Wednesday 30 November 2011

A venture out

For the first time since last Thursday, I ventured out, away from these premises. That's not to say I'm entirely well but I'm at the stage where a little activity will do no harm, & a change of scene is a boost to the morale.

We pop along to the Pub. PD is as pleased as can be. He doesn't venture out socially without family or us to hold his hand - metaphorically rather than literally - such is the effect of depression on him. The barman greets me with a cheery smile & asks if I'm better. I assure him I'm definitely on the mend.

Later Mr P turns up. He,too, is pleased to see me once more in the group. His query about my health is much more querulous & dubious. I don't think he can quite believe that this is me a lot better after nearly a week of illness. By this time I'm coughing & blowing fairly frequently. I assure him I am a lot better even if I am only at the stage most people get to at the peak of their colds. The Fox & I exchange glances & think if he thinks this is bad he should have seen me on Saturday.

Still the all important thing is I'm on the mend. The only worrying thing is the Fox is now coughing & blowing a bit, with a sore throat & cotton-wool filled head. I'm just hoping he isn't going down with it.

It was great to get out though. During my quarantine, the street scenes have changed. Many houses have put up their Christmas decorations. I suppose it is Advent now, but I feel December is quite early enough for such decoration, even for the shops. I expect many more lights & trees will be going up this weekend. We will not put ours up until nearer the date itself. I feel Christmas Eve is early enough, but the Fox does like to see the tree up a bit earlier than that. It helps him feel in more festive mood.

This afternoon, if we're both up to it, we're hoping to get to the supermarket. We seem to be running out of so many essentials, things like bread & cooking oil. Ready meals, too, are low. It really doesn't seem worth the effort of cooking much if one of us isn't up to tasting the result. It was wonderful to have that Normandy Pork last night - proper home cooked food. Nonetheless, while the germs hover around, it is reassuring to have something quick & easy to do. The Fox may well sink. I may well relapse once again. Either way it is useful to have something in that requires minimum effort.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Still getting there

Yesterday was my one step back, but today I've made two steps forward & am feeling more like myself than I have for what seems like ages. I'm even contemplating having a go at cooking, or at least supervising the cooking of, the Normandy pork I'd planned for last Friday. I'm confident my taste buds will be tasting, my mind will be sufficiently unfogged to think. I'm still blowing but not near as bad.

It's the first time Angie, our cleaner, has been when I've had a cold. Usually I sit & chat to her as she cleans, but yesterday I retreated back into the lounge as she moved on to the bathroom. Soon she came running in, alarmed. "Are you okay?" she queried. I had coughed, that is all. But when down with cold, my coughs rack my whole body & she'd thought I was my gasping my last.

As she left she thought I should have a bit of a lie down, which I admit I felt about ready to do. No such luck. I'd just got as far as removing my knee braces, reclining my chair into a comfortable position, snuggling down into a quilt I've had out for the last few days for just such a purpose, when the doorbell went - a local charity trying to enlist subscriptions. This was an irritating  waste of time since we regularly support that particular charity anyway, if they had but checked their books in the first place. 

I returned to my chair, got comfy again, when the doorbell went a second time. This time it was a wine delivery. By the time that was taken in, I felt it was time to abandon the whole effort of a lie down.

Still, today, I've got up feeling well enough to put away the quilt, until the next time I'm down with a cold. Hopefully that won't be this year at least. Now I'm looking forward to a slow, but steady, improvement & getting back to normality once more.

Sunday 27 November 2011

On the mend

It is with some relief, I'm glad to say, I'm once more re-surfacing. Last night I actually managed to sleep most of the time. Friday night had been spent more awake than sleeping, coughing so hard tears came to my eyes & blowing my nose so much the best part of a box of tissues went just during the night. I'd also alternated between freezing despite a sheet, two blankets, a quilted bedspread & a quilt on top of me - usually a sheet & one blanket suffice for me - and running with sweat. I'm still pretty blocked but at least things are easing. I'm also pleased to see a bit of rosiness returning to my cheeks today. It will be another quiet day for me today but at least I've turned the corner.

