Gary Rhodes right who won the Good Food Awards Best Book prize for his last tome launched his sixth Sweet Dreams a

Gary Rhodes (right), who won the Good Food Awards Best Book prize for his last tome, launched his sixth, Sweet Dreams, a book dedicated entirely to puddings, this week. For those of us who lost the toss at the wrestling bout between our waistlines and pleasure, cookbooks are close to pornography. Meals are charged at ordinary restaurant prices (minus service), which is usually about pounds 23 a head.Chutney Mary553 King's Rd, London SW10 (0171-351 3113)This popular gourmet Indian restaurant has introduced a delivery service to selected London areas, but this is probably not a quick-curry-after- the-pub option - it's only for orders in excess of pounds 100. But you can also order its food through Room Service (0171-431 5555), which is one of a number of companies which can arrange to deliver takeaways from a large selection of restaurants to your home.Sonny's94 Church Rd, Barnes, London SW13 (0181-748 0393)Like a growing number of places (including Conran restaurants such as The Bluebird, Pont de la Tour and Mezzo), this re-vamped Modern British restaurant has an adjacent shop which sells ready-made food similar to that served next door.. For 10 or more people, Gresslin's (left) will provide a chef in your own home, and even a waiter should you require.

Originally they just wanted us to cook the food so they could serve it up themselves, but then we hit on the idea of sending one of our chefs, because not all dishes travel brilliantly. It's been incredibly popular, especially in an area like this, where people have big dining-rooms, big kitchens and little wish to cook for themselves."And you don't have to be in the Hampstead set to be able to enjoy food from top chefs at home, or at least their recipes. Gary Rhodes's "Rhodes to Home" range, offering dishes such as salmon fishcakes and bread-and- butter pudding, is now available in many supermarkets.Mashboxes are available from Mash, 19-21 Great Portland St, London W1 (0171-291 1500) and Mash & Air, 40 Chorlton St, Manchester M1 (0161-661 6161)LUXURY DOOR-TO-DOOR DELIVERIESGresslin's13 Heath St, Hampstead, London NW3 (0171-794 8386)Customers can either collect their food part-cooked or it can be delivered (at an additional cost). Meanwhile, Gresslin's in Hampstead will not only deliver its Modern European food to local residences but, for an extra pounds 50, it will provide you with a chef who will cook a whole meal for you in your own home. "Regular customers approached us about catering for dinner parties. "It started a few years ago," explains manager Robert Holland. Mashboxes are being introduced at Mash & Air in Manchester from next month.

Others call in on their way home from work because they are too tired to cook."And it's not just Londoners who can sample Mash-style food away from the restaurant. The top section holds the cutlery, napkins and condiments; the middle section the starter and the main course; while the bottom layer contains dessert and, to round off your meal, some freshly-baked cookies. The menu changes weekly and customers can choose from meat, fish and vegetarian options for pounds 12.90 each or, if you want to impress or indulge, there's an pounds 18.50 version with Sevrugar caviar and smoked salmon and a pounds 25 version with foie gras. According to a spokeswoman for Mash, the boxes are proving popular for a variety of reasons: "Some people just want a proper meal but don't have time to sit down in a restaurant, so they'll have a Mashbox at their desk. But now a growing number of eateries are coming up with different ways of ensuring that you can eat their food whenever and wherever you want. At Mash, just off Oxford Street in London, you can tuck into a three- course meal at any time of the day or evening thanks to its exclusively designed "Mashboxes" The trendy opaque plastic boxes have three layers.

It's very good if you can't go to sleep.Posy Simmonds' 'The Freezing Alphabet' and 'Fred', a cartoon story about a pop-star cat, have just been reissued (Red Fox, pounds 6.99 each). 1 The Truman Show pounds 230,849 NEW 2 Elizabeth pounds 138,202 2 3 There's Something About Mary pounds 121,250 34 Saving Private Ryan pounds 53,936 55 Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels pounds 46,087 76 Ever After: A Cinderella Story pounds 36,736 NEW7 Lethal Weapon 4 pounds 19,142 48 Mercury Rising pounds 18,962 29 Buffalo 66 pounds 14,898 210 The Spanish Prisoner pounds 10,463 8. It used to be the case that if you wanted restaurant food you booked your table and spent your lunchtime or evening at the establishment of your choice (or phoned your local Indian, Chinese or Pizza place). I can recite it now: "Food-enters-the-body-through-the-mouth-where-it-is-moistened-by-saliva..." and "Kidneys-are-a-pair-of-bean-shaped-glands-situated-in-the-dorsal-wall- of-the-abdomen...". Boring stuff like that.One thing we used to do when we couldn't go to sleep, was to recite the alimentary canal. Sometimes you got as far as the kidneys before you dropped off Other times, you went right down to the rectum. We'd tap out Morse code on the central-heating pipes; things like "Are you all right?", "Have you done your Latin prep?" and "It's my bath night".

I liked cricket, and I had brothers and could bowl at them during the holidays. My father played cricket, my mother not, but I don't recall if there were any particularly amazing matches.Other games were played in the dormitories after lights out. I USED to play cricket during boring lectures at boarding school Not literally cricket. One of the lecturers used to wave his arms in the air very much like an umpire, and, if he stuck one arm up and a finger, that was a wicket. He often did that several times in a row, so six wickets fell Or if he opened his arms wide, that was a wide. Because we played cricket at this school, we knew all the umpiring signals. And so sometimes you could get two innings, or even six innings if there was a lot of wagging during lectures about drainage patterns in the Nile or the evolution of bee language - things like that, which you're then stuck with remembering for the rest of your life. It was a girls school, but we played cricket with a hard ball.