Lost, one crutch

Just before Christmas, I lost one of my crutches. I have, well had, four pairs. My NHS issue ones. which I don't like on a lot of grounds, and three pairs of French made ones I have bought myself. All are elbow crutches, the French call then "canne anglaise". I can't use underarm crutches due to my dodgy wrists.

My red folding pair were the first ones I bought when I started using crutches full time. They are half cuff (that's the bit that goes round your arm, just below the elbow) which I found much better when you need to do things like open doors.

When we were in France over the summer I bought two more pairs. One in grey and one in "Bordeaux" - or Burgundy as we call it in English. They were this type:

Although they are not folding, they are very comfortable, the cuffs give lots of support which takes the strain off my wrists and elbows and they don't have the annoying click of many crutches.

Sadly, just before Christmas, I lost one. I sometimes "get away" with only one crutch. I shouldn't, it's bad for my spine and pelvis, but sometimes having one hand free helps, so for short distances I'll often take just one. All I can think of is that I went somewhere with two and left with only one. I've retraced my steps but with no luck. It's gone.

So now, I have one grey one, and four in different shades of red. Which presents a problem when I wear, for example, green. So now to decide. Do I buy one more grey one or a new pair altogether. I do quite like these ones from Cool Crutches.

Risotto

Risotto is one of my favourite easy dinners, but although easy it's time consuming so it's something I tend to make just for myself, when I can stand in the kitchen with a glass of wine and add extra liquid when required. This is tonight's.

My basic recipe is to fry a packet of lardons in a wee bit of olive oil. If I am worrying about fat content, I drain it off.

If I am using butternut squash, and I usually am, I add that (cubed) and let it fry a wee while. Then I chuck in about half a cup of risotto rice and let it fry a wee bit too.

I don't use proper stock, so I add in about 2 tsp of Knorr boullion powder with the first cup of water. Keep adding water until it's done.

Once I had that basic recipe, I add vegetables depending on what takes my fancy. Today was asparagus. Petit pois (baby peas) and broad beans are my other standbys.

Near the end, I put in about 1/4 cup of wine and after it's served, I often crumble some soft goats cheese over it.

It's good. And if you have managed to get this far, you will have discovered I not only use recipes, I can't write one either.

Well, life has happened

It's a long time since I posted, for various reasons. I may blog about some of them in more detail, but for now, I plan to just leap back in. For context, a month after my grandmother's death I also lost my mother. I ended up returning to NZ for a month. The day before I flew back, I fell down the outside steps. It turns out I broke my tailbone. Needless to say, my other problems have not helped me recover, but I am probably as good as I will be now.

And so... to the blog.