Yesterday I felt like the very picture of a sophisticated single girl in the city. You know, the glossy TV or movie single career girl going about her business, perhaps in a montage.

I got up to a not unpleasant day and instead of immediately crashing down in front of aimless television while eating breakfast, I took my toast and juice (note, juice instead of diet coke) and a magazine and went into my study which gets the morning sun. I sat in the chair in the corner under the window eating and reading and quietly listening to music and feeling content.

After a shower I started to review my cook books with a view to finding a dessert to make for this afternoon�s book club meeting. I found something, made a shopping list and walked up to the supermarket, green shopping bags and list in hand. I bought the ingredients, together with a few vegetables, and left the store without having aimlessly stocked up on chocolate or icecream (though I did pick up some diet coke - I said sophisticated, not inhuman).

Upon my return I opened all the blinds and windows in the place, threw on some New Order and cleaned the place from top to bottom in preparation for hosting the book club meeting. And because it rather needed it.

With everything lemony fresh, and all last week�s clean clothes, work clothes and unpacked from last weekend clothes finally put away rather than lying in a large pile on the floor, the sun came out and I decided to go for a walk.

While there�s a supermarket, a chemist, two bakeries, two fruit and veg shops and a bottle shop about four minutes walk from my place, about ten minutes in a slightly different direction is the local shopping hub. It�s a highly multicultural strip of shops, cafes, pubs, and wedding paraphernalia outlets. It�s slightly dingy, and yet has everything. It�s one of those wonderful mixed up places and I have been disappointed that lack of time has prevented me from heading up there more since I moved in here.

But yesterday afternoon was perfect. I wandered up and then along the street, to various cafes (among them Japanese, Moroccan, Turkish and Italian/African) reminded me that it was after lunch and I was hungry. So I stopped in at a random cafe that seemed to have the perfect combination of mixed-up furniture, a liquor licence and all-day breakfast. I ordered the grilled chicken salad instead of a burger and fries or the country breakfast and not only was it wonderful, I felt virtuous because of the greens and lack of anything fried.

Walking home in the sunshine carrying the fresh flowers and bottle of wine I�d purchased after leaving the cafe, I wasn�t sure what could be more sophisticated. Of course we�ll just ignore the fact I was wearing dirty jeans, an unfashionably (as opposed to fashionably) stretched and misshapen long sleeve t-shirt in an ugly colour and smelly sneakers while doing this. With frizzy hair and no make-up. Just forgot that as I did strolling along the road feeling sophisticated.

But then, to prove my versatility, I arrived home and baked. Successfully, too. And I got to use some of my more sophisticated kitchen tools, like my zester. I love kitchen gadgets, but I get lazy about cooking, so some of them get left unused for long periods of time. It�s nice to feel all Nigella once in a while simply by being able to reach for those things when a recipe demands them rather than having to scramble for a quick-fix alternative.

Once the baking was done I returned to reading and listening to music and drinking wine until I got hungry for dinner, where I proceeded to cook a simple and fully vegetarian meal (I have been noticing the lack of vegetables in my life recently, but it�s only yesterday that I did something about it). And only when sitting down to eat did I turn the TV on to watch a movie. And I didn�t even drink the whole bottle of wine.

While I don�t think I spoke to anyone other than the waiter in the cafe and the people serving me in the stores, it really was a perfect day.

And this morning I woke up to a lemon-fresh apartment, with fresh flowers, a perfect dessert waiting in the fridge, and friends coming over this afternoon. Oh, and a pile of dishes in the sink, because there�s only so much cleaning up and being perfect I can do in one day.