Ham and vegetable gratin

Re-reading yesterday’s post, as I usually do (and usually spot all the errors I missed the first time), I was hit by a sudden memory.

A few years ago, I was walking down the road in Portsmouth, a city I had lived in for nearly 20 years. I had a career, a cat, a flat that I owned… I was a fully-fledged grown-up. On the opposite side of the road, a woman was carrying her shopping home, with a child of around 10 years following her, carrying a loaf of bread. The child lost her grip, and the loaf of bread hit the floor. It was plastic-wrapped, so no harm done.

The woman spun round and snapped “pick that up. I didn’t spend good money for you to throw it on the floor”, and instantly I was a child again myself, cringing under my mother’s disdain. I thought of saying something to the woman, but couldn’t think what to say, so I just slunk away. As I mostly did as a child, tbh.

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I don’t have much to say about today. Mum woke up late, initially seemed quite bright and cheerful, but quickly dropped back into her usual misery and complaining. I swear I’ve never known anyone – not even my irascible grandmother – who complains as much as my mother.

Her negativity makes her want to not do anything, including see her friends, convinced she’s too ill, too embarrassed, too miserable to see anyone. This afternoon, one of said friends contacted me to ask if she could come round. I didn’t so much ask mum as tell her that the friend was coming, and of course they had a lovely time chatting and going for a brief walk together.

I would take it as more of a victory if I didn’t know full well that I’ll have to do it all again tomorrow to persuade mum to go to church.

Dinner was an attempt to recreate a ready meal I saw on the Tesco website: random veg in a cheese and ham sauce. I thought it was a bit bland, but mum thoroughly enjoyed it. Bland seems to be the way to mum’s heart, food-wise at least. I’ll have to get the hot sauce out again.

Now it’s The Masked Singer, with the live text of the Winter Olympics on my phone as that’s where my attention really is.

(I’m sure I know who two of the Masked Singers are, but the third I’ve no idea about. I’ll know soon, and promptly forget again, as I do every year. 🤷‍♂️)

[One out of three ain’t bad.

Actually it’s only 33%, but it could be worse.]