It was really a last minute thing to have Thanksgiving over there, otherwise we would’ve invited the whole family – Faye, Wayne, Melissa etc. Amy and I were always going to have it but, with a few days to go, we asked mum and dad if they wanted to have it at their house. Being a free meal and prepared by someone other than themselves what answer could they give but “yes”. Plus they seem to like our company – Yeah, I know! After all those years as me for a son! It surprises me too!

Then again there’s Amy. Everyone loves Amy!

We also invited Adrian and Dan. Ebony was there for the weekend as well so it was a bit of a full house. We got there a bit later than anticipated but, as Amy had done most of the preparation beforehand, we only needed to cook the pumpkin pies and the turkey/yams/potatoes/etc. We had four hours or so up our sleeves so it worked out OK. We cooked two pies – mainly because we had the mixture for two – so there was plenty to go around. Not that Ebony cared. Thankfully she still doesn’t like pumpkin pie – not that she’s ever tried it – so that just meant there was more for us.

Ohh, by the way. Did I mention that when I say “We cooked this” or “We cooked that” I basically just mean Amy….With maybe a little help from mum. I was more of a hinderance really – being argumentative and generally obnoxious. I really don’t know what got into me that day? Anyhow, I felt I’d be of more help if I was out of the kitchen so I went and had a lie down.

To cut a long story short the meal was superb. Daniel and Adrian both enjoyed it and I’m not sure whether they’ve ever had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner before? Not that Dan’s was strictly traditional as he didn’t have any turkey (apparently vegetarians don’t eat that kinda stuff?). Still, there was plenty of vegetables and stuffing and pumpkin pie for him and none of what he ate even went close to a piece of meat.

The company was great and the conversation was excellent but, by the end of the night, everyone was so tired and worn out from their day that it was good to finally relax once Adrian and Dan had left. Not that Adrian himself could relax at all. The poor guy still had to do his graveyard shift at the radio station and then go home to bed, only to get up again some three hours later and go to work!

It wasn’t too bad for Amy and I. We decided to just spend the night there and drive back in the morning. Still, it was great to settle down for bed – another Thanksgiving successfully over…

For instance, unless I’m at my parents I don’t think I’ve had a “proper” meal since Amy’s been gone? By this I mean something that’s fully prepared and served up – although, now I think about it, tuna casserole would be the one type of meal that is fully prepared beforehand. For the most part though I’ve had half-assed meals cooked or prepared sporadically.

Most of what I’m eating is vegetables – carrots, sprouts, broccoli etc. – and raw at that. I just prefer some raw vegetables to cooked ones. I found out a couple of years ago that I was apparently one of the “one in eight people” who can really taste the absolute bitterness of Brussels sprouts? Until then I just thought that they tasted crap to everyone but apparently they don’t? Most people can’t even taste the bitterness at all? I love them raw, but cooked….eccchhh! Something my mum has been doing lately with me is to leave the sprouts uncooked and put them on my plate with the rest of my meal or, sometimes, on a side dish. One thing I also discovered about them (just the other week in fact) is that if you eat one and then take a swig of Coke, or Pepsi, it starts burning your damn mouth out for some reason? Well it does for me anyhow. I am a little weird after all! I mean I’m the guy who eats raw lemons until my tongue and mouth bleeds (cause it hurts like hell after that). Then again I haven’t really done that for a couple of years.

I’ve also been having salad vegetables (which of course would be raw anyway). I kinda just “graze” on these at around about meal times and then cook the meat (if I have it) either earlier or later – but hardly at the same time. Like if I was going to have roast chicken for dinner I’d roast the chicken and then start serving it up, and AFTERWARDS I’d cook the peas, corn, carrots or whatever and eat them separately (erm, no….I don’t mean eat them one at a time here). This usually means the “eating period” can last an hour or so.

I’ve been eating enough dairy products – mainly milk, yogurt and cheese – as well as drinking good amounts of water. When I eat meat it’s usually poultry and fish, with some red meat. I’ve cut back severely on soda – I was just having too much of it! I do have the occasional ginger beer though. Never used to like the stuff but the last two girls in my life loved it so I started drinking it too. I think when you’re a kid your taste buds are just so “hyper sensitive” that any strong flavor tastes foul. As you grow up you start to kill your taste buds off with spices, salt, curries and other stuff and a lot of the food that was just too much for you as a kid starts to actually taste good!

I’ve also been exercising more, which is good. Well yeah I know, that goes without saying due to the fact that Amy’s not here and things still need to get done, but I meant riding the exercise bike mainly. I’m trying to be “good” and it also helps to keep warm in this household!

Oh, but I still eat M&M’s every so often!

I’m a pretty reasonable cook I have to say. I should be too, seeing as I did so much of it in school. I don’t really do anything too complicated though……I mean it just takes too much time and there’s only me here at the moment anyway (dogs don’t count….though occasionally I’ll cook something up especially for them if I happen to have some meat that’s a little “iffy”). I do some nice chicken meals though – chicken tikka and sarsaparilla chicken to name but two – and I’m good with cakes, puddings and all kinds of casseroles and stews. There’s one thing though that I CONTINUALLY and CONSISTENTLY screw up! I have a propensity to blow up eggs!!

