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.