I love weekends. I really do.

Whether it’s a weekend packed full of activities that leaves you even more tired on Monday or the lazy, empty weekends when all you want to do is lounge around – I love them all. Last weekend was a bit of combination of both. With the promise of a week off ahead the weekend was transformed from the usual ‘get it while you can’ of a normal weekend into a different thing altogether.

On Saturday not much happened apart from me venturing to the fish market to buy some spankingly fresh mackerel – the fillets were silky – and cooking it simply with tomatoes and thyme. We downloaded Midnight in Paris from iTunes and this topped off a very relaxed, some would say downright lazy, Saturday. I forgot – I dusted off the bike for the nice weather too, I’m determined to get out more on it this year after a pathetic show last year.

Sunday started slightly more energetically with a not too long but not too short walk with good friends D&G and a couple of cheeky pints of Leeds Pale at The Woodcock. Having dismissed this pub previously, we were pleasantly surprised. We must go more often. Out walking, I’m always struck by how lucky we are to live where we do: on the edge of Leeds, it’s very rural and we could be living in the countryside if we looked carefully, which we don’t very often. This means we can access nice walks without having to get in the car, which is a huge treat.

On our walk we cooked up the idea of a barbecue. The weather was bright but actually getting chilly again – we’ve been spoilt by this unseasonably warm spell – so we thought we’d make the most of it. The bad boy BBQ was duly fired up and we sat outside until late, eating and drinking far too much for a Sunday night. But being off the following day, we didn’t care one bit. The food was fantastic to say our feast was a cobbled together joint affair and the highlight for me was the scallops and chorizo with broad beans, not strictly barbecue food but delicious all the same.

Weekends, don’t you just love them?