A waste of a day

Yesterday was one of those days, the sort that you end up thinking you would have done better staying in bed until it had passed.

Tuesday night I took  a sleeping pill. I've not been sleeping well of late & was almost too tired to get off naturally. I just tossed this way & that for a while before resorting to the knock-out pill. As I result I was up late on Wednesday, around 8.45am - not too bad you may say. 

The first thing I remembered was that I had to get onto to the surgery to arrange an appointment for the Fox - always a difficult job to do if you're not on the phone promptly at 8am. When he was at the hospital last week they had wanted to do a hearing test but found it impossible as he had too much wax in one ear. He was told to go away, put in some drops, check at the surgery if the wax had cleared, if not have it syringed, before the next appointment. Just before the holidays began, we heard his next appointment is later this month. He needs, therefore, to see a nurse in the next couple of weeks, ideally next week. I dial the number & I am told there is a fault with the line. Our surgery has two numbers so I try the second one. Same result. In disgust I go off & have a shower & general scrub up. Maybe then I will be able to cope better with the day.

So I return & have another go. First I check with our mobile phone that I can ring to, & from, the house phone. No problem. Any fault must be with their end, not ours. I dial the surgery. Again the statement about a fault. Again I try the second number. It rings. Three cheers, I think. 20 minutes later I'm still holding on with no human at the other end just a recorded message telling me all about the wonderful services & hours of our surgery. I can't help thinking the wonderful service I would like at this point is someone to answer the phone. I give up & go & have some breakfast.

I return & try again. This time, after a mere 10 minute wait, I get through. I tell the receptionist what I want & why. There is a long silence. At last she gets back to me, to tell me the nurses are all booked up this month. They're go to have a go at jiggling the bookings somehow. If I've not heard from them by tomorrow, I'm to ring back again. It's just as well I'm not trying for a doctor! And that it's not desperately urgent!

So I then set off on making the dinner, an old favourite, meatball curry. All goes well at first. The meatballs are made, the sauce plopping. I tidy up. Just before I leave the room I think I will just turn the meatballs over so all surfaces spend at least some time in the sauce. I notice the sauce has gone off the plop so I put up the heat while I turn the balls over. I then adjourn to the lounge for a cup of tea & a sit down. After 20 mins or so, I return to turn the meatballs over again to discover the sauce is a blackened gunk. I'd forgotten to turn the heat down again. I hastily add some extra water & try to break up the blackened mess as much as possible. I do contemplate making some more sauce & put the meatballs in that. They don't look too bad. then I remember I used the last of the curry powder as well as the last of some of the other ingredients. The black tastes bitter, acrid, but I can just keep my fingers crossed & hope for the best. I leave it to plop on, carefully turned down, this time.


So, come the afternoon we decide to go shopping. First we visit the Health Food Shop for some more curry powder, just in case the curry is still too bad. Then to Morrison's for the other curry ingredients plus a few extras. while we are there I notice some nice looking trout fillets. I decide to buy some some for today's dinner. I've got Filet de Truite au Pastis on my menu this week & while I see it I think I will buy it. I duly buy a huge fillet, 230g of it. 


When we get home, the Fox asks what I'm going to do with the trout. I dig out the recipe, one I picked up while we were staying in the Dordogne recently. Now I realise that 400-500g is what is required for 2 people, not the usual 4 people I had assumed it was for. What is  more, I need some tomatoes of which I have none. I will have to go again to the shops & just hope there is as good a choice of trout as there was on Wednesday.


We do eat the curry. It wasn't too bad despite the slightly acrid backnote. Edible at least.


This morning I'm up early, resolved to get back to Morrison's for fish & tomatoes. Maybe even go on to the library for some new jigsaws. I want to go on the Mean Machine, my electric scooter. It's damp when I first get up - the Mean Machine doesn't like wet any more than I do - so I prepare the potatoes to accompany the fish for dinner.

It's dry outside now. The ground has lost all signs of dampness. I go off to the loo, intending to get my coat on & setting off immediately. As I return to the kitchen for my coat, the first thing I see is water on the window. It's raining yet again. I abandon my trip & come here instead. 

Maybe by the time I've finished this, the world will have settled into a period of prolonged dryness. I'm not betting on it. I think we will be going in the car instead somehow.