Butter chicken and veg curry with garlic flatbread; strawberry cheesecake ice cream with shortbread biscuits

One of the very few good things about mum’s memory problems is that mum gets to enjoy small moments of joy over and over again. She has mentioned several times how much she misses her favourite coffee ice cream, a Tesco own brand item she can (and does) eat by the pot. I therefore fought my way through Tesco’s irritatingly slow website to place this week’s grocery order with them rather than with Iceland, and every time I mention that I have arranged for more of her ice cream to come to the house she gets excited and pleased all over again. Today she cried at my thoughtfulness in finding a way to get the treat she thought she would never get to enjoy again.

I used her delight to negotiate a chance to try a small amount when it’s delivered, as I haven’t ever managed to get even a spoonful before it vanishes (not that I’ve ever seriously tried, knowing how much mum loves the stuff). Of course, the downside of mum’s memory problems is that she’s never going to remember our agreement by Saturday. 😕

Tonight’s dinner was a home-cooked chicken curry. Of course, by ‘homemade’ I mean I browned off some chopped-up chicken thighs, poured in half a jar of ready-made curry sauce, added the ends of two bags of frozen veg (sweetcorn and the roasted root veg we had for Christmas Day) and some frozen peas, and left it to bubble away while I heated a garlic and coriander naan bread in the oven and watched the end of The Chase (one of those programmes that mum puts on then immediately loses interest in, and I end up watching pretty much on my own (although if anyone else saw it, how good was that young fella? What a star for 19!).

It wasn’t pretty, but it tasted pretty decent for a jarred sauce, with a distinct creamy, buttery aftertaste and a mild but noticeable spice back-note to the flavour. That judgement might be slightly affected by the fact that I haven’t had a proper curry, made by someone from, or with heritage from, the Indian sub-continent in over a year, though. The sauce was Sharwoods, if you’re interested.

I didn’t get to try the naan bread, Iceland’s own brand, as mum said she didn’t want much so I only cooked one, which she then took all of. Instead I had the cheese and garlic flatbread leftover from yesterday, which was fine for mopping up the last of the sauce.

Then, all the cleaning and washing up having been done by tonight’s super-efficient and very likeable carer (whose name I sadly don’t know as he was a last-minute replacement for someone who was sick), I dished up some ice cream and added some shortbread fingers for crunch, and it was very nice.

Tomorrow I will be visited by a representative of the community rehab team, who will be measuring the shower so the installation of a suitable safety rail can be arranged. If you think that should have been done when I first came home, you would be right. And they did indeed do the measuring, and agreed with mum that a rail could be installed, then seem to have done nothing with that information. You wouldn’t believe how much I’m looking forward to a shower after washing out of the wash basin for weeks.