Meanwhile the Fox is feeling heavy, though it doesn't seem to be turning into a full blown cold. He's been busy trying make sure I'm well fed & watered. I wouldn't be too surprised, though, if the roles are reversed as the week goes on & I recover & he lets go & sinks into the cold.

Friday 25 November 2011

Struck once more

I've gone down with yet another cold. I'm not going to stay long. Just peeling some potatoes for today's dinner has just about exhausted me. And people seem to think colds are nothing. They've clearly not had the full-blown version I usually get. I'm feeling ready for another lie-down between nose-blowing & coughing. And I've only been up less than two hours!

Thursday 24 November 2011

Food matters

And so we finish off the tin of salmon. This time with a Salmon Vol-au-Vent. The fishcakes were as delicious as we remembered. We were both transported back to the heady days when we were newlyweds. At the time our family all said we wouldn't last, a year at most. Maybe that's why we've never taken our marriage & each other for granted. We've always seen it as precious. That's not to say we haven't had our problems, but we've always felt it was worth the effort to tackle those problems together.

When we opened the large tin of salmon, the Fox had hesitated, thinking we would end up wasting some of it, or getting bored before we finished it. Now he has enjoyed it all so much he is eager to open another tin & have yet more fishcakes.

Instead he is going to have a go today at roasting some gammon in Big Ears, our slow cooker. He's not tried roasting in it before. It seems strange to not have to add liquid. We're curious to see what the result is. In theory it should work. After all a conventional oven essentially cooks with the circulation of warm air around it, & the meat remains moist. The only real difference is that the meat is on a warm surface below. The heat, however, is very low so the meat shouldn't stick on. We'll see.

Meanwhile we're off to the Farmers' Market today to see if we can get some flavoursome meat. I'm particularly hoping to get some salt marsh lamb, some rare breed pork & a pheasant or two. That will be our meat purchase until next month's market.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

A little night shepherding

It's dark. We come home. We turn into the drive. Suddenly the Fox slams on the brakes.

"What's that?" he asks.

I peer out of the window to see what he's pointing at. At first I think it's just a leaf. Then I realise it's far too thick for a leaf. It's a frog!

We sit there. It sits there. Eventually I conclude the only thing is to get out of the car & move the frog, otherwise it will be one squashed frog.

I make sure I'm wall-side of the frog & move close. It takes one hop. I move closer. So it is, one hop at a time, we move across the drive to the front garden. By now my back is to the drive ready to stop the frog changing his mind & hopping back the way he came. The Fox hastily drives in & parks.

He can't help laughing. The sight of me bending over, trying to shepherd the frog out of the way has apparently been quite a sight. He isn't sure which of us, the frog or I, is the slower moving. He suspects 'tis I.

We say our goodnights to the frog & retreat into the warmth of our home. The security light stays on as the frog continues his night hunt in the front garden.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Anticipation

I'm looking forward to dinner today. I've been looking forward to it since Sunday, when the idea for it first popped into my head.

On Sunday the Fox decided to cook us a salmon kedgeree for dinner. We only had a large 400g+ tin so he used half & put the rest in the fridge for later in the week.

My mind whirled back in time to when we were first married 36 years ago. It landed on a recipe for Salmon Fishcakes . I've always kept successful recipes from tins, magazines, leaflets etc & handwritten them in a book or file. The first such recipe I wrote down is this one for Salmon Fishcakes. We had it often in those early years of gaining some sort of culinary expertise.


And what is so special about this recipe that makes it so memorable? Apart from the memories already mentioned, it is the tomato sauce. This recipe I suspect came off the back of a Campbell's condensed tomato soup tin. Some soup, undiluted, goes in the fishcakes. Some soup, diluted with water, is served as a tomato sauce. The result is delicious.

I've made up the fishcakes. All breadcrumbed they're sitting in the fridge ready for frying up tonight.  Yum.


