You will probably have noticed if you are a regular reader, that I am sticking to my promise to only write when I think I have something worth saying, and this applies to the last few days when the news, its reasons and its outcomes, have been predictable.
Yesterday
I have been housebound for nine months and yesterday a new door open for me that let in so much light I was nearly overwhelmed. When I was first handicapped, away back in January, I never knew of the existence of a thing called a Rollator . It is, in effect, a small collapsible truck with four wheels, a seat, handbrakes on two handholds, and one can walk pushing this thing in front of one, so that the body is supported by the arms, not cantilevered, and when one becomes fatigued one can put on the brakes, the thing is now totally rigid, and then one can sit down and rest, and the day is not over. In a while one can get up and go on doing what one wants to do. Yesterday I went shopping the first time in all that time, I was out of the house, mixing with the public, and having a totally new perspective. Those who are handicapped will know what a revelation that was, to those who have never been handicapped, take my word for it, it is the best thing that has happened in all that time, and my life has changed.
A new review of cooking.
I’m not going into a whole spiel like one of these cooking programmes on TV, but I personally believe that while I may not be original, by necessity I have discovered a way of improving the variety of the food that Sophie and I can enjoy, easily and cheaply, because I have a lot of spare time, and we have carers who help us with our meals. We have found that buying ready-made meals is not all it is cracked up to be, because the bulk can often be vegetables with little choice of what they are, and the food is not cooked to our taste, which is mainly circa 1940. I address this not only to the handicapped, but to the impecunious and the busy.
There is a shadowy manufacturer called Auntie Bessie, who provides one with mashed potato that can be readily made in the microwave, and Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, and onion rings that can be heated and a quality that is acceptable even to the critical. So now, we buy large portions of meat, preferably when on offer, such as a leg of lamb, loin of pork and so on. I cook these separately, allow them to cool, and then slice them, make small packages enough for a meal for two, wrap them in foil and freeze them. So periodically, merely by heating a few vegetables, heating the Auntie Bessie products in the oven, and heating our plates in the microwave, along with additional gravy, I can make a very respectable roast dinner. With this level of success we then widened the horizon and included a kilo of mince, a kilo of beef pieces, and a roast chicken, and then we had, the ingredients of Irish stew, boeuf Bourguignon, mince and potatoes and veg, spaghetti Bolognese, and many other versions. I think if you calculate not only the cost savings, the saving in time of the system, you will find it is to your advantage, the quality of the food is better than you will buy, the variety on offer is greater, and coupled with other simple foods that are home-cooked meals, food becomes more than just a source of nourishment. I strongly suspect that I have stumbled upon the way in which restaurants operate, if I have, I now understand why they can offer the variety they do.