Today is Saturday 29th January

The day is sunny now after an overcast start, but the wind is picking up and has a nasty bite to it.
Lunch has been had, today a TV dinner of sweet and sour chicken, a first for Hubby to see how he gets on. I cannot make this for the 69p cost, and the amounts of chicken are tender and juicy. After adding extra water to soften the rice, he has eaten it all.

I have been out this morning to post my cards, two of which had to have the extra postage as they were too fat/big for a standard letter. This is something I have to watch with the tiered cards as underpaid postage results in a fee of over £2 per letter for the recipient. I can’t have that, as most are pensioners.
I also went shopping for root veg for a stew tomorrow. Sometimes the stewpacks available are adequate but I had a choice today…….. a peanut of a swede and large parsnip, or two tiny parsnips and a tennis ball sized swede. I therefore spent the extra and bought a large swede, 2 large parsnips, a bag of carrots (we shall use the last in the fridge but I never like to be without any), four baking potatoes as they were only 39p and we already have onions. These are now shop bought having used the last of our own early December.  The surplus swede and parsnip will be chopped and frozen down ready for our next stew, so in the costing stakes, it works out about the same.

Hubby has had his call from the gastroenteritis consultant and things are looking good. He is doing all the right things but it has come to light that insufficient information was passed onto him after his op in September 2020, especially avoiding certain foods (like bread) altogether.  He was not given a diet sheet, had no recommendations, and certainly no after care, even when he phoned the hospital, who told him to ‘pop along’ to their A&E. The girl seemed very surprised that we live 90 miles away and therefore ‘popping’ anywhere was out of the question.
Still, that has all been rectified now and he is in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing and prepared to help and advise him.
He is now being referred for a ‘spasmodic’ test just to check that there isn’t any other reason why he finds it difficult to swallow sometimes, but overall, it was a positive phone call and we continue to make progress.

We are off for a walk round the park shortly, making the most of the sunshine but wrapping up against the wind. It’s 11º C outside but with a real feel of 6º C.

Have a good day everyone. Keep safe.