Solomon Grundy goes left field

…so…an “interesting” week….

• NOPI Feast (…and “feast” doesn’t even come close!) with Scully on Saturday
• Birthday lunch and a perfect storm on Sunday 🙂
• Afternoon tea with the Master at Brasenose on Monday
• Colin, prosecco and sparklers on Tuesday
• Fine Art combined with severe Swiss angst on Wednesday
• Womens suffrage on Thursday
• George Eliot on Friday…and…inquest “verdict”

The week is totally enveloped in the heart-wrenching inquest into the death (yes…death…of 18 year old) Connor Sparrowhawk, my friend, Sara Ryan’s son “Asked why she had not mentioned the need to observe Connor in the bath, Sara Ryan (click on Sara to link into twitter feed) said it had not occurred to her to raise it with expert staff. She said it would have been like asking a school teacher taking children on a school trip not to “let them loose on a motorway”

This post may make sense to nobody except me but a reflection of how bizarre and eclectic life can be…All the week has been accompanied by relentless oozing pus, 2 lost finger nails, 6 lost toe nails and foul tempered cats alongside solving my telephone intrusion issue…and all set against the background refrain in my head of just how far Dollywood is from either Nashville or Chatanooga…

Peace in the Middle-East

The Middle- Eastern meal was a success – the kibbeh had bulghur wheat which seemed to flout the right level of “fine-ness”, the sumac added the required tang and the fattoush which featured “red meat water melon radishes” (which I am assured are vegetable) and included the buttermilk based dressing was divine.  But no sooner have I come to grips with Ottolenghi’s larder essentials when I discover an exciting sounding ingredient that I have not heard of previously – “silan” – and who knows what that is?

Cooking aside I am beginning to panic about  impending medical interventions. I must be feeling stronger now to be able to let these feelings impinge. Back surgery now looms if oncology allow me to proceed with this, if not it will be breast surgery first. One way or another it seems that the knives are out for me.

I go to see if my heart is functioning normally on Tuesday, which will be a regular 3 month engagement. Meantime I am still suffering from skin malfunction. My right arm has had an infected rash which has been dragging on since last autumn despite months of antibiotics and ointment from the dermatology clinic and, whilst it should be the least of my medical worries, it makes me feel constantly “itchy & scratchy”. Oh joy!

As if this wasn’t enough – I have also entered into a rather different dark recess as it is time (by necessity rather than choice) to change my mobile phone. I can hear many of you saying “what mobile phone?” as I haven’t exactly been keeping up with the technology. In fact when you look up my phone model on ebay it is classified as vintage! I know I wind everybody up by not even switching my phone on unless I need to use it (on some rare occasion) or am expecting a call…I know…I know… Whilst I feel fairly IT literate and confident, there is something about even mentioning phones that sends me into a spin. I don’t even understand the lingo – “sim card” is only on the outer edges of my consciousness so I am the true village idiot trying to select a phone when I don’t even understand the options. Watch out world I may soon be connected.

Waiting for Paul in the cabbage van

Just waiting for my latest Ocado delivery as the fridge is looking a little sparse AGAIN. I have been leafing through my Ottolenghi cookbook after a successful attempt at a dish with giant couscous last week. Who knew it came in so many sizes? I realise that I shouldn’t get too puffed up about succeeding on the starter slopes but I hope to go off piste with some more complicated recipes from “Jerusalem” when the missing components arrive in today’s groceries. Complicated in so far as there is a frightening list of ingredients. If buttermilk doesn’t arrive with the shopping I have to use yoghurt and milk instead and have to start up to a day ahead. A DAY AHEAD? What could possibly go wrong?

Meantime I seem to be in a hospital appointment jungle – 3 appointments in a row and none of them with oncology. First diabetic clinic, then eye hospital (for the mysterious saccadic eye movement disorder) then an echocardiogram – which is being done every couple of months because of possible heart side effects from my pertuzumab medication.

Whilst trying to focus on all this I have had a week of being bombarded every few hours on e-mail by “The Dog’s Doo-dahs” and “Funky Pigeon” because I have not ordered Valentine’s cards or presents from them.  The Dog’s Doo-dah’s for goodness sake! Don’t they realise that I am doing a middle-eastern creation (or not) instead!