My favourite time of day really depends on what is happening on that day. In my youth I almost never had breakfast, possibly because my mother didn’t have food before lunch and didn’t understand the importance of having a full tummy before going to school. Nowadays I have breakfast not too long after I get up. In the colder months I have porridge with added oat bran and seeds. In the warmer months I have been eating Shreddies (a whole wheat, crunchy, cereal) with a little sugar, lots of cinnamon, and semi-skimmed milk, followed by a few prunes.

Yesterday, something rather special was happening so I got up a bit earlier than normal and had my breakfast. At noon Julian and I went to the Cataract Clinic near Herne Bay and I had the operation on the cataract in my right eye!

I would like to assure everyone that this operation is pretty well painless – and, during it, you see some wonderful colour combinations! Before the actual operation you are seen by a nurse who takes your name, date of birth etc so that the NHS has details to add to your record, then checks your eye-sight and puts some drops in your eyes, after which she takes you back to the waiting area. After a short time, a doctor takes you into an office where he looks at your eyes in more detail. I was informed that I, like quite a few other people, have an extra membrane in the back of my eye which means very little. He spent some time talking to me about the cataract in my left eye and why the right eye is being seen to first. (It’s worse than the left one!)

After another waiting area where I watched a silent (to me) tv, I was taken to a different nurse who took my blood pressure, checked who i am and when I was born, added some more drops to my left eye, talked a little more about what was going to happen, then sent me to wait outside the room across the hall.

A short time later a young woman came out, led me in and asked me to sit. She put some sort of scarf on my head, making sure that my fringe wouldn’t get in the way of the operation, then spread a liquid on and around my eye. (She mentioned it was iodine). Shortly, I entered the operating theatre and lay down on a ‘bed’. The doctor placed a piece of cloth over my eyes, then cut an area from the right side so that he could see my eye and I couldn’t see anything from my left eye. He proceeded to wipe various(?) damp substances across and around my eye. Then there was a period of time (five or ten minutes, I imagine) when I couldn’t really say what was happening. From where I was, all I could see was an ever-changing set of glorious colours – a light turquoise, fuchsia pink, brilliant orange yellow – then some little bubble shapes, then more colours. At the same time there was a strange noise coming from my right which changed slightly, stopping and starting irregularly. I have no idea what it was. Various ideas flashed through my head – could it be a sharpener for the scalpel? Or a laser? Or ???

I felt pressure on my eye and, I’ll admit, almost pain, which I feared would get worse but didn’t.

It was finally over. The doctor removed the cloth from my eyes, taped a plastic eye shield over my eye and said I could sit up, which I did. Then, supported by a nurse, I walked out to the waiting area. Shortly, a young lady came to talk to me about the drops for my eyes, (one drop, four times a day) the plastic shield for my eye (to be worn the rest of the day and first night, then every night for a while). She gave me a booklet with details and frequently asked questions etc, then Julian came and took me home!

Enough about eyes!

Lunch time used to be really easy! Until not too long ago I made a big pot of soup with beans, onions and tomatoes which lasted for at least 5 days. I think I just got fed up with making it because, for a while now, I’ve had to decide what to have for lunch rather than knowing what I would have. Sometimes, I have avocado toast (yum!) or egg on toast (yum) or tomato soup and toast with cheese (yum).

Which brings us to dinner.

I started cooking dinner (evening meal) for the family when I was in my mid-teens. I can’t really remember how I decided what we would have or, really if I decided what to have. My mother was finishing her thesis for her degree and I, being the oldest daughter, was the one who cooked.

After about 65 years of planning and cooking dinner (with days off during my teens, thankfully!), I have reached the end of my tether regarding evening meals! Damien and Harley (Julian’s younger brothers) learned from their mother how to cook but Julian didn’t and, even when he was single, ate a very strange evening meal diet of burgers, fish and chips or cheese on toast. At lunchtime he would eat in the canteen or, occasionally go to a carvery so, I guess had a few vegetable once in a while.

So, I decided, about 3 years ago, not to cook on Monday evenings. We have whatever we can find, separately, on Mondays . The rest of the week we have what I decide but from a limited store of recipes, nowadays. We don’t have much red meat so it’s usually chicken or fish. Sometimes, it’s pasta with a vegetable sauce, and, once a week – maybe – what I call deconstructed cottage pie. This is the filling of cottage pie – beef mince and vegetables accompanied by mashed potato. I can no longer be bothered to go the full way and put the mash on top of the mince and shove it in the oven – it tastes almost the same, has the same ingredients and is reasonably healthy.

At the moment, after our night time meal is my favourite time of most days. The work (such as it is) of the day is done (or not), the walking of the dog has been accomplished and it’s time for entertainment. If I have nothing else exciting on, I sit in my wonderful conservatory (if it’s warm enough) and stream tv programmes I’ve not seen before or saw so long ago I have forgotten.

At the moment I am working my way through Death in Paradise which I had never watched for some reason. In months gone by I have watched the whole of Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour as well as Silent Witness, Astrid – Murder in Paris, the Red Door and other Channel Four offerings. Montalbano, is a favourite of mine and I’d love to go to Sicily if I thought I’d meet him!

You can see what my taste is in tv programmes and, as it happens, books. I’m not sure why I have always liked crime and murder mysteries – I am very meek and mild and doubt if I could bring myself to murder anyone! Some people ask me if I have nightmares after watching, or reading, about horrific things. I don’t and I believe that’s because of my aphantasia. (See my posts on Aphantasia for explanations, as this post is just about finished!)

As a teen, I loved the evenings after school when I could meet friends and dance or go to the movies; as a young mum I loved the days when I could play with my little ‘Veronica’* and the nights when she was finally asleep; and as a grown up in my 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, I particularly liked the later parts of the day when work had been done and I could relax. I still haven’t got to the point where the morning is the bit I like best – getting out of bed is still the least enjoyable time of the day for me! I suppose I might prefer it when I’m really old, not just a spring chicken of 81!

*’Veronica’ is my daughter who doesn’t want people to know all the details of her life! Veronica is the pseudonym she chose.