January 14th

It was a pretty grey and miserable day today.  John had planned to go on a bike ride with Pete and Richard but they decided to call it off as all three of them are recovering from the lurgy which has been doing the rounds on the island and which leaves people with chesty problems that linger for a while.

I decided to cook.  I had nothing prepared for our supper and nothing prepared for lunch tomorrow when Lilian is picking Mum up and they are coming here.  I had been trolling the internet for some ideas and decided upon a pork dish for tomorrow which was to be made with leeks and apples in a cream and mustard sauce flavoured with thyme (from the garden).

I had done some washing today because I had thought we might get some sunshine but sadly not and if I had hung it out it would have just hung there like a limp fish - cold and wet.  I had to bring it inside into the conservatory where there was some hope of it drying a little.  I was mortified that, when Richard called round for a coffee and to return one of my dishes, my not-so-smalls were on display and were still on display when Clare popped round as Richard was leaving!  Poor Clare's rescue cat Lulu is very poorly at the moment with cat flu which she thinks was picked up at the cattery over Christmas so we were happy to be able to give her a syringe and some tuna and yoghurt cat food to try and get Lulu back eating.  We remember how awful it was all those years ago when Chivers stopped eating.  Apparently anorexia is common in cats as they can lose the mechanism to eat.

I got my knitting box out today.  I bought some wool ages ago from someone in Simou who was selling it cheap but haven't done anything with it.  The cats like a nice blinkie so I decided I would crochet it up into a new throw for our bed because they have padded and clawed the existing one so it looks rather scruffy.  This gives me something to do when watching TV although my crochet action leaves a lot to be desired.

My second cookathon today was our supper.  I have to thank my lovely neighbour Janet for this because had she not left me a bag of frozen green beans I might never have found this recipe for stirfry chicken with peppers and green beans.  It was absolutely bloody awesome although a little labour intensive because I had to fry small batches of chicken until it was crispy crunchy which too quite some time as we had defrosted three chicken breasts.  

We had the chicken concoction with egg noodles.  I had made enough for John and I to have this twice and I am glad I did because when we had it it was so good that we didn't even touch the glass of wine that John had poured to accompany it - that means it was extra specially good.  Sadly I think I ate too late because midway through the night I woke feeling very unwell and had to spend the remainder of the night sleeping propped up.  Charlie was a complete nightmare getting me up three times too little shit.