I'M HAVING A P

I know - I’m supposed to be working.  Just going to start now.  Oh, it’s lunch time.  

 

I looked at myself in the mirror last night before going to bed and was shocked to see how much skin I had.  Reminded me of that baby pug that appears on cute birthday cards – all folds and no bulk.  Still, now the malarial hue has receded, I don’t look a survivor from Changi any more.  That's a lot of ribs though.

Thanks to my friend Gael, I’ve now overcome this lack of interest in food.  At least, I’ve found a solution.  It was enjoying those pies yesterday that pointed the way.  From now on, I shall only eat food beginning with ‘P’.  This means I only have to look in the refrigerator and think about how to spell the food and not whether I fancy it or not.  As I think I said, most things seem to taste OK, so eating is not a problem, if I remember to do it.  But now I have an incentive!  Of course, Pinot Grigio is still a bit of a problem – I have discovered I don’t like that any more, but I’ve found some Pinotage in the cellar, so that’s going to be my tipple tonight.  Fingers crossed.

I started my day with Puffs (Sugar) and then moved on to Pepper Houmous.  This is a delight of red peppers and chilli in a bed of humus.  I spread it thick on Poppyseed bread, which seemed to work.  I washed that down with Powdered coffee which I seem to like too.  So far, so good. 

I’ve just found some Port Salut and Plum and Port Jelly in the frig.  I think it must have been left over from Christmas.  Not sure about the jelly, but the cheese was fabulous.  Mmmm.  I had a Pear with another chunk of Port Salut to make sure I was getting my 5 a day.  That was rather nice too.

I'm now going to warm up a carton of Plum Tomato and Basil soup, because it’s got a little cold here.  Tonight we’re having another Pie (Cottage), so that’s appropriate.  I think we have some Peas (Sugar snap) in the cupboard too.  I shan’t bother to tell you about this any more; I expect you’re as bored with it as I am.  I'm eating now anyway, so that's all on that subject.  I’ll write about something else in future. 

I’ve seen many diets publicised in the papers from time to time.  They will all work, provided you get the exercise that goes with them.  Sitting in an armchair and stuffing yourself with fruit is no different, or better, than sitting there and stuffing yourself with carbs.  And Veggie diets are just twice as hard, since, as well as being hungry, you keep dreaming of sausages.  So, forget the Vegan diet, I think I can safely recommend the P-Gan diet. 

APPETITE FOR LIFE

Quite a lot has been written about acquired tastes.  I find it interesting that children don’t immediately like some foods, or love others, and then change.  Over Christmas, Isaac said quite clearly, ‘I love Cheddar cheese.  But I don’t like Caerphilly cheese.’  In fact he said it so often that we had to tell him to change the record.  Anyway, it turns out he’d never actually tried Caerphilly cheese and, when persuaded to try it, had to be stopped from eating the whole block.  Actually there is very little he doesn’t like eventually.  Meanwhile, Tom likes Philadelphia cheese sandwiches and Marmite rice cakes and pasta with pesto, but it’s the devil’s own job to get him to even try anything else.  And that’s usually accompanied by all sorts of ‘yuk!’ noises. 

 

And of course there’s the whole child/adult thing – kids tend not to like Cabernet Sauvignon or Brussels sprouts until patiently forced into them.  Later they come to love them both (or else).  Actually, now I’ve tried raw vitamin K as a sprout substitute, my mind is wavering a little and I keep thinking of that liquid stuff when I look at sprouts.  So ‘Yuk!’

In fact, I have to say, my taste has changed entirely.  It’s a very strange thing.  I still have no appetite at all.  At meal times, I try very hard to think of something I fancy, but the only thing I seem to come up with is sausage casserole, that dish that was the first I ate when I stopped being NBM.  Perhaps I have to re-eat everything I’ve ever eaten to get my taste buds and imagination working again?  There’s not too much wrong with my taste buds in fact; many things I’ve been given to eat have been quite tasty.  But some are still so-so.

I went into the café at the hospital the other day to wait for my old lady and ordered a flat white.  It wasn’t very nice.  This morning, as I usually do on a Saturday, I went to a café and tried a latte with a shot of vanilla.  That was OK.  But it didn’t make we want to go back anytime soon for another one.  What’s going on?  

Friday I had a glass of Pinot Grigio.  It didn’t really do much for me.  On our walk last week, I had a speculative half of HSB (the local brew), when I might perhaps have fancied a tomato juice (horror of horrors!), and it tasted so nice that I ordered the other half.  I also ordered the steak and ale pie and chips that the other two had ordered, because I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to eat.  And that was delicious too.  So some things are working.  But ask me now what I’d like to eat and drink and I suspect steak and ale pie and HSB won’t be very high up the list.  But then nothing will be HIGH on any list.  Doesn’t it make you feel sad?!  On the other hand, I don’t think I really care very much.  But last night I tried a drop of Rioja and that was lovely!  I’m going to try another tonight if I can be bothered.

So maybe I've reverted to childhood.  Perhaps I should try Philladelphia cheese sandwiches?

Tonight, to celebrate Chinese New Year, we’re having spring rolls, sweet and sour something and black bean sauce or some such stuff like that.  I don’t know. 

Tags: food, illness