Covid - good news and bad news

The recent good news about Covid is that a vaccine has now been approved and is being given in order of priority, firstly to vulnerable and elderly people and frontline health care workers, and then by age from older to younger. I’m low down on the list and I’m fine with that. I am in good health and am happy for higher priority people to get the vaccine first. As a non scientist I am also a bit worried about getting the vaccine which has been developed and tested so very quickly. I remember all the problems that we had in the 1980s in the computer company I worked for, when we were under huge pressure to rush in newly developed software for new legislation - the notorious Community Charge or “Poll Tax.” The results were not good! 

Davie has reassured me that the vaccine has been tested properly, and I trust him, so I will get it when my turn comes. I suppose that if people refuse the vaccine then Covid will continue to spread, so I will overcome my worries for the greater good. And hope that I don’t grow fur or turn into a zombie - just joking! 

The bad news is that cases of and deaths from Covid are rising again - and this is before the five day easing of restrictions at Christmas. The governments (British and Scottish) are understandably reluctant to go back on their promise of small Christmas gatherings indoors, because it would be bad for morale and also I think a lot of people would just go ahead with their planned celebrations anyway. But on the other hand, if the number of deaths increases significantly because of the temporary easing of restrictions, this would also be really bad. So there’s a lot of uncertainty just now.

Update - late afternoon. Well I was right about the uncertainty. In Scotland the five day window of easing Covid restrictions has now been reduced to one day - Christmas Day. Then from Boxing Day we will move back into Tier 4 (South Lanarkshire was in Tier 4 at the beginning of the month but we have been in Tier 3 for the last couple of weeks) which means that the cafés, pubs, restaurants and non essential shops will have to close again. Where Jennifer lives, in Buckinghamshire, as well as in London and the south east of England, will be going into Tier 4 immediately, so no mixing of households at Christmas at all. It’s a real shame but what can we do? Keeping people safe has to be the most important thing. 

A Wedding and Christmas on screen

This afternoon a surprise message came through on Hugh and Lucy’s Wedding WhatsApp group. Like many other young people this year, their wedding has had to be postponed due to Covid, in their case from July 2020 to July 2021. The message informed us that they had just got married today in Gretna Green! To quote Lucy’s message, “This year has been pretty rubbish so we thought we'd end it on a high!” I’m very pleased for them; they are still planning to have a big celebration in due course. 
Christmas is only a week away and this evening Cat and I chose another festive film, The Holiday, which we have watched many times before, but is always good. It has a really excellent cast of actors; Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black. It also stars Eli Wallach, who we watched in “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” with Davie and Chanel when they visited us in Ullapool. He was looking very fit at 90 and in fact lived for another eight years after making the film. 
Cat and I finished watching “The Bold Type” last week. I had read that the filming of the fourth series had been interrupted by the outbreak of Covid, so the series was shorter than intended and the last couple of episodes had to be changed about. Well they did a good job because I thought it was still excellent; I hope that they commission another series. Cat and I went straight on to watch the whole of the series “Emily in Paris” which has been great fun. It’s about the adventures of a young American woman who is sent to work in Paris, and has to get used to the different culture. Lily Collins is delightful as Emily but the real star is beautiful Paris. I would love to go back there after Covid. 

Tagine Tuesday

Tagine Tuesday was a rip-roaring success! I made lamb with apricot tagine (tofu and apricot for me and Cat) and it turned out to be very tasty. The only hitch was that I started cooking later than I had intended so we didn’t eat until about ten past eight! Nobody seemed to mind and we had pancakes with maple syrup and raspberries for our dessert. 
The reason that I was late to cook dinner was that I had spent the afternoon making the final adjustments to Grandma’s recipe book. I hope to put it in for printing tomorrow. James has designed the cover using examples of Grandma’s beautiful writing. We made Grandma’s Black Bun recipe at the weekend; it consists of a great deal of spiced fruit encased in pastry. I think that we will work our way through the recipe book and take photos of the results; I’m already thinking of an illustrated second edition!
We got a lovely gift yesterday from Christine and Gerry. It’s a personalised Advent gift basket. Each of the food items comes from a different part of Scotland, such as Dunlop cheese, Orkney oatcakes, Mull biscuits and Arran mustard. There is also an Ardnamurchan Calendar, wine for James and a Molton Brown Christmas bauble filled with bubble bath for me. It is such a thoughtful and kind present and makes me feel very festive. 