But first, before dinner, I'm off to the surgery. Blood pressure time. As I've already said I will be surprised if my blood pressure has gone down. After the trauma of Jean's death & its consequences, I feel very tense, stressed, pain-filled & tired. Some of the tension eased a bit yesterday when PD & Dick Gobble, Jean's husband, met & spoke to each other for the first time since that traumatic morning when Dick went round to PD's to tell him Jean had died & to convey her last wishes. Needless to say,  the encounter was full of  tension but, at least, that first meeting is over. Hopefully now things can only get easier..

 

Saturday 19 November 2011

May harmony return

The funeral is over. It was a good service. Reasonably short. As usual the hymns were played far too slow, almost designed to bring a gulp to the throat.

We had difficulty though. Having spent a week mediating between one distressed friend, PD, and another grieving & distressed friend, Dick, it was difficult not to feel a bit hypocritical praying for, and thinking, about someone for whom love was a central theme of her life.  And yet that is the Jean I remember, not the vindictive cruel woman at the end.
 
I'm coming to the conclusion that the effect of the pain, & the strong drugs she was on in the end, must have warped her mind. She must have been brooding on some slight, getting it out of all proportion. I certainly can not imagine she wanted to cause as much pain as she has for her beloved husband Dick.
 
Now I can just hope things will settle down and peace be restored. Hurts will have time to heal. Certainly PD & the other couple banned have both sent messages of goodwill to Dick so they must both have got to the stage of realising Dick felt he had no other option but to obey his wife's last wishes & was hurting even more than his friends. We'll see. 

Meanwhile we're having a weekend off from the stress of it all. I'm celebrating with some beef plopping away in some stout ready to fill a pie for this evening. 

Our spirits lifted when we got home from the funeral to see Dave, our neighbour, returning from a short walk with his wife. Clearly he, at least, is out of immediate danger & safely home again. My cousin Ann, too, is sounding much more herself after her operation to remove her kidney. 

Hopefully things are on the up again. About time too.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Less is more

We finished off the tin of tuna for dinner last night. The Fox made a Tuna Macaroni cheese.

It's strange. We had just a quarter of the tin of tuna in the flan I made on Monday. It had seemed so deliciously fishy. This time we had three quarters of the tin & yet the dominate taste was the chopped hard boiled eggs & the creamy sauce. The fish was just a delicate background taste, almost a sort of seasoning. And yet there was so much more tuna in the meal. How come?

Sometimes I think with cooking, as in so many other spheres, less is more. It doesn't seem to make logical sense but that's the way it works. Maybe it's just that certain combinations of flavours enhance one another, others neutralise each other. 

Whatever the reason this is definitely a case of less is more.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Increasing pain

I'm aware the aches are growing. The Fox asks what I've been doing to overdo it so much. Nothing much. It's just tension. I feel very unrelaxed at the moment. When I'm tense all the muscles in my legs tense up with the result my knees hurt even more than usual.

It's hard work with PD at the moment. Admittedly he did seem a lot more like himself yesterday. That is until the news of the funeral arrangements for Jean arrived. PD's due to see his Community Psychiatric Nurse tomorrow. Hopefully that will help. 

As we were at the Pub others we hadn't seen for a while turned up. They were amazed by PD's weight loss. Somehow that bit of good news seems long ago, as does the Fox's hospital visit. It's difficult to remember both events were only last week. Life seemed so much cheerier then.

The funeral is on Friday. Hopefully once it is over some of the tensions will ease.

Meanwhile, this morning, after a deep breath, I give Dick a ring to see how he was doing. The family seem to be working on a shift system to ensure he's not alone for too long. One member or another is staying overnight, looking after him, helping him any way they can. None of them live in Lancashire - there's a lot of trans Pennine travelling at the moment - but they are determined to support him. 

He's still shuddering at the memory of that worst of all jobs, going around to tell PD & Lin, along with the others who are excluded from the funeral. He reckons it's one of the hardest things he's ever had to do in his life. I can well believe it. All I can do is assure him that he'd had to do his best for his wife. Those were her expressed wishes & he had fulfilled them. PD is hurt but he does understand Dick's position. I suspect that will be the same for the others. I will be glad when it all settles down.

