Beginnings, or how envy turned out to be a good thing

I am an uncommonly jealous creature. This is not, I hasten to add, a quality of which I am proud. Some things which I lust after--being born French, a better sense of smell, intuition--are without question unattainable. Others--an end to indecisiveness, a pied-a-terre in Paris, New York or San Francisco, the perfect job, the diminishing influence of aforementioned jealousy--are achievable, but in no danger of immediate fulfillment. (I should mention that I am also an impatient creature.) Yet even in the absence of a generous inheritance or Wizard of Oz-like personality enhancement, it did occur to me that one thing that I have been wanting for some time required nothing more than my (newly-repaired) computer and a bit of inspiration.

Please be patient while I figure out how to channel that inspiration, to redirect my energies from food-blog reading to food-blog writing, and while I wait for my old hard drive to be recovered, restoring (with the will of whatever divine presence might exist) a fair bit of food-related scribbling which I have done over the last year or so. In the meantime, a few things (not all edible) which have been giving me pleasure of late:
1) Dark chocolate salted caramels from the misshapens basket (2 pounds! only 2 pounds!) at L'Artisan du Chocolat, Borough Market.
2) My new red silicone muffin pan, though I am wracked with indecision (see above) about what to make first.
3) Hidalgo Oloroso sherry. So nutty, so silken, so much cheaper than good wine.
4) Two perky, squeaky fennel bulbs sitting on the bottom shelf of my fridge.