I have woken up without any appetite at all. So today I have just had coffee. I am sure a brisk walk out in the cold crisp air will help. I am looking forward to snacking on vegan cheeses and goats cheese with crackers. I am vegetarian (not vegan) but have a dairy intolerance. Goat’s cheese does not disagree with me, but cow’s cheese is a baddie.
My sister Milly was originally going to be hosting us in Snowdonia. She had bought vegan cheeses for me. Then, Wales changed their restrictions to only allow two households to meet today rather than three. So Milly and her family were going to travel up to England to allow three households to meet. And then….Tier 4 was put into restrictions meaning we were not allowed to mix with any other households or travel outside of this area.
So….as I was so excited about the prospect of vegan cheeses and crackers, I went out and bought myself some to cheer myself up. And it will cheer me up – when I am hungry!
In the meantime, I love all the comments and videos and links that have been left on my CARAMEL’S COCKTAIL CLUB post!!!!!!!!! It has already been great fun and I am sure there is lots more in store for today!
I have been curled up on the sofa, drinking coffee and watching “Singing In The Rain” I am happy. I am really looking forward to chatting with my family and friends. (Jack has already called three times to make sure I am ok! I keep telling him I am fine!!!) I am sure there will be a lot of cheese consumed today! I am very pleased with my vegan cheese!
I am going to admit, I have not been 100% all week. I had a scare earlier this week. Fortunately I was with a friend who knows all about my history since the head injuries. She went on to cause traffic chaos in a busy London road by doing a u-turn in a major carriage way and whisking me into the nearby accident and emergency…and it has shaken me up. Possibly her driving shook me up more than what had happened to me causing her to react that way! But am still here, live and kicking and trying not to be overwhelmed by it all.
When my manager started to become infuriated about his habits and had words with him, the following workday he said he couldn’t come because he had slipped over on the railway station platform and hurt his leg. So then for the next few weeks he came limping into work and insisted that he could only sit – with his feet up on a footstool – and was not able to do any physical work. Now the ironic thing is that me and another colleague saw him running like Usain Bolt several times during that period so that he would not miss his train.
Well, I have never eaten real turkey. But recently I did try some Tofurkey slices and made myself a sandwich with salad and mayonnaise. It was not terrible. I prefer my avocado sandwiches in all honesty. But, I might have it again for a change.
One of my American friends said something that made us laugh. She said she wondered why the English don’t do thanksgiving, then she came to live in the UK and saw the size of our houses and she is not surprised any longer!
If someone is making a roast dinner they normally give me something like a nut-roast or a vegetarian wellington – as in pastry casing surrounding some kind of indulgent vegetarian filling. I would be just as happy with a bowl of brussel sprouts and some French beans and a couple of roasties. You might be pulling your face, but everyone wants to do swapsies with me at the dinner table!
“Jack, there has been a lot of damage done. I don’t understand what has been going on between you and I, it’s confusing and frustrating. This extraordinary pressure on whether a romance will develop has been unbearable. I was never against a romance developing. But I think we should both forget that for now and go back to building a basic friendship. 
What happened to you? Why did you go from making me feel we were true friends to shunning and slandering me? I would give anything to go back to the way thing used to be. More than anything you are one of the dearest men to my heart. I do love you very very much. I look up to you and admire you. With you, it is like looking up to an older brother who I am proud of and slightly in awe of. I have lived with you, I know all your faults and bad habits. Yet, I adore you. 
It has to be the odd cheesy smells! The stronger the better!
I absolutely love cheese…but my body does not. My body punishes me if I give into my dairy cravings. Since I stopped eating cheese, the smell of it drives me wild with desire!
So I will share something smaller and shorter.
Now Diedre really wanted to try eating frog’s legs (when in Rome). I was pulling faces at the idea of it though. It was not just because I was a vegetarian. I don’t have any problem with other people eating meat. I even cook meat for friends and family (and clients of course). The reason I was so reluctant to watch her tucking into frog’s legs, is that since I was a little girl I have loved frogs. We used to be fascinated by watching the tadpoles in local ponds develop into tiny tiny little froglings and then growing bigger over time.
Well, Deidre was very kind and abstained from frog’s legs during the whole holiday. She said she might travel to France on another occasion and try them out, but she would not dream of eating them in front of me.
Later than evening. Deidre handed me a little gift box. When I opened it up this tiny little glass frog was inside. It is about two centimetres tall and it’s length and width are no more than four centimetres each way. I loved it!!! I have never really been an ornaments person, but my one very special little ornament is my glass frog all the way from Èze. For twenty years I have been treasuring this tiny delicate little glass frog, and to this day, there is not the slightest damage on it.
Life as a human should obviously be very special. The awareness and potential we have is far greater than any other creature on the planet. Much as I am fascinated by animals and plants, and there is so much to learn from other creatures, it is clear that humans are very different.
If I was not a human…hmm. I have to admit, there are occasions when, I would love to hibernate for the whole of winter. I believe that is what bears do. Plus, if I were a bear, I would never have to worry about what to wear in the morning, because I would have a beautiful coat of fur. I would be allowed to eat as much as I wanted and be big and cuddly and that would be fine. I am not sure I would get on very well being a vegetarian bear. However, I am a human, I am never going to be a bear, so I will not worry myself too much about that.
The taller one I bought and the shorter is the one she bought for me. Oh…I can help save the planet in style! Every morning when I turn on the news before I head out for work there is a news item about single use plastics – bad bad bad…. Ever since we watched the beautiful BBC Blue Planet and especially the recent Blue Planet ΙΙ, we have all become very upset that our magnificent oceans and the myriad of sea creatures that leave us full of wonder and awe are being damaged by our daily coffee purchases amongst other things. My next purchase will be a re-usable water bottle, a solid one that I can wash out again and again. I must do this because I do buy a lot of bottled water. I can’t bear to think of harming the creatures in the ocean I am fascinated by. (I heard that by the end of the year plastic drinking straws and cotton buds will be banned. I am not sure who uses cotton buds anymore anyway. Every health professional sternly tells you not to stick them in your ears. Maybe some people have other uses for them. But my life will not be cramped by the absence of straws or cotton buds.)
Caramel 