Now I've just realised I'm due for my second blood pressure reading next week. It was too high last time. I suspect it will be even higher this time. My pain-filled knees are telling me that.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Hard work

We got to the Pub. PD was still subdued, clearly still stinging by being told he & his wife were not welcome at Jean's funeral. 

The landlord greets us & instantly asks if we've seen Dick & know the details about the funeral arrangements. He knows we're all friends. 

PD is hard-pushed to say anything in his distress, but wanting to keep up appearances &  understandably wanting to keep some privacy on what has happened. 

As the afternoon goes on, PD's spirits lift a bit, then dip a bit, as yet more people ask or mention Dick & Jean. For once the Fox & I regret the crossword is virtually complete. It usually distracts PD from his inner thoughts & gives him something else to think on. It's hard work trying to reach PD when he is so withdrawn in his personal world. Nonetheless, by the time we get PD back to his home, he seems a bit cheerier, a bit less bitter. His biggest problem is that  although he's had people say unpleasant things to him before, he's always been able to answer back, but, as he says, it's difficult to answer back to a corpse. 

I only hope now the worst is over & he will stop brooding & get back to living, & hopefully that will include still regarding Dick as a friend. I think there's a chance. I hope so.

Monday 14 November 2011

An old favourite

The sky is blue & clear. I contemplate putting my washing out. If it was the summer I would undoubtedly do so, but now it is so cold the washing wouldn't dry much anyhow. I leave it on the racks in the laundry room.

Today we're having an old favourite for dinner. Something I've not made for a while. I'm not quite sure why. So it's a Tuna Flan today. We'll finish off the tin later in the week with, I suspect, something like Tuna Macaroni Cheese.

At the moment my home-made pastry is thawing, ready to be rolled & blind baked, ready for filling when we get home later today. We'll certainly be doing some food shopping today. We're just about out of milk, yet again. We'll probably go on to the Pub afterwards. We'll see.

But first it's a flan case to make & a visit by Angie to spruce up the house.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Yet more

And so it goes on.

After I wrote my blog yesterday, I spent a fair amount of time on the phone.

I rang my long-time friend, Ellie, at Arnside. She's had cancer for a while now. They had thought she was clear when it re-emerged. She is not responding well to treatment.

Then I rang my cousin Ann. She had come out of hospital that morning. It is indeed cancer. She has had one kidney removed. Unfortunately the cancer has already spread. Although the removal of the kidney has taken away the majority of the  tumour, some still remains in other organs. As soon as she has recovered fully from this op, she will be starting on chemotherapy. 

I then rang my cousin Trudy. Her cataract op has gone well, but life has become in some ways even more frustrating. Until both her eyes have been done, she will not be tested for new glasses. As a result, although her distance sight has improved considerably, her short vision has got worse so she still can't see to read. The second op will probably not be done until next year now. We're resolved next time we talk it will be with some more positive news. 

Although neither Trudy's health or ours is brilliant, we've come to the conclusion they are problems that we can cope with. On the whole we feel amazingly healthy compared to so many around us. We can but pray & hope for Ann, &, in our case, for Ellie, our friend in Arnside.

Saturday 12 November 2011

Mixed news

Two pieces of news have happened since last I wrote, one good, one bad. I'll tell them in chronological order. As you may already have guessed, my mood is rather flat.

First, the Fox has finally got the results of his MRI scan. It seems they are nothing to worry about. He's got some hearing loss, yes. The tinnitus is likely to last as long as it lasts. There's no way of predicting how it will go. He may one day wake up & find it's gone; it may get worse. However, the important thing is there is no underlying serious cause. He's just like so many people, wearing out a bit early. Personally I'm beginning to think that is what growing older is about. I just hope the essential parts keep going longer than other parts. Now we await a further appointment at the hospital. They feel he may appreciate some counselling, learning some techniques to cope better with the tinnitus & an opportunity to answer any further questions he may have by then.

