How are you all doing?

[SB2015]

I managed to make a silver necklace for a young relative who is having her 18th birthday next week - it's the first piece of jewellery I've made for three months. We stayed up late so we could be certain there wouldn't be anyone around when we went to the postbox. I just hope it gets there on time. I enjoyed making it and I think she'll like it. I wanted to make something simple and timeless that will last a lifetime. I still have the victorian pearl ring my parents gave me for my 18th and it would be great if she still has this necklace when she's nearly sixty

She is very lucky. That is beautiful.

 

[AndBreathe]

I do most of the cooking, it’s my thing. Mr Eggy does what we call “ the fast and furious” ie steaks, stirfrys etc. He makes loads of mess, he never tidies up as he goes! I like making curries, stews, ragu, pies, roasts etc. It’s just the deciding which I find the hardest thing!

Eggy have you looked at Yummly or CopyMeThat websites?

CopyMeThat allows you to "file" recipes together from multiple online locations. You can share recipes with your recipe circle, or with everyone. You can search the community by name, member, ingredient or even recipe name.

Yummly similarly is a recipe aggregator, but when creating n account it allows you to save oreferences, but also allergies/intolerance and things you just don't care for, so that a search will include, or exclude ingredients accordingly. You can also filter on skill level, time to prepare and levels of spice or sweetness, for example.

If we're on a "meh" day, we'll sometimes go on there and have a game of dinner roullette. That means, provided it's credible, we'll cook the first, third or whatever recipe that comes up.

We've had some"interesting" dinners that way. If the "interesting" wasn't to our liking, we find "meh" takes a while to come back around!

 

[Carlos]

I have been avoiding going out to the shops, with my wife taking up the duties, to help me reduce social contact.

However, today out cat had an accident, we think hit by a car, but we don't know for sure, as it made its way on its own to our garden.
As my wife was at work I took the cat to the vets, who just took it from me at the door, so luckily not much social contact there. Cat was a bit battered, hairline fracture of the hip, but fortunately no internal injuries. Painkillers and confined to a small crate for two weeks to ensure the fracture heals. Not too bad after all, I was fearing worse, still, the children are quite upset, and not sure how well the cat is going to cope with the enforced rest, as it loves going outside.

 

[Stitch147]

Disney face mask/coverings ordered, just in case places insist on people wearing them. Work is still....... interesting some days. Looking forward to my days off more and more.

 

[Eddy Edson]

So my state now has no active cases, which means we join an exclusive club along with Western Sahara, Belize, PNG, Greenland, the Falklands, the Faroe Islands, Mauritius, Anguilla and New Caledonia. What do these all have in common? Feel free to make jokes while we bask in quiet smug & wait for the gold star and well-done call from Tedros.

Meanwhile I am swamped with trying to help a couple of little companies keep alive & preparing for a new project helping one with innovative fecal transplant technology.

 

[Toucan]

A special day for me yesterday - I actually went out!
We have a small narrowboat moored a couple of miles from our house, and canal restrictions had previously meant we couldn't visit it. - But this has now changed, so a lovely few hours spent on the canal, on board doing some maintenance jobs.
It is in quite an isolated area, so no one else about, and it was absolutely lovely to be at the canal side. although we aren't able to do any trips out yet.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

A special day for me yesterday - I actually went out!
We have a small narrowboat moored a couple of miles from our house, and canal restrictions had previously meant we couldn't visit it. - But this has now changed, so a lovely few hours spent on the canal, on board doing some maintenance jobs.
It is in quite an isolated area, so no one else about, and it was absolutely lovely to be at the canal side. although we aren't able to do any trips out yet.

That sounds wonderful. Glad you had a lovely day.

 

[Robin]

I’m going riding this afternoon! Just a quiet one to one hack round the fields owned by the stables, with one of the instructors, while the horses and riders get fit again. I expect I'll ache tomorrow!

 

[eggyg]

I’m going riding this afternoon! Just a quiet one to one hack round the fields owned by the stables, with one of the instructors, while the horses and riders get fit again. I expect I'll ache tomorrow!

