On weekend mornings, Ailish and I would cook breakfast. This requires two people.

I was responsible for the coffee and the eggs (poached medium, of course). And setting the table. Ailish was responsible for cooking the bacon (extra crispy), and pointing out all the things I had forgotten to put on the table when I set it. We’d handle our own toast. Me, because I liked having the toast ready and buttered for when the eggs were finished. Ailish, because she couldn’t stand cold toast and so had to time it to perfection.

It’s really quite difficult to get the timing down exactly. Coffee’s easy, of course. But bacon takes far longer to cook than eggs do to poach, so we had a whole system in place. I would set the table and then prepare the coffee. While Ailish started on the bacon, I would set up the egg poacher. Just before she flipped the second set of bacon, I’d plug in the egg poacher. Then, we’d put in the toast. Ailish would examine the table and point out all the things I had forgotten this time. Once that was corrected, the bacon would be finished, the toast would pop up, and the eggs would buzz. Breakfast would be perfect.

It just doesn’t work by myself.