I am usually one of the people who keeps things "for best" or "just in case". Give me a beautiful bar of soap and I probably won't use it. Not because I don't like it, but because well, it's a waste to just use it on myself. (Shrinks would have a field day with that one, wouldn't they?) I keep it for "special", - although what makes one wash more special than another? I have countless nice notebooks that people have given me but I hate to spoil them - by writing in them.

I know. Ridiculous.

Now that I have to pack up my things and ship them to the UK however, it's a slightly different story. The lovely creams are being slathered on in abundance, the expensive culinary oils are used in every meal prep, and the guest loo is overflowing (not literally) with paper hand towels, usually reserved for Christmas and other special occasions.

My pantry is rather daunting, partly due to the fact that the Ball & Chain goes food shopping without bothering to apprise himself of what we already have. He likes to cook and uses a wide variety of herbs and spices in most of his offerings. His shopping habits, plus love of exotic recipes, means we currently have -

4 jars of fennel, all opened
2 jars of coriander, both opened
3 jars of whole cloves, 2 opened
2 jars of ground sage, both opened
3 jars of Cholula hot sauce, 2 opened
An ancient jar of organic pear juice, which will probably go straight down the sink

Also -
2 jars of Marmite, 1 opened. Not sure if it's humanly possible to get through 1.5 jars of this stuff in two months but wouldn't taking it back to the UK be a bit "coals to Newcastle" ish?

Fortunately, I also have this..

...which sounds disgusting, even if you love Marmite, but actually isn't. Will have to work my way through the recipes.