Yes eggs! Hard boiled eggs to be exact. One of the EASIEST things in the ENTIRE WORLD to cook, and I just blow the LIVING SUITCASE out of them! Any other egg based meal and I’m fine! No problems at all! Hard boiled eggs though…..THAT’S EGGS IN HOT WATER FOLKS! NOT BRAIN SURGERY HERE!…….and I’m a freaking IMBECILE!

Now it’s not that the task is inherently difficult – I mean we all know how to do it right, yeah? It’s just that I put them on the stove with some water and then go back and check on them in three or four hours.

Yes, you heard it. Three or four HOURS!!!!!! By that time of course it’s an ABSOLUTE FREAKING MESS! It’s like a flock of ducks have flown through your kitchen and unloaded whatever crap they had left over, before Satan rises up from below and nukes said deposits to burnt cinders! Once the job’s done well enough he sinks back down to the nether regions of hell till the next time he’s needed. And the smell of it is absolutely PUTRID!

Now this is where I’m doubly dumb! It’s not as though there weren’t any warning signs or anything! No “Mafioso Style shotgun-through-a-pillow” type sounds at all. Ohhh no no no! Those muffled explosions should’ve tipped me off each and every time, but I’ve only just learnt how to recognized those sounds immediately – AFTER ABOUT A DOZEN TIMES!

At first it was just a case of “What’s that??” when they exploded. Not BOTHERING to ACTUALLY CHECK to see why there were strange sounds emanating from the direction of the kitchen. After all it’s probably just one of the dogs, yeah? Maybe a cute little baby possum? Nothing too worrisome anyhow! Before long it’s back to code crunching on the computer or watching TV or whatever it is that I’m doing at the time and everything is forgotten again. That is until I decide to go and make a cup of tea or something. Then it’s a case of “Ohhh, so THAT’S what that sound was?” as I’m scraping bits of burnt egg from the top of the refrigerator and nicely blackened shells from cereal boxes for days afterwards. Man you wouldn’t believe where that stuff gets to sometimes!

Then of course there’s the pot itself! I mean it would’ve been cheaper to just go out and buy another pot rather than spend hours scrubbing it with a scourer, wire brush, electric sander or industrial grinder (Yup, I’ve tried them all!). Non stick surface be damned! Ain’t nothin’ gonna stop that stuff from sticking!

So the answer is simple, you say! Yeah, well simple for YOU maybe? Not for me! I can’t wait the three minutes or so that it takes to cook the damn eggs. I get distracted too easily. Besides, who the heck wants to stand around watching eggs boil for chrissakes?? I sure as hell don’t! No, my solution involves something much more easier and better than that – volume!

After countless egg massacres I’ve found an almost sure-fire way of getting around my problem. Water! Lots and LOTS of water! A HUGE FREAKING POT of water actually! Put THAT on the top of the stove, put your eggs in and then YOU CAN AFFORD to come back in three or four hours with no problems at all! If you time it right you would’ve just boiled the last of the water by the time you return. Ahhh bliss! Everything is good and well again and eggs around the world can breathe easy again!

Of course the only other thing you need to remember is to turn the electricity off on the stove. Yes folks, I once had the stove on low for two whole days before I realized it! I don’t know what the hell I was doing for food in that time but the kitchen was nice and warm though!

Now I just better go and check those eggs before I forget…..

The good thing is – and I must thank Amy for this one – that I can draw thick and heavy curtains across one doorway of the computer room (the doorway leading to the library) and close the sliding door to the bathroom and then crank up the heater so that there’s at least some warmth in the room. I can also switch on the electric blanket for when I go to bed. It doesn’t help though being out of whack again with my sleep patterns!

Due to said sleep patterns I haven’t done much in the way of work in the past few days. Basically I need some daylight hours so that I can cut up some wood for some small planes I need to make. When I do get around to it though I’ll be able to do the assembly and the rest of it at night.

It’s a good time to snuggle up in bed and watch TV…….not that you can do that all the time, but still.

To make things even goofier – for some bizarre reason I decided to buy some frozen yogurt on sticks (like ice-creams or ice lollies or whatever anyone else around the world might call them). I mean they taste GREAT, but why did I buy them at this time of year and in this house!!

I guess I need to start cooking some comfort food again? Nice casseroles and hearty stews and stuff like that. I need to be careful cause I usually go ape with this sort of thing and make a WHOLE CRAPLOAD of it in a HUGE ANTIQUE POT given to me by my mother. It’s not unusual for Amy and I to make large amounts of tuna casserole and then end up eating it over the next few weeks/months/years……well OK, maybe not years then. Anyhow, that’s what freezers are for!

Mmmmmmmm, tuna casserole sounds pretty good right now? I might go shopping tomorrow and pick up the ingredients and then start cooking.

Sounds like a plan!