The thought struck me as I was stretching a piece of cling film over a bowl of bread dough, before leaving it to rise, that it probably represents in some small way the high tide of human self-indulgence - imagine some future historian explaining that we took oil that had been in the Earth for millions of years and, by some mysterious alchemical process, converted it into a gossamer-thin skin, which rendered containers air-tight - quite miraculous!

"And what did they do then?" asks the future historian's assistant.

"Oh, they just dug a big hole and threw it in."

"Verily, they were gods. But kind of stupid and self-indulgent ones."

So I thought this as I was stretching a piece of cling film over a bowl of bread dough, feeling quite with-it and Al Gore-ish. And then I took another piece and stretched it over the other bowl, and when I'd finished with them I threw them in the bin. Because I don't think I was paying attention.

If you're an American, you probably know this product as Seran Wrap. I can't help that. I don't even know what a Seran is, let alone why you'd want to wrap one up.

Useful, though.