Lunch: crackers, cheese and ham, grapes; dinner: margarita pizza and salad, butterscotch sponge pudding and custard

Well, I’m back, and in somewhat less pain than yesterday, being now able to at least breathe without whimpering. (For those who missed it, I managed to strain / pull one of my intercostal muscles (the ones that connect your ribs) while unplugging my phone charger, so breathing, moving, and even just sitting still hurt.) What’s now causing pain is arranging for mum to go to church tomorrow: it’s all sorted, with her lift to and back home from church arranged, but that hasn’t stopped mum worrying over it repeatedly since I woke up this morning: she was going, then she wasn’t because she didn’t know anybody there as her closest church friend is sick (I ran through a list of the people she has told me about, and apparently she either doesn’t know or doesn’t like every single one 🙄), then she was going but would leave early because she didn’t want to miss lunch (which I obviously wouldn’t allow to happen)…

I love her dearly, but I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to the 90 minutes or so of peaceful solitude I will get while she’s out. Assuming she doesn’t wake up in the morning and decide she feels too unwell to go out at all, of course.

And so, as always, to food, the highlight of my days even as I get increasingly frustrated when mum’s carers sit and chat with her rather than doing any food prep as “it’s fine, Cat will sort it”. I will and do sort it, of course, but I can’t deny that the assumption irritates me.

My lunch today was a bit of a hodgepodge, of the kind you get when you’re awaiting a grocery delivery: crackers, chunks of mature cheddar and Stilton from the cheese selection pack I bought (the cheddar is at least half-decent, and the Stilton is surprisingly good for something that came shrink-wrapped), and a couple of slices of the gammon which I’m determined to finish before it spoils.

With immaculate timing, the grocery delivery person arrived just as I finished the last cracker on my plate, scaring the life out of the cat, who fled out the door with flat ears and puffed tail, so once the groceries were put away I had a few grapes as the apples I thought I had ordered I apparently hadn’t.

Dinner was also in the grocery order: Luxury (Iceland’s Finest equivalent) margarita pizza and salad. In comparison to the size of its box, the pizza was disappointingly small and unpromisingly floppy¹ but, once cooked in a hot oven, it crisped up nicely and smelled rather promisingly like ones I’ve had in Italy (the box promised it was made there, which is both good, in terms of authenticity, but bad in terms of food miles). It tasted decent, although it took me a couple of bites to realise that the reason it tasted decent was that it was generously salted. The salad, as always drowned in salad cream, helped cut the saltiness, which meant I ate several slices and will be drinking a lot of water overnight.

Then mum asked if she could have one of the microwavable sponge puddings I had ordered for myself and, as I paid for them (and the rest of the groceries) with her money, I couldn’t really refuse, could I?

Mum had sticky toffee pudding, which was apparently too sweet for her so she toned it down with a choc nut ice cream cone (she wanted plain ice cream but we don’t have any, so I suggested one of the cones as the next best option). I had a butterscotch one, which smelled oddly plasticky but the sauce tasted accurately of butterscotch (triggering fond memories of mooching butterscotch sweets off my paternal grandmother) and the sponge was nice and light.

Then I had a choc nut Cornetto, as mum was eating the last of the Tesco ones, and I have to say that the Tesco ones are actually better: the vanilla ice cream is more flavourful, and is partnered with well-flavoured chocolate ice cream, the cone is crunchier, and there’s chocolate sauce in the middle. Tomorrow I will try one of the same thing from Iceland, and do an actual, proper taste test.

I might do it while mum’s out at church, to occupy my time and mouth so there is still some of the shortbread from today’s order left when she gets home, as I can pretty much guarantee there won’t be otherwise. Oh well, I can always order more. Maybe I’ll order some apples while I’m at it.

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1. That’s what she said. (Sorry.) ↩︎