Another change of plans

We never made it to Ricky's. Instead the Fox got up feeling terrible. He thought he was going down with a cold. Certainy the weather has been so unsettled of late it's been difficult to know what to wear - half the time I'm over dressed & sweltering, the other half rushing to find a woolly as I'm shivering - all very conducive to a cold. We rang up Den & Fran to cancel the meal. As the evening set in the Fox brightened up a bit.

I can't quite decide whether he has got a cold or whether it's one of those times that he shows all the signs of a cold but the real problem is just overtiredness, compounded perhaps with the stuffed up feeling that comes with hay fever. Either way rest is the best cure. We'll see as today goes on.

Fortunately we had a few Booth's freezer meals still in. I hastily got the chicken & mushroom lasagne in the oven & warmed up a tin of sweetcorn. Today I'm more prepared. I've par-boiled some new potatoes to have with a crab gratin. I'm cheating by using a tin, rather than fresh crab.

I remember once, many years ago, when the Fox was working at the Windermere Steamboat Museum, he was given a whole fresh though boiled, undressed crab, by way of thanks for the lifts home he'd given the wife of this colleague, an enthusiastic fisherman. It took me ages trying to tackle this crab, trying to work out which bits were edible, which were not, from some rather poor black & white illustrations in a cookbook. Never again I thought, unless I've got a person to point out what's what.

I have before now bought dressed crab from our local fishmonger but that is very expensive &, if you are using to cook with, I'm not sure how much better it tastes. For a salad it's another matter.

So we'll see what happens today. The only certs are that we must get up to the surgery to drop in a repeat prescription, make a hair appointment for me (I need a prettify before our trip to Stoke) & buy some cards.