Cajun chicken salad with pan-fried tomatoes, fajita dressing, and corn chips

I wasn’t sure whether to write a post today, as I don’t really have much to say.

Mum managed to hold off until nearly half past nine before knocking on my bedroom door to say she had stomach pain (sorry, epigastric pain), by which time I was about to let mum know I was awake anyway.

I ate lunch early as mum was scheduled for a telephone consultation with the mental health specialist at lunchtime. Except when I checked the calendar, it was actually at 3pm, at which time mum was going to be having a visit from a friend. So I had to call and leave a very apologetic message for the mental health specialist, again, this being the third time I’ve got an appointment time wrong. 🤦‍♂️

Mum had said repeatedly that it was too hot to go for a walk with her friend but, as happened last time, as soon as the friend arrived she wanted to go for a walk. When they got back, they told me they had walked down to the village church (a handsome building that’s nearly a thousand years old, and is far from the oldest church on the Island) and wandered around the cool, tree-shaded graveyard.

Over the past few days I have been seriously considering hiring, or possibly even buying, a mobility scooter, and this made me even more keen. I will go over to one of the Island’s mobility stores to try out some different models: I might ask mum if she wants to come, but not until a day or so before I intend to go so she doesn’t spiral into panic at the thought.

While mum and friend were out, I had the opportunity to do all sorts of things. What I actually mostly did was just sit and listen to the sparrows cheeping, enjoying being able to hear them without competition from the television. Mum insists on having it on pretty much every waking hour, loud enough that I could hear Monty Don talking about tomatoes in the front room while I was out in the back garden topping up the bird feeder.

(And I was mildly pleased when Monty mentioned that a tomato variety called Black Russian – also known as Black Krim – is his favourite, because it was my dad’s favourite too. I’m thinking of growing some vegetables and fruit next year, and will definitely try and track some of these down if I do.)

For dinner I cooked some cajun chicken, chilled from Tesco which, as you can see, came in an interesting array of sizes and shapes. So I made a big bowl of mixed salad, sliced up the hot chicken while softening some baby plum tomatoes in the same pan, then put both on top of the salad and drizzled it all with fajita dressing (mayo mixed with fajita spice from a packet and a tiny splash of vinegar). Mum said “oh, it’s so pretty!”, which isn’t something that can often be said about my food, Insta-worthy plating not being one of my skills.

Now the sky is a delicate shade of orange, the bats are doing their evening zoom, and mum is doing the equivalent of “are we nearly there yet?” when I ask her to let me finish writing this before I run off and do whatever she needs of me now.

And there I must end, so I can run off and do whatever mum needs me to do now. See you tomorrow.