The not so good news has just happened, hence my subdued tone. Jean, Dick Swallow's wife, died peacefully in her sleep last night. She kept going long enough for her son to get over to have a last word with her. The worst of it is she's left a written note of wishes which Dick feels he must abide by. In this she has banned certain people from attending her funeral as she felt they'd had not given her sufficient support in the last year of her life. These include PD & Lin. PD was almost in tears as he told me. I hastily rang Dick to check if we were banned. We, it seems, are most welcome. In fact it is positively  hoped we will attend. I just hope our attendance doesn't cause ill-feeling with PD & Lin. Meanwhile Dick is also feeling bad as he regards both PD & Lin as good friends of his & doesn't want Jean's wishes to spoil that friendship. I can see we are delicate ground here.
 

Thursday 10 November 2011

Plop

We're home. It's dark. We've been food shopping.

I get my feet out of the car. 

Plop.

I'm startled. 

What's this? 

I look again.

Plop. 

It's a frog, leisurely hopping across the drive.

I very carefully get out of the car, avoiding stepping on him, into the safety of our warm home.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Good news at last

There is jubilation in the Pub.

PD went to the hospital yesterday. For the first time in a long while he has had positive news. He's lost a good stone in the last 3 months, two & a half inches off around his neck. Now he's been set the challenge of losing a further stone in the next 6 months. They're allowing him a longer period so he can indulge a bit over Christmas.

And how's this been achieved? Partially it's that he's learnt to love vegetables & fruit. Personally we can't cope without regularly vegetables. We still shudder when we remember a weekend break we had on the banks of Ullswater, when we had one mushroom each for the whole weekend.

He's also been doing a lot more exercise. The last month or so he's been doing a couple of gym sessions a week under medical supervision. All the sweat & aches are paying off.

His relief is palpable. He had begun to suspect he may have lost weight lost month. It was his birthday & he was thrilled to find some of the clothes the family had bought him as presents were too big. Now it's been confirmed.

We have been saying for a while he seems to be standing better, moving easier, less breathless than he was.


Now all has been confirmed at the hospital. And he's jubilant. He went off to the gym after the hospital & before the Pub with a will & full of determination. Long may it continue.


Now we wait to see if the Fox can get as positive a result when he goes to the hospital on Friday for the results of his MRI scan on his hearing.
 

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Traditional British

I had been intending to venture out on the Mean Machine, my electric scooter, today. I was hoping to buy some fish. However, it's back to grey & damp here & my scooter doesn't appreciate such weather conditions. I'm having a re-think about what to cook. 

Instead, I'm getting some steak out of the freezer. I am somewhat bemused by these steaks. They are called "traditional British" steaks. Since when have "bullet steaks" been traditional British cuts? The recipe calls for  traditional "bullet steaks", "Denver steaks" or "flat-iron" steaks. To me none of these  cuts are traditional British. Sirloin, rump, fillet, rib-eye, braising yes, bullet no.

Before I bought them I asked our usual friendly farmer at the Farmers' market if he'd  heard of any of these cuts. He looked blankly back at me.

I then searched the net. As far as I can tell they may be traditional US cuts, but not British. Here such cuts seem to come under the catch-all label of "frying" steak.

Still, whatever variety of cut they are, we're going to try bullet steaks this evening. I'm going to put them briefly in a spicy oily marinade before frying them off. 

We're not, on the whole, great steak eaters. Hopefully the marinade mix, which doubles up as a dressing for the fried steaks, will give the meat a bit extra interest for our taste buds. We'll see.

But as far as I can see the only traditional British thing about today will be the weather. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. At least the temperature has risen above freezing point. 

Monday 7 November 2011

Winter

Winter's arrived. As the whizzes, flashes & bangs arrived on Saturday so did the temperatures drop. The last couple of nights have been around -7. Even the day yesterday didn't manage to rise much above zero. I suspect it will be the same today. The sky is bright blue & clear. Everything outside, gardens & roofs, are crusted with white. All very pretty but cold.

I'm in the midst of cooking up some marrowfat peas for a pea & bacon soup. The idea of a bowlful of piping hot soup when we get in this evening sounds just the ticket.We'll stop on the way back to get some bread.


Where are we going? To the Pub, of course. I'm expecting a call from PD later this morning to see if we're out to play & would we pick him up.


