To warm up a cold English January: an evening of Cavalleria Rusticana (one of my favourite operas). A bit of white-hot passion is no bad thing, from time to time. I usually favour the recording by Giuseppe Sinopoli, to which I have become accustomed, but this evening I listened to the (young) Riccardo Muti. Difficult to know which I prefer; I'll need to go back to Sinopoli before Muti has faded from my memory. For the record, Sinopoli takes four minutes longer than Muti. I suspect I'll still favour Sinopoli, in the end.

Confirmed that the 21-day aged steak at Sainbury's is still the safest buy if one wants a guaranteed excellent quality steak. I have bought some excellent steaks in my life -- including a special offer Argentinian one around 25 years ago, and an Irish one a couple of years ago. But too often it's hit and miss, and very often miss. But the Sainsbury's aged steak seems to be at least 95% success each time. I'll buy more.