Japanese lamb, shichimi rice, and stirfried veg

Up early because the gardener was coming to give us a quote for cutting the hedge, then of course they didn’t turn up until gone 11. They quoted a really good price, though, so they’re forgiven for being a little tardy.

They’ll be coming back next week to do the cutting, so I can go down the path with my crutches without having to go sideways.

Then I contacted a taxi firm about travel into Newport next week, sorted out my appointment with the Job Centre tomorrow as they had it down for an in-person appointment rather than a phone call, ordered some drug-free stuff to try and ease mum’s persistent headaches, arranged for mum to go out with a friend, let the cleaner in and talked her through what we needed her to do, then sat down and read a bit of my book. At which point mum came back from her walk and laughed at me for being lazy. 🤨 (“Hard life, isn’t it?” Yes, it is, thank you for noticing.)

I did enjoy the book, though – it’s so nice to have a story with an asexual lead character who isn’t miraculously charmed into changing her sexual orientation by meeting ‘the right man’. I particularly liked a line about the character’s mother knowing the only males she would bring home “had tails, whiskers, and meowed”. [This isn’t a book club, and I’m not going to make a habit of giving book recommendations, but it’s The House Between Sea and Sky by Beth Cato, if you fancy reading it.]

This evening, as I was dishing up dinner, I shouted to mum to change the channel to BBC2 to find the programme she wanted. To give you an idea of the distance my voice had to carry, it’s three or four yards at most, through an open door. But somehow we ended up with:

“Sorry?”

“BBC2. Change the channel to 2.”

“I’m on 3. It’s not here.”

“No, 2. Two.”

“Sorry?”

“TWO. BBC TWO!”

I heard mum giving an irritated huff and start getting up off the sofa. I went into the living room, closing the distance to less than a yard, and shouted with, I admit, a little irritation, “B. B. C. TWO!”

She apologised, but seriously: would it kill her to wear her hearing aids?!

Dinner was a Simply Cook recipe for Japanese seared steak, but mum doesn’t eat beef so we had lamb instead. Mum and I both ate our shares, but I don’t think either of us were wildly enamoured.

So another day ends, with Strictly on tv (🥱), and a promise of a chocolate doughnut once I’ve finished writing this. (I bought them for mum but she seems to have forgotten they’re there and they’re going to go stale if they’re not eaten soon. It really is a hard life, isn’t it?