I was thinking of you the other day as I saw a friend, who’s a riding instructor, put her on FB page she was starting lessons again. All social distancing of course. My eldest daughter who is a BHS approved riding instructor, she doesn’t do it professionally anymore, is giving my two youngest granddaughters riding lessons. Poppy who is 7 hadn’t really got into it until now and Sadie who is not even 2 and half is loving it. She is even “ troughing” as she calls it! She been sending me videos of them and to my untrained eye they look fab. Enjoy your ride.

 

[Carlos]

Cooking aubergine stew for dinner. The cat hasn't been eating since the accident, and my wife suggested some home cooking might be more tempting, so offered a bit of the sauce and a small chunk of meat to the cat, and that has had a better reception, licked all the sauce, but left the meat, small progress.

 

[eggyg]

Had a good day so far. Did my ironing whilst watching last weeks Gogglebox. I haven’t laughed so much in ages. Then the postie brought us a letter from our 7 years old granddaughter, telling us how much she misses us and loves us. It made me cry. Then to my surprise, on logging in to Tesco home delivery I got a slot for Monday morning! It means my poor daughter doesn’t have to get herself stressed doing our shopping as well as her own. And after 10 days of chasing, my HRT prescription has finally been filled, not a moment too late as I took the last one last night. Mr Eggy is very relieved! He has rushed out to pick it up! 😛 And to top off the day we are having my world famous Lamb Madras for tea. Perfick! Hope your day has been as good as mine.🙂

 

[Carlos]

Had a good day so far. Did my ironing whilst watching last weeks Gogglebox. I haven’t laughed so much in ages. Then the postie brought us a letter from our 7 years old granddaughter, telling us how much she misses us and loves us. It made me cry. Then to my surprise, on logging in to Tesco home delivery I got a slot for Monday morning! It means my poor daughter doesn’t have to get herself stressed doing our shopping as well as her own. And after 10 days of chasing, my HRT prescription has finally been filled, not a moment too late as I took the last one last night. Mr Eggy is very relieved! He has rushed out to pick it up! 😛 And to top off the day we are having my world famous Lamb Madras for tea. Perfick! Hope your day has been as good as mine.🙂

Great when things go well, isn't it?

BTW, would you mind sharing the recipe for the lamb Madras? Unless it is a family secret, of course 😉.

 

[eggyg]

No it’s not a secret but I have been making it for well over 30 years! I always use a half leg of lamb, dice and trim it. Brown it off in, I use veg oil but recipe calls for ghee, remove. Almost caramelise two large chopped onions. This is very important, the cooking of the onions makes the curry tastier. Add a finely chopped red chilli, fry for a few minutes, add 1 teaspoon of each, chilli powder, turmeric, fenugreek seeds, ground black pepper, cumin seeds and 5 green cardomons. Fry them off for at least 5 minutes. Add half tube tomato purée and 1 tin chopped tomatoes. Salt to season. Cook for 10/15 minutes. Add lamb. Cook in oven 180 fan, for 90 mins. Then add heaped desert spoon of garam masala and methi ( fenugreek leaves) and the juice of one lime. Mix into curry put back in oven for 20 mins. Make it the day before, up to putting in the oven, it’s even better having sat overnight. Delicious and much better than an expensive takeaway.

 

[Neens]

Hi @everydayupsanddowns and everyone -
I was very active on the forum before Lockdown and apologise for my absense.
Before Lockdown I had to complete several months of work (which now I'm really grateful I had) but at the end of it was exhausted. I am grateful I had my check up with DN before they shut the GPs.
My medical/diabetic/foot apt was cancelled as was the Course I had waited 5 months to do (Diabetes). And the thing in September is cancelled too. Does anyone know if we can just use tickets in 2021?

