Vegetable korma with paneer samosa and pilau rice

Contains Amazon affiliate links.

Today was one of those days which, pre-chronic illness, I would have considered pleasantly lazy, but which is now enough to leave me (apparently) visibly exhausted.

I woke up early this morning with gallbladder pain: not as bad as it can be, but enough that I could do little but ride out the waves of pain.

After a while it eased enough for me to get up, which got mum up, which sent a certain tabby cat rushing back into hiding. She emerged later, when we weren’t looking, to eat most of her wet food, and later treated mum to a hiss. She did the same when we first saw her at the shelter, where the staff member who showed us around told us “she hisses, but she doesn’t mean it”. I’m taking it as an unconventional way of saying “I acknowledge your presence”, and as an encouraging sign.

Later, a family friend who I haven’t yet thought of a code-name for, came round for the first meeting of the committee of a new community project. (We were meant to be meeting in a nearby café, but one of the committee members had a cold which she didn’t want to share with people.)

Most unusually, I was the one to stop the other committee members from getting carried away with big future plans, reminding them that we need to get the first part in place before starting on the sequels.

It’s interesting (if a little depressing) that a single hour of concentration left me so tired that the (newly appointed) committee chair called the meeting to an end as she could see me fading. I have thought about looking for paid work again at some point, but on this evidence it’s not gonna happen.

Mum sat on the sofa, just out of shot, for most of the meeting, but headed off into her bedroom after a while. When the meeting concluded, with me having agreed to act as committee secretary (something I have done many, many times in the past, although usually I got paid for it), mum reappeared complaining of zigzags in front of her eyes – the classic symptoms of a migraine.

Interestingly, the migraine pain was exactly where the pain from her chronic headaches is, suggesting the GP was right that mum’s getting migraines, even though she hasn’t been getting the visual disturbance before now.

Then the post arrived, including a very handy long-handled cat litter scoop which I ordered from Amazon. Except I know it’s very handy as I already received one. I phoned and spoke to a nice Indian lady who confirmed that I had ordered only one scoop and, if I had received two, I might as well keep them both. I guess it’s not worth it to Amazon to pay for the return and restock of something that costs less than £10, so I get two for the price of one. 🤷‍♂️

This evening I made a ‘non-spicy’ korma curry, from a Simply Cook box. It was indeed non-spicy, and mum thought it was delicious. I thought it was OK, but sorely in need of the depth of flavour provided by chilli and / or peppercorns. The paneer samosas, from Tesco, were pleasant, but without enough flavour to even be tasted over the korma sauce.

Now it’s the usual tv, where I’m trying to decide whether to watch the opening ceremony of the Paralympics – supporting disabled athletes and encouraging Channel 4 to continue showing para-sports – or whether to boycott it on principle because of the readmittance of Russia and Belarus. Atm, it’s ‘watch’, just because (if I’m honest) the remote control is at the other end of the sofa and I don’t have the energy to get up and get it.

Not exactly a proud moment of principle on my part, but it is what it is. 🤷‍♂️