Thai-spiced chicken udon noodles

This morning I woke up with a sensation of tightness in my chest, which scared me a little until I remembered how much chocolate I ate yesterday evening and mentally revised my self-diagnosis to cocoa-induced indigestion. I will learn from this and not eat so much chocolate in future let myself be frightened if it happens again.

The rest of the morning went as it usually does, with mum complaining about pretty much everything, seguing into “what have I done to deserve this?” That phrase always rubs me the wrong way, and today was no exception: through gritted teeth I reminded mum that I didn’t “deserve” to be physically disabled and a full-time carer, having lost my job, my home, my friends, and my independence, all in one go.

Mum was very apologetic, hugged me and apologised over and over, then went right back to complaining. 🙄

Later in the morning the care agency owner came round to meet us, your encouragement having strengthened my determination to disregard mum’s protests and attempts at guilt-tripping (“you think I’m a pathetic old lady, don’t you?”, and so on).

The care agency owner was very nice and very sympathetic, while having the experience to politely ignore mum’s attempts to establish that she doesn’t need or want anyone to come and stay with her. I will apparently have a lot of paperwork to fill out, but I haven’t yet received it.

The rest of the day was spent listening to mum complaining on and on and on, occasionally taking notes for the headache diary I have been asked to keep.

For dinner I took a Simply Cook kit for Thai basil pork mince with rice, and replaced the pork mince with chunks of chicken thigh, the green pepper with green beans and red onion, and the rice with pre-cooked udon noodles that I put into the sauce to reheat. Only after we sat down to eat did I realise that I’d completely forgotten to add the basil. 🤦‍♂️

As usual, mum thought it was too spicy (at this stage I’m starting to think I could serve mum a mug of water and she’d say it was too spicy), but I thought it was delicious: sweet and savoury and carby and comforting.

Afterwards I had a Tesco Finest frangipane mince pie, which I wasn’t at all sure about: I love both things individually, but I’m not sure how well they work together. I suspect I’ll need to eat another one to make a proper decision. Or two. Or three, at most, that being all there are in the box.

Tomorrow I will have to do another grocery order as we’re nearly out of coffee ice cream, and of course we can’t possibly have that. For now, it’s games on my phone, a mug of decaff coffee, and pretending my feet don’t hurt and I don’t desperately want a bit of peace. Soon, I promise myself. Soon.