My aches continue though I did manage more comfortably in bed last night so maybe that's a sign I'm on the mend. Meanwhile the Fox continues to drag his leg. He's beginning to think it's the weather. Since his stroke he's always found it seems worse when it is cold or damp. If this is the cause, I can see we're in for a long winter. We may have to think of a holiday in the sun before the winter is out. We'll see. We've no plans at the moment.

Saturday 5 November 2011

A change of plans

We were supposed to be going over to see Mr P's new restaurant this afternoon. It's not officially open today, but he wants to go over to do a few things by way of preparation & wants us to see the place at least, even if we can't get there to dine. I've just sent him a text cancelling. 

Last night the Fox came to bed hobbling. It's his bad leg playing up again. He was dragging it badly. Clearly he could do with a quiet weekend. I've noticed since his stroke, if he's under pressure his leg seems to play up more. We've certainly had enough stress of one sort or another this couple of weeks.

On top of that I seem to have pulled a muscle in my back badly. It seems to happen from time to time. I have seen the doctor about it a couple of times to be told it's just muscular, a reflection of being a wheelchair user. I have to admit there are times I'm aware I tend to sag a bit, usually to one side. The effort of sitting up straighter usually eases the problem, but only after a while.

Oh the creaks of old age!

So this morning I've hastily got out some meat for dinner. I had been thinking after seeing the restaurant Mr P might have fancied extending the visit elsewhere so I might not have felt up to cooking. Now I'm definitely cooking, or at least trying, assuming my back eases sufficiently.

I'm proposing to do a Lancashire hotpot. After three days of turkey, lamb should be a pleasing change. Not that the turkey was that bad. We were very pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the Day 3 meal. Having sat in the fridge for nearly 48 hours, the flavours of the stew had rounded out. The extra cooking, while re-heating it, had softened the turkey yet more. The Fox had done a good job in Big Ears, the slow cooker. I wonder what culinary adventure he's planning for next week.

Friday 4 November 2011

Guilty says the conscience

Mid-afternoon it dawns upon us it is nearly time for the Bat's funeral. We feel a bit guilty about not going. But it's not as though we knew him that well. We knew of him through mutual friends, met him a few times but not really sufficiently to regard him as our friend. We would have gone to support PD but Lin, his wife, had managed to rearrange the looking after the grandchildren so she could go to the funeral as well. 

We don't like to think of the Bat's passing being unnoticed. There's something particularly grim about funerals where only a couple of people turn up, but in this case we knew a fair number were intending to go. After the service refreshments were going to be put on at the Pub & they had been asked to cater for 40-50. So we didn't go, just thought about the living Bat.

We're equally feeling a bit guilty about not going to my cousin's funeral, which is happening today. After all, she was family even if I can't remember ever even meeting her. When I spoke to my cousin Ann at the weekend & said as much, she pointed out this particular cousin was at my cousin Bridget's wedding. I had to point out I wasn't at Bridget's wedding. I saw Bridget when she was about 1, the summer of 1972, just before I went off to university. The next time I saw Bridget was at Ann's father's funeral in 2000 when Bridget was already married & the mother of one child.

We've also dismissed this funeral as we feel it's more important for the Fox to keep up his strength for such a long drive as the one to Stoke. We're half-expecting to feel the need to go down to see Ann if she does need support & encouragement if she does indeed have cancer. Or for that matter if her husband needs help through this spell. So we're staying put.

On a more cheerful note, I can't help noticing we don't seem to have had many fireworks going off this year. Is this a sign of the continuing recession & the lack of money to burn? Or is it simply the fact that, for once, Bonfire Night is coming at the weekend so everyone is intending to celebrate it on the day? So often of late it has come midweek, when children are at school, with the result so people have celebrated the week before, others the week after. The fact fireworks keep going off encourages children to want to have them all week long. I suspect it may be the former as our local Morrisons hasn't had such a big display of fireworks for sale this year, & I've certainly not seen queues of prospective buyers lining up to purchase. I wonder which it is. I'm just grateful for the peace & quiet, though I did enjoy one display earlier in the week - some very pretty colours.

