Lists

People love lists… well, some people do… I don’t and I’m not sure why; the nearest I come is at Christmas with cards and presents, making sure I’ve got for everyone and sent to everyone… but otherwise… I’m not a list person. I do make shopping lists, but usually forget them, I never make to-do lists… and again I’m not sure why. If I made a to do list maybe I would get more done? Even when I was at work I hated lists, although colleagues loved them, and loved ticking things off or crossing things out. My daughter is wonderful at making lists – they are a work of art, colour coded, prioritised…and she’s been like that since she was little. I wonder where she gets it from?

In today’s newspaper there was an article about lists, including facsimiles of famous people’s lists Nick Cave, Houdini, John Lennon, it made interesting reading. There were also lists by Einstein (instructions to his wife) Mark Twain (food he would eat when home from touring) and Darwin’s dad, hoping to persuade his son not to go travelling.

The one I found most intriguing was one dating from 1609, by Galileo, which included reminders of things to do as well as things to get. He needed to buy ivory combs, two artillery balls, a tin organ pipe and polished German lenses. But what really intrigued me was his food shopping list:

• lentils
• white chick peas
• rice
• raisins
• spelt
• sugar
• pepper
• coves
• cinnamon
• spices
• jam
• oranges

Was he stocking his cupboards, or did he have a recipe he wanted to try? It sounds like a North African dish to me… maybe he was on Masterchef!!