Finally getting back to normal

It comes as quite a shock to quickly get on the computer. Ever since we came back from our holiday, we seem to have had so many updates. Sometimes it’s taken the best part of half an hour before you can actually do anything. I’ve taken to taking a book with me when I boot up, only then I sometimes get distracted in what I’m reading. So it came as a shock to discover I was straight on.

This week has also been the first week since our return that has seemed anything like normal. Apart from our trips into Lancaster for glasses on Sunday & Monday, we’ve had a quiet time of it. I think it has done both of us some good. We were both beginning to get a bit frayed. On Wednesday we relaxed sufficiently to accept that we were overtired & ate out instead of cooking after our food shop. The village pub, under fairly new management, has upped its game as far as food is concerned, much to our relief. It’s nice to have an option that isn’t Chinese or Indian.

However, now we’re back to home-cooking. Thursday saw the Fox making some wonderful Spicy Prawns & Chorizo. The paprika-infused juices we mopped up with some fresh bread.

Yesterday we progressed to Mexican cooking with Crispy Pork Tacos, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The spice was welcome. The chocolaty-looking sludge of spiced black beans was delicious.

So it is today I’m looking forward to going more Italian with Tagliatelle with Mushrooms & Peas. I’m going to add some ham for some extra interest. Neither of us entirely convinced about vegetarian food, unless it is egg based. Omelettes are welcome any day. My enthusiasm for cooking & food is growing as my energy levels revives.

Oh for something more adult

It’s now nearly two years since I was diagnosed with pancreatitis. As a consequence I was advised to not drink alcohol for at least a full 12 months as otherwise the pancreas could not heal itself. I duly obeyed instructions.

Last time I was at the hospital I was told I could ease a little alcohol into my diet but to be careful, & if I feel any upset, stop again. Since then I’ve been having some wine with dinner most weekends.

However, it does raise the question of what to drink instead at parties, in an evening etc. There is only so much water & tea I can take, & they certainly don’t seem very special.

I tried non-alcoholic wine – & a very poor thing I found it. Most carbonated drinks are designed for children’s tastes, not adult ones. They’re not very satisfying. Instead I’ve had a selection of fruit juices, in particular the Schloer type grape juice, but recently that option has been reduced. I don’t know whether it’s the recent adverse publicity over sugar, or whether it’s part of the rationalisation on the part of Morrisons, the supermarket where we do most of our shopping, since they announced their appalling accounts earlier this year. Having said that, I have looked elsewhere, e.g. Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, for options - all to no avail.

You can imagine my amazement when we went over to Carnforth yesterday to Booth’s, ostensibly in the hope of getting some smoked trout. We came home with quite a trawl. Mojito & strawberry daiquiri concentrates to be let down with lemonade or alcohol if preferred, traditionally brewed ginger beer, mandarin & Seville orange jigger, a raspberry lemonade.

Last night we settled down to some Dean Martin & other music of the 1950s & I tried the mojito with lemonade. It was incredibly minty, quite limey, & above all, not too sweet.

It’s just so wonderful to have a more adult flavour, rather than just pop or a simple fruit juice.

Oh, we did manage to get the smoked trout too while we were there.

Markets

Split market, Croatia

 I’ve just finished my latest jigsaw. It is a Wasgij one, i.e. the picture on the box is not the one on the finished jigsaw but rather a clue to what is on it. Usually it’s a comic scene from which you have to imagine the scene see through the eyes of some character featured in the picture on the box. This one is different. This time you have a comic market scene set in the past – I can’t quite decide when, the 1950s perhaps – and the finished jigsaw is set in the same but more contemporary English market square.

It’s made me think about markets. On the box there’s a bull running amok, people & dogs scattering in all directions in panic. In the background there is an open-topped red double decker bus of a style that looks as though it has recently evolved from a tram. The only other vehicle is a push bike. Out of the window of the town hall the mayor looks on bemused. The women have wicker baskets on their arms – pre-plastic bag days these.  

The completed jigsaw had the same buildings in the background. The blue of a motorway sign has appeared along with cars. Now the bus is a more familiar style of single-decker red bus. The market no longer has livestock. Instead it is a man dressed up as cow & advertising a dairy, who is running amok after having a child hitting him with a plunger-ended arrow. The square has been taken over by the tables with parasols of a nearby café. The lone policeman has been joined by a policewoman, both dressed in protective vests & wearing short-sleeved shirts. The bicycle has become of a motor bike for pizza delivering. The French, too, have arrived. A man in black beret & Breton shirt sells garlic by the string. Paintings & hair tonic are on sale. A young lady pushes a toddler along in its push chair whilst talking on her mobile phone. The mayor is now a lady mayoress, only now she is escaping from the roof of the town hall by the Mayor 1 helicopter. A plane flies overhead.

I’ve always loved markets. It’s something to do with the colour & vitality of them. I particularly like those selling fresh food, especially fruit, flowers & vegetables. It is a source of great disappointment to me how poor our markets have become.

When we first moved to this area nearly 40 years ago, there was wonderful market in Lancaster. There were about 4 fish stalls, 4 meat stalls, a couple of veg stalls, a dairy produce stall, a rabbit stall. There were other non-food stalls too. The market was open 5 days a week. A couple of days of week there were also a few stalls lining the streets, again selling primarily fresh fruit & veg.

That market hall disappeared after a fire happened. A new one was built but it was never the same. By the end there was just one meat stall, one fish stall, one cheese stall, one veg stall & one health food stall. All the rest were records, pictures, curtains, leather goods, cheap clothes etc. It had ceased to be a place you even thought of for food. Even that market has closed now & stands empty. A few stalls still appear on the streets but there are few food ones, except when there is a farmers’ market.

Morecambe’s Festival market isn’t much better. The last time I looked there was one stall selling some very sad tired veg & one selling a few nondescript pieces of Lancashire cheese. Nothing to inspire you. Great place for curtains, cheap clothes & shoes, bedding, tools, second-hand books etc. but not food. We rarely bother going.

With this in mind, you can understand how we relish markets abroad. They’re clearly going strong still in Croatia. The food we had at the hotel was so nondescript & repetitive we had wondered if the quality of food produce was poor in the country. We were soon put right at the markets which abounded with beautiful produce. As in France some of the stalls were clearly local farmers bringing in whatever they had to sell that week, no matter how little. You could almost taste the juiciness of the cherries & strawberries just looking at them.  A cheery banter spread between the stalls. That’s what a market should be.

Trogir Croatia

Split Croatia

Nice France

Nice France

Venice Italy

Gouda Netherlands