Mushroom risotto

Another stressful day here.

Mum had an appointment for a blood test, which caused hours of anxious ‘looping’ (perserverating is the technical term, apparently – thanks Alison!) which tested my patience to the limit.

Also testing my patience was a small, round tabby cat, who decided that the food she loved yesterday was one small step away from poison today, and paced and yelled and generally made a nuisance of herself because I wouldn’t give her anything else.

Finally we headed out for the appointment. In the car, part-way to the GP surgery, mum asked “where are we going again?”, which just shows how anxiety affects her memory as she had had no problem remembering it up until then.

The actual appointment took less time than it took me to inform the nice receptionist that there were two worn-and-torn paving stones that were determined to trip up me and anyone else with a mobility difficulty. He didn’t know who owned the path – i.e. whether it belonged to the surgery, or one of the neighbouring businesses, or the council – but he promised to pass on the message to someone who did. Good deed for the day done.

Then home for another hour or so of complaining about her head hurting even more than usual, which mystified and frustrated me in equal measure until mum reported zigzags in front of her eyes. A migraine – which mum has always been prone to – made it all make sense.

This afternoon Lil the cleaner came round, so I took the opportunity to do some work on costing a website for the community project. Doing so is a nightmare of introductory offers, random exclusions, and sneaky extra charges. I think I managed to pull together some decent offers, and sent them out to the other committee members for comment.

And then it was time for dinner, which came with the discovery that Lil hadn’t cleaned the kitchen. That’s tomorrow’s problem, mum and I have agreed.

Dinner was a mushroom risotto, from the freezer. Mum looked at it and said “I don’t think I’m going to like this” (always what I want to hear when serving up a meal), but she made a game attempt at it and ate the whole portion. I will admit it was a bit chalky, the rice needing longer cooking to be the proper texture for a risotto. It was tasty, though.

This evening is the Stacey Solomon programme that mum loves and I can’t stand (nothing against Ms Solomon, it’s just the idea that a camera crew and a celebrity can achieve what clearly should be handled by therapist), so I get permission to slope off and do something in private.

(By which I mean watching something on tv or playing something on my laptop, nothing more ‘private’ than that!)

Maybe Suki will settle somewhere and stop fidgeting, before she finishes what the paving slabs started and trips me up. Maybe she’ll also eat her food. You never know.