Thursday 3 November 2011

The turkey onslaught - Day 2

Another day of bright sunshine. Come, come, I could get used to this.

Meanwhile we're on to Day 2 of turkey. For the success of yesterday's version, read the Fox's blog. 

The Stroganoff I'm making is very similar in some ways , & yet so different in others.

I've just cut the turkey into strips ready for a fast fry this evening. Yesterday it was cut into large lumps.

I'm adding  more mushrooms & cream than the Fox's version. He added chicken stock, leeks & garlic, none of which appear in my version. He used whole grain mustard; I'm adding French mustard.

I'm also going to serve mine with egg noodles whereas yesterday we had creamy mash & green beans.

My version is a quick fry & very brief  simmer; his was an an hour and a half in the slow cooker.

I'm very curious to discover which we prefer. Whatever the conclusion, Friday will be Day 3 of turkey as we tackle the last of the turkey stew before it goes off.


It has to admitted these turkey grenades, so kindly given to us by PD & his wife, do take a lot of eating for just two foxes. The second grenade can wait in the freezer a bit before we tackle that. We need a bit of time to recover from this turkey onslaught.


I suspect by Saturday we will be ready for something quite different!

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Talking turkey

We pop up to the surgery yesterday. My blood pressure day. Since they changed my medication in September they're keeping an eye on it.

It's up.

I couldn't help thinking I'm not very surprised after last week. There was plenty of cause for my pressure to shoot up. I explained as much.


I've got to go again in a couple of weeks & see if my blood pressure has settled down a bit.
 
At one time the level it is at now would have been regarded as fine, considerably lower than the target I originally started taking blood pressure pills for. Now, with Chronic Kidney Disease diagnosed, the level I need to be at is lower. 

We'll see but I suspect the dosage of my new medication might have to be raised.

Meanwhile we bump into Mr P. He had his big weekend, with his new restaurant being open. He obviously gets quite an adrenalin rush from it all. He was still coming down. He had to admit he's still not breaking even. This weekend he reckoned he was down about £100. We can't help wondering how long the business can keep going if the takings don't improve soon. Still it sounds as though he's had nothing but compliments for the food & service. At least some clients have booked for the next three months. So maybe he's right & it's going to take off. It's early days yet.

Mentioning food I've got a quiet day today. The Fox is taking over the cooking. He's making a creamy turkey  casserole in Big Ears, the slow cooker. Our friend, PD, has a daughter-in-law who works at a local hotel & gets given loads of turkey leg joints, two of which PD passed on to us. PD doesn't like eating turkey outside the Christmas to New Year period. So the Fox is tackling this large 1.5kg turkey grenade today.

I've already cut some off for tomorrow when I'll make a turkey stroganoff. That bit of the meat is in the fridge while the rest stays out to thaw ready for the afternoon cook. I'm quite looking forward to it. I admit I like a bit of turkey from time to time so these couple of days should be a bit of a treat.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Sunshine at last

Some sunshine at last! Clear blue skies! Beautiful! We seem to have had grey days for ages. It seemed appropriate for the grim news we've been getting of late. However, even that is improving. We heard yesterday that our neighbour, Dave, has been moved from Intensive Care to Medical Assessment. Most of our friends who have had experience of Medical Assessment have found it a grim place, the venue for so many final partings & deaths, but in Dave's case it has to be a sign of improvement, of hope.

In good spirits I'm under way with a Beef Bourguinon. The recipe called for a whole bottle of Burgundy wine. I'm only making half quantities but even so that seems extravagant. I've used half a bottle of cheap Aussie red plonk. As far as I'm concerned that should do.

Now that November is here I'm starting to get orders for what people want for the Geriatrics' Corner Christmas dinner. Time is marching on. 

The end of the year will soon be upon us. I suppose I always begin to think this way when the clocks go back & the nights suddenly draw in. When we came home from the Pub yesterday, about 5pm, we already needed to put the lights on on the car. And it will only get earlier & earlier until the new year comes.