I have now had 52 acceptances for the year. It’s a nice round figure and I, once again, have to remind myself that quality and quantity should not be confused. The only area where they might coincide is that things, including writing, improve with practice and I may be improving my quality by writing more. It seems like a reasonable link.

That was Saturday, but we have had visitors over the weekend and my routine has been disrupted so it is part written on Sunday, but won’t be published until Monday. It’s good to have a change. My father, as he grew older, started to insist on routines about meal times, and I remember being concerned at the time. It always seems like a forerunner of decline. I currently sleep until I’m ready to wake up, have breakfast at a time that varies according to time of rising and any other plans for the day, have lunch at a time that depends on what we have for breakfast, then eat in the evening at a time based on what is on TV It’s fluid.

Breakfast – 3 fruits plus wheat

(Monday Morning)

Breakfast is likely to be cereal and toast this morning. I base this prediction on Julia having a lie in and me already at the computer. I don’t like making breakfast in these circumstances as I don’t want to wake her if she is warm and comfortable. Nor, having gto into my stride, do I want to have to stop typing when she gets up. She always makes cereal and fruit, because she is healthy. The toast comes later because I feel hungry and will make toast to top up. We used to have toast and marmalade every morning but decided to cut it out as a way of saving a few hundred calories a week.

I’ve just been looking at the top ten healthy breakfasts. Weetabix with fruit is number 5. It’s convenient and, I thought, healthy, and verges on one of those things you eat for health reasons rather than pleasure, so I’m disappointed to find it isn’t nearer the top.

Toast and jam – it’s the closest I have to a photo of toast and marmalade

Toast and marmalade is number 9. That’s a surprise as I would have thought a couple of slices of carbs plus a spoonful of sugar (even id it has been shown to an orange) would be much less healthy. Mainly, though, I’m surprised that anyone considers it a meal. Toast and marmalade is a snack or garnish, not a meal.

I suppose at this point I should start thinking about definitely not having toast with breakfast.

My preferred option, as I sit here, hungry and typing away, would be bacon cobs, but they, for some reason, don’t even make it into the top ten.

The top healthy breakfast is porridge. That’s great if you want to start your day washing a porridge pan. They always seem so clogged up by the end of the cooking.

Overnight oats is second. We have drifted away from these, but as I look at the list, it looks like we should start doing them again.

Oats – I have no photos of porridge and most of my “oats” search results feature boats or goats. I must check the titles of those photos.

Next is toast and eggs. Eggs should be boiled or poached to avoid added fat. It’s one of my preferred breakfasts, though not with boiled or poached eggs, and a garnish of bacon never goes amiss. And a few beans. Possibly black pudding and mushrooms and tomatoes . . .

Fourth is shop-bought muesli. Even the added sugar variety they use as an example is ranked higher than Weetabix. How can that be? Weetabix reminds me of the baled wood shavings you put in hamster cages. How can that possibly be less healthy than something that has added sugar? It contains not only dietary fibre but moral fibre, being, like porridge, half food and half penance. Yet, the manufacturers seem to be able to sneak lots of rubbish in there too.

That’s a breakfast . . .

I just drifted on to bananas. After feeling guilty for eating them (they have been getting a lot of bad press over recent years) I now find they are good for me. That’s good, as I like bananas and was feeling bad about having them sliced on my Weetabix.

Please note I use “Weetabix” to describe my breakfast cereal, when I really mean “cheap supermarket own-brand versions of Weetabix”. Seeing as I don’t enjoy them, I don’t want to pay too much for them.

Olympic Breakfast – classic British meal from the now defunct “Little Chef” chain of roadside restaurants