Another in the potentially endless series of household related bit and pieces: I had no idea I was so picky about glassware.

I went for a wander at lunchtime today to glance around the home wares stores in an effort to determine the identity of that one kitchen item I don�t own which will be required for use the second I move into my new place. I know there�s something. I just can�t figure out what it is.

While doing this I was also looking at wine glasses. I own wine glasses, but I have never bought any. Many were 21st birthday presents. There are some great red wine glasses, champagne flutes and some heavy crystal glasses. I also have the great Martini glasses that Smurfette and Nathan gave me for Christmas last year. I don�t, however, own any every day white wine glasses. And every day white wine is pretty much what I drink every day. I�ve been using Betty's glasses since we�ve been sharing a house, but now that I�ll be out on my own I want to pick up a set of basic white wine glasses.

It turns out that �basic� doesn�t translate to �easy to find�.

All the end of financial year sales have started, so there were tons of glasses on sale when I went looking today. There were many choices at eminently reasonable prices. But did I like any of them? No.

The ones with the nice shape were too tall, or too heavy in the stem, or too wide in the base. The ones that were a nice weight were an ugly shape. And so on. And I�m not even including the ones with the �funky� patterns which I didn�t even approach.

A quick glance around the Waterford section confirmed that even the high end, substantially out of my price-range, glassware also failed to live up to my apparently very specific demands.

A nicely rounded shape, but relatively narrow, with a medium length, light-weight stem and a base that isn�t wider than the actual receptacle bit. Is that too much to ask?

On a related note, I�m apparently going to be just as bad when it comes to choosing silverware. I currently have an average but not too ugly and still wholly serviceable set of silverware that I will, at some point, want to replace. Again because of the sales going on, I took more notice of silverware today than I might otherwise because they had many large sets out on display and at significantly reduced prices. And frankly it turns out I might as well start looking now because it�s clearly going to take me years to settle on something that has the right shape, weight and handle-to-operative-part ratio.

In the end I didn�t buy anything at all. Which is good, because I�m not really supposed to be buying anything, but bad because it means I didn�t identify that vital piece of equipment that I am undoubtedly missing. Instead my eye kept getting drawn to pretty coffee cups � something of which I own more than I�m ever likely to need.

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I noticed that the US National Spelling Bee finals were on ESPN today. This time last year my back was in a horrible state and I could only work half days because I couldn�t sit for very long. So I was working from home in the afternoons, lying stretched out on the couch with the laptop perched on my stomach. And watching, entirely by accident, last year�s finals on ESPN. It was very odd and strangely compelling even though the whole thing moved extremely slowly. I half wish I could have been home during the day to watch it this year. Half wish.