Snacks, then lunch: fish, chips, and mushy peas; cheesecake

Caught up in the Mystery of the Green Soup¹ as I was last night, I forgot to mention that I have reached a new milestone on my journey to regaining my independence, as I am now permitted to measure out my own medications². For now, and officially for the next 48 hours, I am to do so only under the supervision of a qualified nurse but, after watching me count tablets into a small paper cup twice already today, the nurse on duty told me he thinks I’m ready to go it alone from tomorrow. (Or he just got bored and would prefer to spend his time doing anything other than watching me repeatedly count to two!)

Mum, meanwhile, is safe at home under the care of a local agency, and has friends round for tea this afternoon. As we talked on the phone I risked making a joke, and she laughed, which was more of a relief than I can tell you as mum’s sense of humour has been AWOL for some time. Our family has always used humour to communicate – sometimes at the expense of actually communicating, but that’s a topic for my therapist – so seeing mum respond with polite bafflement to my dafter comments was quietly heartbreaking.

Meanwhile, of course, food has been happening. Breakfast was my usual spread of Weetabix with hot (well, vaguely lukewarm, today) milk, wholemeal toast with butter and (just about) jam, and a banana.

I’m delighted to say that Friday is shopping day here, so my supply of fresh fruit is now resupplied:

Err… sorry, wrong picture.

See: fruit! There were three apples but one was voted out of the bowl – i.e. there wasn’t room for it – so I ate it.

And then, after a physio session in which I walked the entire length of the bed, leaning heavily on my walking frame, before one of the physios had to shove a chair behind me to catch me as my legs gave way³, it was time for lunch.

It’s Friday today, which means fish, chips, and peas for lunch. If the batter on today’s fish was less satisfyingly (and messily) crunchy than last week’s, it was also far less oily and had a better ratio of fish to batter. It was a bit on the stodgy side in places, but the chips more than made up for it with precisely the crunchiness factor I want in my fried potatoes, even after being drowned in a slight over-enthusiasm of tartare sauce.

Followed by a dessert of plain cheesecake, as someone was kind enough to cut me off a piece before adding the mandarins everyone else was having⁴. It tasted almost unnervingly like the cheesecake my mum used to make for parties when I was a kid, with the slightly salty graininess of crushed digestive biscuits paired with a creamy, slightly sour, slightly sweet set (i.e. not baked) cheesecake top.

I ate it in a mildly nostalgic reverie, almost able to smell the sausages on the bbq and hear my dad summoning me through the guests to bring him another beer from the fridge in the garage, before the arrival of another cup of coffee (they keep coming at regular intervals – a huge thank you to those providing so beautifully to my caffeine needs) dragged me back to reality.

Scores:

• Fish and chips: 8/10 – clearly not comparable to proper fish and chips from the chippie, but still very good indeed.
• Cheesecake: 8/10 – probably higher than it deserved on its merits, but it gets bonus points for the fond (if sad) memories evoked.
• Overall: 8/10.

And now I’ll sit here and reminisce some more, and maybe cry a little in that bittersweet way of happy memories of someone long gone from your life (I hope the beer fridge in the big garage in the sky is always well stocked for you, dad), and will be back later with a cheesy jacket potato for supper. Hopefully it will be a whole one, too. 😬

1. Probably now solved by Sheila Perry over on the Pineapple Sponge Facebook group with her suggestion that it was broccoli soup, made with what was left over from lunchtime’s broccoli cheese bake. 👏 ↩︎
2. All 35 tablets, of 11 varieties, plus Oramorph as required. I swear I’ll rattle if I stand up too quickly. ↩︎
3. I know that, after not being able to use my legs at all for a number of weeks, any amount of walking is a real accomplishment. I do feel rather pathetic that I have yet to make it even to the door to my room, though! ↩︎
4. I have a citrus allergy, in case you’re not aware. ↩︎