Lamb steaks, pan-fried aubergine, flatbread, salad / vegetable frittata with tomato and feta salad

Sorry that I didn’t post yesterday, but I really didn’t have much to write about: “got up, listened to mum complain about her health all day, told her I would contact the hospital today only for mum to tell me she had felt fine all day and didn’t need medical assistance, gave up and went to bed” wasn’t a thrilling read even to me.

Dinner was lamp rump steaks and aubergine in a lemon and herb marinade (several shakes of a tin of seasoning and some olive oil), fried and served with salad and flatbread. I overcooked the lamb, as I always do, but it was still wonderfully tender: nice job, Tesco.

Today my endless, bone-deep exhaustion got the best of me and I didn’t wake up until 11.30am. I could have slept even longer but I’m glad I didn’t as, before I had even finished my first coffee of the day, a knock at the door presaged the arrival of the engineer from our internet provider – an appointment I had completely forgotten about – who was here to find out why our internet speed had gone from ‘poor’ to ‘pretty much unusable’.

He was a really nice guy and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him, although it made me realise how starved I am for conversation that isn’t all about mum. (For example when I mentioned that I have an appointment for a blood test at the GP surgery tomorrow, and mum responded “I wonder what’s happening with church on Sunday? I’m really looking forward to R (her friend who usually gives her a lift to church) coming back so we can go out for a walk, oh and I haven’t heard from A (another friend), and did I tell you S (ditto) is moving to the mainland, oh and…”

The outcome of the engineer’s investigations was the provision of a new wifi hub, and the instruction to contact them if things are no better after 72 hours. As the new hub immediately increased the speed from 0.4 Mb to 1.7 Mb, I’m hoping that won’t be necessary, while appreciating that 1.7 Mb is hideously slow by modern standards.

This afternoon I (or rather a very confused mum, who handed the phone to me) received a call from the urology department offering mum an appointment on Monday afternoon. That’s a bit tight for time to arrange transport but the only other appointment available was at 9am on Thursday, and I well remember how bitterly mum complained last time we had an early morning appointment. Only after I agreed to the Monday appointment did I remember that our new cleaner is meant to be starting on Monday afternoon, so I’m going to have to cancel her visit. 🤬

For dinner I made a frittata, which, much to my satisfaction, I successfully flipped using the pan, plate, pray method (upturned plate over the pan, hold the plate and the pan handle (oven gloves help), mutter a prayer and flip the whole lot over so the frittata is now sitting on the plate, cooked side up, then slide the frittata back into the pan to cook the other side). Mum said it was “pretty good” and ate all of hers, which was equally satisfying.

Tomorrow, as I mentioned, I have to go to the GP surgery for a blood test, and I have to hope that the bus is running to time as I have had previous experience that the phlebotomist will simply refuse to see you if you’re even a couple of minutes late. Wish me luck, people.