Who doesn’t love a list? If your answer is no, are you really even my friend 😉
I’ve been thinking a lot about what is good and bad about this situation we find ourselves in.
It’s not so much about counting each and comparing, or weighing up the numbers in each list, but more about reminding myself about all the things I can be thankful for.
While we have no presents here, no Christmas cake, no pudding and importantly no favourite son (and DIL), we do have:
- 10 dozen SA oysters, ready for shucking. I ordered them weeks ago to be delivered to us here in Adelaide, with the plan to take them back to Wagga for Christmas. It now works out that’s 30 oysters each for the bivalve loving members of this locked down house. It will be hard, but we will manage 😉
- A lovely home that’s close enough to the water you can smell the sea air. We have a large pool, more bedrooms then we have people and, thanks to Victoria and Braden searching the cupboards, a decorated Christmas tree.
- A magnificent local leg ham. The only decision will be which glaze to use. I’m thinking honey, cider and grainy mustard. Thoughts?
- Two cooks, two cleaners and two laundry experts. No guesses who the cooks might be, but I’ll leave it up to you to work out the remaining allocation.
- Each other. I have some of my very favourite people here with me. Imagine if I was in hotel quarantine and alone. That would definitely suck!
Yesterday began it a leisurely way. I did have a work meeting from 8-10am, and after that decided to stick with weetbix for breakfast rather than a hot breakfast, as we have been having. By lunchtime I was ready for some more creativity, so boiled and cooled some soba noodles and added them to some shredded cabbage, carrot, scallions, capsicum, chillies and cucumber. I sautéed a chicken breast and sliced it, then tossed it all together with an Asian dressing Pamela made which was pungent with ginger, garlic and fish sauce.
Dinner (not much to report in the afternoon beyond long naps and book reading in the sun) was a similarly simple affair. Making a curry for six people who have taste buds ranging from frightened to fabulous was challenging. I settled on a butter-style chicken with basmati and poppadums, with extra fresh chilli on the side for those who enjoyed a little more spice.
Dad ordered a Chromecast online which arrived in the afternoon (contactless of course) so after dinner Dave and I scrolled through the photos on my phone. Memories of the year kept us smiling and reminiscing and occasionally laughing. A lovely way to spend the evening, and amazingly I slept soundly till just before dawn.
Day 7 done, and day 8 now underway. I think we are half way!