Tuesday 10 March 2026: Meal plans & shopping lists

I didn’t manage a lot of work on Friday. In fact, looking at my diary, it looks like I didn’t do any work at all. I didn’t do any workshops. I didn’t write any assignments. I didn’t write any short stories.

But I must have been doing something…I just can’t remember what it was. It certainly wasn’t writing up today’s blog post, and I know it wasn’t writing yesterday’s because I wrote that one yesterday.

I know I started with my dirty cuppa and a quiet hour with the dog asleep next to me. I must have done some housework, and I would have taken the puppy for a walk.

Ah yes, I did the shopping. We’re trying to do the shopping on a Thursday night, but it’s difficult after a busy, tiring day. We want to free up the weekend with the longer, lighter days coming and the better weather, so we’re free to go out in the campervan on a whim.

I spent much of the day working out a new 8-week meal plan. We started with a simple 4-week meal plan and when we got bored with the same meals coming around a bit too quickly, I extended it but could only fit 7 weeks on a hand-written graph-paper page. We used it, though, and found out what we liked, what we really didn’t like and what we’d prefer when. And on Friday I worked on a new 8-week plan taking all of that into account and with only one or two favourites on repeat.

Once I had my plan for the week, the poet nipped out in his lunch break to the butcher to get the week’s meat while I did a shopping list. Then, when he came back, I went out to do the shopping.

That’s how I spent much of Friday. I remember now I couldn’t get going on any work, so tried to do something constructive and useful anyway, rather than play games. I did read a lot of my book too because, well, I felt like it.

So I had 2 walks on Friday. One with the dog and one with the shopping trolley. The poet made us a shepherd’s pie for tea but I bought shop-made puddings for Friday and Saturday.

On Saturday, we both had eye appointments. The puppy hadn’t been left on his own yet since the spaniel went, and we didn’t really want to leave him. But rather than cancel the appointment, we asked Son #2 if he’d like to have the puppy for a few hours. Son #2 said yes, and so we dropped him off there on the way to the optician’s.

The traffic was terrible and the poet had to drop me off at the back of the shopping mall where the optician is and then go and park the car. I made my appointment 5 minutes early and they got started on me while they waited for him to arrive.

He dropped his watch in at the horologist’s on the way. This is a watch I bought for him about 12 years ago. It’s not been off his wrist since and now there was a chip on the glass. So he dropped it in for a new glass, which took about a minute, then turned up for his appointment 10 minutes late. By now I was choosing my new glasses and they whisked him in straight away.

My prescription has changed slightly, but his hasn’t changed at all. But we both wanted 2 new pairs of glasses so we both had a spare pair. We spent far too much money, but his may last him 10 years yet and, if I do as I’m told and wear mine all day every day, mine may last a bit longer than 2 years too. And it’s one thing less to worry about for a couple of years at least.

We collected his watch, then collected the dog, who’d had a wonderful time. He’d been for a walk and had lots of fuss, plus he was able to run up and down the garden for as long as he liked. On our way home we dropped in on the poet’s mum as we hadn’t seen her for a couple of weeks.

On Sunday, for my birthday, we went to the seaside in the car. We parked up on the front and walked back to the town to our favourite chip shop there. Again, the puppy had a lot of fun running up and down on his long lead. He had a paddle in the sea and a scamper along the sand. Then I waited outside the chip shop with him while the poet walked back for the car.

The puppy was a horrible nuisance in the car, all the way there and all the way back. But when we got home he went to sleep. And he stayed asleep, pretty much, until about 10am the following morning. He’s usually okay in the car, but on Sunday he was a pain in the bum. We have to get him used to travelling because he’ll be doing a lot of it with us.

Monday, yesterday, was my birthday. The poet spoilt me. I had lots of presents. And he went out and bought me a birthday cake. The only job I did yesterday was yesterday’s book review. The rest of the day I took it easy. Well, it was my birthday after all.

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