Yesterday, in the mid afternoon, our chiropodist turned up to care for our respective feet. We are always very pleased to see her and I am sure that both of us benefit from having our feet checked over with the application of appropriate creams as necessary. In addition, the chiropodist does a quick sort of manicure which is very helpful to both of us and so much easier when you have the appropriate set of sharp implements. We see her once every 4-5 weeks and she has been coming to us seemingly for years now. She has just had her first holiday for years to see some family members in Barbados but the holiday had actually flown by. At about the same time, the two Asian care workers arrived for the last afternoon call and I persuaded them to try a little sample of the food I had prepared earlier. They are both, in their own ways, 'foodies' and enjoy cooking and so I wanted them to pass an opinion on the curry I had made earlier in the week. This started with an onion and peppers, had some very small fragments of left over cubes of meat in it and was then bulked out with some finely chopped string beans (normally, petit pois), some onion gravy mixture, an apple chopped finely, some sultanas and a spoonful of demerara sugar, It is served with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt and a bit of the samosa which our Asian neighbours had bestowed upon us the other day. I think they enjoyed it but some samples of their own cooking have been promised to us so we can expect a little treat in the days ahead. These days, Meg will have her porridge in the morning and a 'nursery type' tea at the end of the day such as some apple pie and custard. In the middle of the day Meg will have a little of what have prepared for myself but of course, as her disease progresses she wants to (and needs) less and less so do not force food on her that she does not want. On more mundane matters, the book arrived from Amazon ('The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning') and it is a slim 158 page volume but there again the price was low in the first place. I have read the first introductory section but the rest should be easy to follow. I seem to remember from my sociology days that there was a special kind of analysis where the analyst built up an image of their subject's life style from which that was thrown away. So in my case, thee are papers n gardening techniques, furniture restoration, some computing related matters and a lot of old files on holidays taken in the past which seems quite an accurate indication of my life style. When you think about it, modern archaeology consists of a lot of this 'residue analysis' but, of course, only the 'solid' bits like bone and pottery remain. Near the ancient monuments of Stonehenge, archaeologists have uncovered huge mounds of pig bones from which they have concluded that there must have been large gatherings of ancient peoples who gathered together for celebratory purposes and perhaps to assist in the construction process. From a DNA analysis of the pig bones, it could well be the case that they brought their pigs with them as an ambulant food supply which suppose was the ancient equivalent of used to be a 'Party Seven' type can in which you took beer along with you for a party in the 1960's. Now that Easter is practically upon us and rather too late I must dig out what few Easter cards I have and distribute them to the diminishing circle of family and friends who exchange Easter cards at this time of year.
Yesterday morning was wet, cold and blustery and not the sort of day to venture out - for once I was glad it was not one of the days when we make an excursion with Meg in her wheelchair and it is a little bit touch-and-go what the weather will be like tomorrow. This morning I turned the TV onto BBC2 and stumbled into the second half of the biblical epic which was 'King of Kings', basically a telling of the standard gospel story. Most of the sayings attributed to Jesus seemed to come straight from the gospel narratives and to that extent, the film had a degree of authenticity. Not content with one biblical ethic, BBC2 followed it up with 'The Robe' which my mother took me to see when I aged about 8-9. I realised a little too late that I had better despatch the Easter card to our friend in Leicestershire bit as I posted the card on my way out to collect a newspaper, I realised with a sort of sickening thump that the card would probably sit in the pillar box from now until Tuesday and it will probably take a further two days to get delivered to our friend as well.
I proceeded in my study clearing activities and have started work on a pile of some fifty files which I have located on a stool in the corner of the study. Some of the files e.g. those relating to travel arrangements of about 10 years ago and can be emptied completely. On the other hand, I have the odd file which I want do want to keep (such as a manual for the WordPress blog program which I may need to consult from time to time) I did discover a file entitled 'Recent Humour' and this gave me several moments of pleasure as I re-read them. Some of the more biological examples I may even try on the care workers when next they call. I used to have a classic file of 'Examination Blunders' and some of them I read out to students at the end of the year to put them in a good mood. One can see how some pupils have struggled but often with hilarious results. One that remember is the definition of 'Migration' to which the answer was 'It is a headache that birds get when they fly South for the winter'. And in response to the history question 'In Mediaeval times, what was the meaning of a red cross painted on the door' to which the answer came 'There is a fully trained Red Cross nurse standing inside the door' and so on and so forth.
© Mike Hart [2025]