Tag Archives: toast and marmalade

Trouble at the Surgery

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I went fro my shingles vaccination today, The automatic board for booking in wasn’t working and the man in front of me was arguing with the receptionist in broken English. This isn’t a criticism, his command of the language was far better than anything I could  manage in another language. However, it did prolong the discussion. He was trying to book an appointment for a female family member who didn’t speak English and the receptionist was booking a translator. He said he was able to translate, and I’m sure he was. Unfortunately nobody would be able to tell what he was saying and it seems there is a growing problem with doctors saying one thing and family members translating it to suit their requirements.  That’s why the practice now books impartial translators as a matter of course. I presume it isn’t cheap, but it is necessary. So that’s another rabbit hole for the NHS budget.

Meanwhile, I was called through for my shingles vaccination. Then I ws told I probably didn’t qualify. It seems the TV advert is not 100% accurate and there are plenty of people in the age group who don’t actually qualify. When they say “immuno-supressed” on the advert, they are talking about people on chemotherapy and with HIV, that sort of level.

She broke the news gently that she didn’t think I would qualify and we went through all the parameters. It ws a no. Then I pointed out that I’m counted as immuno-suppressed for some purposes because of the methotrexate and she looked that up for me. If you take up 8 tablets a week you don’t qualify for vaccination. If you take ten, you do. Bingo! Because I take 10, I can be vaccinated. This, the nurse tells me, is a Good Thing. Two tint tablets, which are almost too small to grasp, are the difference.

It’s a mixed blessing, because it tells me I am ill enough to cross a threshold . . .

But I got my vaccine, so I’m happy with that. It took two minutes for vaccinations and 20 minutes to do the checking. I will let others ponder the efficiency of  the system, as Julia has just made tea and toast (with marmalade) and I feel this post needs to end.

Selfie in a teapot

List your top 5 grocery store items

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The title is taken from the writing prompt WP has decided to start sending me every day. That’s just what I need, more spam. You’d think that human wit could develop a system where someone with over 2,000 posts on their site, and a record of almost daily (though admittedly erratic) blogging didn’t get a writing prompt.

If it said “Write better!” 0r “Eat less!” I would accept it, but I rarely feel in need of a subject to write about. And I certainly never switch the computer on with the thought “I hope I have more spam waiting for me.” in my head.

The truth is that I have enough, including the annoying pop-up that pops up to remind me that for a reasonable sum of money I can buy something to stop annoying pop-ups.

Ironically, one of my top five grocery items is not Spam. I need bread, milk, margarine and marmalade. I’m not sure about the fifth. Beans?  Bacon? Carrots? It’s difficult to think of a shopping list without them. Cheese?

It’s not as easy as it seems. The problem is that I need them all and if you buy them, you need pickle and parsnips too.

So many groceries, so little time.

Eggs . . .

The final list is bread, bacon, beans, margarine and marmalade. I will leave the pickle alone and can cut out milk as I forgot to order tea. The five things interlock nicely and, as an additional bonus, are also awesomely alliterative.

However, I have to point out that it is not a sensible way to eat and, if you were to follow this eating regime for too long you would probably develop scurvy, an a longing for variety.

I used a picture of cake, to remind myself of the need for a varied diet.

Day 142

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In the end we had sausages for breakfast. It would have been more economical, and probably healthier, to have had them for tea, but it just seemed like the right thing to do. What better way is there to start a week than eating a surprise gift of sausages?

That’s right, following them up with marmalade on toast. Julia bought some nice mixed grain bread yesterday and I allow myself toast and marmalade on Sundays.The rest of the week, I do without it as part of my cheerless diet routine. There are a varying number of calories in a slice of toast and marmalade – let’s go for 150 as an average figure.  Cut out toast and marmalade for 6 days and that’s 900 calories. Cut it out for 48 weeks (allowing myself a little leeway for weakness and holidays) and that’s 43,200 calories if my mental arithmetic is reliable.

As my daily intake is supposed to be around 2,500 calories cutting out a slice of toast and marmalade a day is the same as fasting for two and half weeks (17.28 days). I did that on the calculator, and double checked it all, as that seems a lot. Tootlepedal has told me several times that dieting is all about making small, almost imperceptible cuts in consumption. If a slice of toast and marmalade a day comes to this, you can see how it works.

Lunch was home made mushroom soup and a sandwich made from smoked mackerel pate. Julia likes fish, I am less keen. As a compromise I bought smoked mackerel last week. She ate some of it and I mixed the rest with soft cheese, black pepper and lemon juice to make the smoked mackerel pate. It made two good sandwiches for lunch and will make two more for lunch tomorrow. I normally make it using the small blender (we don’t have a big one these days) but was feeling lazy today so just whizzed it together using a fork. There is less washing up that way. I’m going to add some chopped spring onion tops and sliced cucumber for tomorrow so I can pretend I am on an elegant Edwardian picnic tomorrow rather than sitting in the windowless back room of a coin shop.

Today’s picture is the tank traps at Gibraltar Point. Strange to think how things have gone – Julia’s grandfather was one of the first tank drivers. I grew up seeing tank traps along the coast (and still do) and on the news from Ukraine it seems that the tank is no obsolete on the modern battlefield. A century of ingenuity went into designing a weapon that is now outdated, but we still don’t have a safe and satisfactory way of opening a can of corned beef.

Makes you wonder about the human race.