I’m sick to the back teeth of shelling out money on er, well, not to put too fine a point on it, crap. For example, When DM and I were about as much of a “love’s young dream” as we ever got, given that we only “got” when I was already 40, we did a lot of entertaining and, because money was no object (and because I’d lost all of my existing placemats in my divorce) I bought a set of expensive table mats. They had cork backs and looked like spun gold. They were gorgeous.

In the mere 14 years since then they have turned from things of beauty to nasty things which look as if I’ve been kicking them around the floor on a regular basis. I’ve always been careful to wipe them down after use and put them away clean but they have been delaminating for some years and look horrible to the point that I’m ashamed to put them on the table.

A couple of weeks back, we were in Markses with DMs folks and I noticed some lovely slate mats. I commented on how nice they were and today, when I got home from work, I found these on the table. They are recycled roof slates that a trustee from the charity DM works for made.

They’re natural, beautiful and up-cycled from another use and do you know what’s best of all? They cost only £20 for the six and were hand made by someone in our own town who needed the money. Even better than my previously stated best of all is that they are heatproof and, unless they are dropped from a great height, won’t come to any harm in normal use. They truly are the real deal.

In normal circumstances I'd have been furious at spending £20 on a frippery but given that I'm going to get my first pay packet tomorrow, I'll let him off the extravagance.