I have tried to stick with the diet (as it good eating//not diet dieting) my low carb - but quite quickly fresh veg was a struggle. I did get the freezer stocked with chicken/berries and broccoli and that all lasts longer with smaller portions...
but we had Easter didn't we?! Fortunately my lovely partner bought me DARK choc egg which is okay in small pieces - still got a little left. Spent the 1st 3 weeks of lockdown trying to access economical/Covid gov. benefit help and going out of my mind - following last year (12 months sick) I have no savings left!

I did no exercise and have restricted myself to house (and fortunately) garden. Then my pilates instructor went online and I have managed that but aerobic exercise still too hard for my injured body. So Lockdown - lost 3 lbs // put on 4!

Been self-isolating since work finished 20th March, my partner has had to continue work and so the fear and stress as a household has remained high as it isn't self-isolating if the whole unit don't do it. Also had plenty of relatives over the age threshold to help and worry about.

Apart from all that doing okay. Now going to read up on all of you and hoping you're doing okay too.

N x

 

[Neens]

Me and Hubby are doing fine, he has no health issues, so i send him out to get the odd things we need. Shops around here are not too bad. Nobody wants the ground almond or coconut flour, sugar free jelly, or konjac noodles LOL .

wholemeal pasta was easy to get too! I haven't made any bread (of course as we can't have most of the ingredients) and toilet roll situation was dire. But we have survived and now it is back on the shelves, apparently! Not started on the TO DO tasks yet (and there are plenty) but also thinking it will be October before I am needed at work again - so plenty of time to get them done. The sun has kept me garden bound. Glad you're doing well.

 

[Neens]

I feel a lot calmer today. Had a mini meltdown this morning, which isn’t like me at all but I got totally overwhelmed with it all.

Glad to hear you're getting out and still walking. Every now and then it hits/ likened to waves of grief - so we have to allow ourselves both the meltdowns and days we can't cope. I have managed to keep routine, am often awake before 7 but did struggle to go to sleep for the 1st 6 weeks. I have had those lost hope days too. Our town is statistically the worst in our county and that is hard to let go of fear.
Sounds like you've coped well with the wobbles. Take care.

 

[Neens]

An hour ago ago my greatest concern was making certain everything was in place for self isolating.
Then my partner of 40 years received the phone call from her consultant confirming aggressive lung cancer.
I always believed that due to my progressive chronic illnesses I would go first.
Suddenly the virus has become the least of our concerns.

Really sorry to hear this.

 

[Neens]

We normally grow plenty of veg but we weren't going to this year as my other half was going to retire asap and we were planning to go off caravanning for the summer. Well the pension has dwindled and obviously we won't be going anywhere so we've just ordered loads of seeds online and I'm going to be his gardening assistant this summer. At least we will get some fresh air. I appreciate his lucky we are to have a garden.

This is the one year we decided not to grow veg (over a decade)- typical huh!?!

 

[Neens]

I subscribe to a walking magazine and every month they set challenges. This months obviously they’re a bit different . One of them is to walk 10 miles around your garden. About three hours. I’ve been doing half an hour so decided to do it today as dry but not too hot. I managed an hour before feeling sick and dizzy with the added bonus of a headache. We have a decent sized garden with lots of nooks and crannies so difficult to get up any speed. It took me two hours to start feeling better! I’ll stick to my 10 minutes with Joe Wicks and my half hour walk I think!

Not a walking one - but I have a mag subscription and this months is really thin... I have left it in cellophane for a rainy day - which defeats the object of getting it early!

 

[Neens]

I was and I will be doing ok. Haven’t left the house for six weeks because of Covid. Although my HBA1C is in the 6’s my levels spike very easily if I don’t keep a careful watch not helped by the gastroparesis. I also had a chest infection a year ago which nearly caused me to collapse, so I’m not taking any chances but I am worried for when Mark goes back to work, but C’est la vie.
What has really brought me down is that in the last week my two longest serving best friends from school have each lost a parent. One from cancer and another in a tragic sudden situation at home. The virus has obviously affected their situations a lot. I’m doing my best to be supportive but really worried that I will say the wrong thing. I have known both of the parents since I was in my mid-teens.
So I am very sad but trying to embrace the life that I have.

Sorry to hear this sad news.