Today, I decided to challenge myself in respect of that most important of daily choices: lunch venue. It's all too easy in the job that I do to grab a sandwich and to eat it at your desk. Today, as I was lunching with a friend who has recently been appointed a High Court judge, I decided to try somewhere new.

We went to Edokko, an authentically rickety Japanese restaurant on Red Lion Street. It was like stepping into Japan; shoes off, tables positioned so that you sat cross-legged on the floor and waiters who generally had no idea what you were saying. An exceptional find, as the sushi and salmon teriyaki I had were just fantastic. If I'd been in Japan, not that I ever have been, so here follows a really useless comparison, I'd have been delighted.

Lunching with a High Court judge is an eye opener. I asked him how he had found the transition between being a barrister and now being a judge. The bank balance is different, he said. True enough. But apparently all judges meet once a week for a 'judge's tea' - how wonderful to imagine them all sitting round in their wigs, drinking tea out of patterned china cups, discussing the laws of England. It's undoubtedly not like that but it's made me think that maybe a judge's life isn't so lonely after all...