Minted lamb burgers, roasted root veg, Yorkshire puddings

For those who don’t follow on Facebook, yesterday evening saw a major development: just as I was going to bed, from under the kitchen cupboard came a hiss, a meow, another meow, and then, finally, a cat. Yep, Suki came out, and snuggled with me while I sat on the kitchen floor.

Of course, I then had to get up from the floor (not easy), which scared Suki back into hiding, but it was a very good start to a new stage of our relationship.

Then came today, where I didn’t need my alarm to wake me up for my hospital appointment, as mum kept calling out questions until I got up, ten minutes before my alarm had a chance to play its jolly little tune.

Then it was off to the hospital, chatting to the driver about his granddaughter, who is potentially being scouted for the England junior football team (go, girl!). Then through an unnervingly quiet hospital, straight into the ultrasound department, where a scan confirmed I have gallstones. They let me have a look at one of the images, and my gallbladder looks like a giant mangetout.

I’m guessing surgery to remove it is in my near future, or as ‘near’ as the NHS waiting system allows. Part of me thinks it will be a nice opportunity for a rest, while the rest of me is screaming about the hassle of arranging care for mum, and for me while I’m recovering from having a hole cut in me.

Then home to an unnervingly quiet house, with mum at church and Suki back in hiding under the cupboard. I sat on the sofa in the living room in the hopes that that might encourage Suki to come out and cheer me up. She didn’t, then I struggled to get up off the sofa and ended up on hands and knees, crawling to my orthopedic chair to lever myself back onto my feet.

I got back to standing, fell over my feet, and only an antique wooden chest of drawers kept me upright. I wobbled into my bedroom, sat on my bed, and cried.

This afternoon, while sitting on my orthopedic chair watching tv with mum, the chair thanked me for using it as a vertical realignment device by giving an audible crack and pitching me to one side. I don’t know what broke, but it’s now unusably unstable, so I’m currently sitting on the wheeled computer chair as it’s the only other seat that I can get up off of, albeit awkwardly and carefully as it has wheels and is only marginally more stable than the broken chair.

Tomorrow I will call the relevant department at the council to try and get a replacement, and just hope I don’t cry while talking to them.

This evening I went into the kitchen to make a start on dinner and, from under the kitchen cupboard, came a hiss, a meow, another meow, and then, finally, a cat. Yep, Suki was back, rubbing around my and mum’s legs, and purring like a particularly round¹ and tabby-coloured engine. Her timing is immaculate, as the noise of me extracting the veg from the fridge sent her running back into hiding.

That dinner was meant to be roast chicken, but I forgot to take the chicken pieces out of the freezer so we had our roasted root veg and Yorkshire puddings with minted lamb burgers. Mum looked at the roasting tin and said “is there anything to go with it?”

Luckily some bagged salad was found to be an acceptable final component, so dinner was concluded peacefully.

And so, once again, goodnight. I’m hoping for more Suki snuggles before bed, and hoping even more that the tears stay at bay until mum goes to sleep and I can cry in peace. Because it’s definitely been One Of Those Days, and sometimes the only way to deal with those is to hide in a book and pretend you’re not sad and scared at all.

That’s what I’ve always done, anyway. 🤷‍♂️

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1. I don’t like mum’s habit of body-shaming anyone who doesn’t meet her strict ideals of slendernes0, but I will admit that Suki is more than a little over-padded. 😬 ↩︎