Veg stirfry with gyoza

After spending most of yesterday hiding from reality inside a book, I was determined to manage at least some productivity today.

And I did, to a certain extent.

I booked my ferry tickets for my trip to the mainland next week. I told mum about my trip and weathered the resulting storm of “are you just trying to get away from me?” (Actually yes, but there is no force on earth that could make me say that!)

I carried the recycling out to the bin, as mum couldn’t remember how to do it and, as usual, took my offer of help to mean that I would do it for her. In the process, I found that the garden waste bin – which mum told me hadn’t been emptied and insisted I fix by calling the Council – had barely anything in it. Yes, they should have emptied it, but it wasn’t exactly a major inconvenience that they hadn’t. Sorry, collection people!

I did some laundry. I hunted – unsuccessfully – for mum’s pink t-shirt which, now it’s missing, she has decided is her favourite.

I sprayed and swatted flies, which are coming from somewhere, although I can’t begin to work out where. (Possibly the same place the pink t-shirt is hiding. 🤷‍♂️)

I “mm”ed to mum’s complaints about the bin, and the flies, and the missing t-shirt, and the heat. I gave a similar response to her request that I persuade Suki to sit on mum’s bed the way she now sits on mine: I can do many things, but wrangling cats is beyond me!

For dinner I intended to cook a vegetable noodle stirfry, which was always one of mum’s favourites. I asked her if she liked noodles and, after getting me to show her what noodles were, she responded “I don’t think so, thank you”.

So I just stirfried the veg with a homemade sauce (soy sauce, white wine vinegar, honey, sesame oil), pan-fried some vegetable gyoza, and called it dinner. Mum said “aren’t there any of those things you showed me?”

No, mum, there aren’t any of the noodles that you insisted you didn’t like.

“Is this all for me?”

No, mum, I would like some too. She gave a little huff, but did leave a decent half of the veg for me. Then drowned her half in cream. I can’t say gyoza and cream is the fusion hit of the summer, but mum ate it.

After scraping her bowl clean, she said wistfully “I’m just looking forward to when I can have my nice food [coffee ice cream] again”.

Nothing is more disheartening to this hard-working carer than mum dismissing the meal I had adjusted to her tastes and instead requesting the one frozen cream product I didn’t include in my last grocery order.

(The reason I didn’t include it, btw, is that we had four tubs of coffee ice cream, all of which mum ate in the four days since the last delivery, having not touched it in weeks. Sometimes I think she really does do it just for the pleasure of being able to catch me in an error.)

And there I will have to stop as Suki is purring beside me and it’s very hard to type accurately whole one hand is occupied with cat-stroking duties.

See you tomorrow. 😺