink.