Judith Wills
I have become an actual blood grandmother this week, for the first time. My younger son and his partner have a baby boy. Quite wonderful – but I am wondering if I ought to consider changing in some way, to accommodate this amazing fact.
I don't really behave in a granny fashion. I drink far too much. I eat middle aged man meals, not old granny delicate meals in small portions.
When baby all too quickly grows into a small child and then an older one, I wonder what he will expect of me when he comes to stay?
Will he want me to be in the kitchen baking rock cakes like my own granny used to do (hard as bullets they were too, very aptly named)? Will he want me to take him to Nando's for spicy chicken and chips? I've never had a Nando's in my life and at least that's one thing that's granny-like.
Or will he come and ask for vegetable and lentil bake, or squash tagine, like my son does as he's a committed vegetarian?
Oh goodness – you see, once a food lover, always a food lover – my grandson is born and my main concerns are all food-related.
It's all lovely though – I've started a meal ideas folder for when he or they come to stay. I guess that may be some way off.
Meanwhile, the crazy world of preparation for downsizing continues – there is so much to do before the estate agent comes in two weeks' time that I am sure it's helping with the weight loss. Shifting things, cleaning places that haven't been touched in ages – (um in one instance, 13 years!) - taking stuff to the recycling station, heavy lifting, dangling out of windows to try to reach the uncleanable bits outside... it's all a very physical process. And I'm glad of it.
The one thing I dread about moving is not having a home big enough to accommodate my exercise equipment. If that goes, I know for a fact my body will really miss it – I am not a huge fan of showing my shortcomings, fitness-wise, at the gym. I prefer to do some things in private!
Ate last night: A quite glorious (apologies for the boasting), end-of-casserole-season, duck, wild boar sausage and haricot cassoulet. I'm such a huge fan of stews and casseroles that I'm going to be quite sad when and if it ever gets warm enough to abandon them completely for salads and small grilled things. The cassoulet wasn't as calorifically horrendous as you might think, as it was a cheat's-version, I confitted the duck legs (cooked them in an open casserole in a low oven for two hours then poured all the fat off – leaving just succulent tender lean flesh and a tiny bit of nicely browned skin on top but none of that sticky flabby fat) before I added them to the pot. And the boar sausages were lean as lean. Goodness, it tasted good though! So good I ate it all up before I remembered I hadn't taken a photo. Sorry.
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