Culinary

Ally and Cat cooked us a delicious meal last week. It was a spicy Japanese ramen dish and the flavours were absolutely gorgeous. James and Ally’s version included chicken and Cat made a tofu version for her and me. The tofu was browned and then marinaded and it was really excellent.

This got me thinking that my cooking is in a bit of a rut. I cook most of the evening meals because Ally and Cat work long hours and James is busy with all sorts of projects around the house. The exception to this is of course Curry Sunday, James’ tuna pasta bake, and the many times that Cat has stepped in to make the evening meal if I have something else on. I am very happy to make dinner, but recently I feel as if I’m producing the same eight or nine boring meals again and again. 

So this evening I decided to make a Mexican meal. I had all the ingredients ready and roped James in for the prep so that the constituent parts would be ready at the same time. The meal was to be Fish Tacos. My first mistake was using hard taco shells instead of soft ones which would have suited the recipe better, and my second mistake was to cut a corner by buying fish already coated in panko breadcrumbs; I thought that this would be much more convenient than coating it myself, but the result had a less homemade feel. The overall result was a bit disappointing to me. 

However I will keep trying to add a bit more variety to our menus. I enjoy making tagines, which Ally suggested when I was talking about zhuzhing up my cooking. Roll on Tagine Tuesday! 

Getting festive

Today we have purchased our Christmas tree from local supplier “Elfie Trees” and it is now decorated and resplendent in the lounge. We went to buy it a bit early - in fact we hadn’t realised that they didn’t open until 10 a.m. - but the “elves” were already there and helped us to pick an excellent tree. It is quite large in both width and height - about 9 feet high - but does not rival the amazing 13 feet high tree that Alison and Hugh have in Nairn! 

In the afternoon James and Ally fitted the tree into its stand, brought it indoors, and James festooned it with lights, enthusiastically assisted by Cat. I came into my own as chief bauble positioner. We also added garlands of our ancient tinsel. I was told recently that tinsel is currently deeply unfashionable, but fashion rarely makes any difference to our traditions at Casa Anderson. Our tree has had the same decorations for thirty-five years, with my favourite ones made by the boys added to our collection when they were at nursery and primary school, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Yesterday we received a surprise gift from Jen and Russ. It is a giant cardboard cut out of Buddy the Elf from James’ favourite Christmas film - Elf of course! I wasn’t supposed to open it until Christmas Eve but I forgot and opened it straight away, and I’m glad that I did because we will display it around the house throughout the festive season. We love it! 

Delivering Christmas Cards

Another Tier 4 Lockdown weekend has just gone by. On Saturday afternoon James and I went out to hand deliver our Christmas cards in our local area. It was raining quite hard when we set off, but we decided just to go for it anyway, and we were rewarded with a dry spell in the middle of our journey. As usual James expertly sorted the cards by street and number, which resulted in a roughly circular route. On our way we met and chatted with Ian and Margaret, who were also carrying a bundle of Christmas cards to deliver, and we found Sheila and Kathryn making a Christmas tree in their garden using a length of copper pipe and strings of outdoor lights. I saw a photo of it later, all lit up, and it looked fantastic. The rain came on again as we approached home, so we were glad to get indoors for a warming cup of tea and one of Cat’s delicious cup cakes. 

Cat and I conspired to choose a film that we both fancied on Saturday evening; Holidate, a new romantic comedy. It started Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey as a couple who don’t want to feel pressured into having a proper date for holidays, so agree to be each other’s “holidate” as friends only. It was all very light-hearted and silly and it did have some genuinely funny moments. The plot didn’t bear close scrutiny and Ally’s hilarious sarcasm about it only added to the fun. James of course had fallen asleep within the first fifteen minutes! 

James and I also watched a six part mini series on HBO called “The Undoing” which has been much hyped recently. It starred Nicole Kidman who looked ethereally beautiful and Hugh Grant who looked rather old. The plot was very slow moving (which meant that Ally and Cat were able to easily catch up and watch the last couple of episodes with us) but it was quite a good story - although ultimately I found the denouement to be a bit disappointing. Donald Sutherland turned up as Nicole Kidman’s character’s father looking great at 85 years old, with amazing old man’s white eyebrows which were like birds’ wings. All good entertainment. 

James has been baking

The days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder. I wrote all of my Christmas cards on Tuesday afternoon, while listening to a whole afternoon of Christmas music on Radio 2. I think this must have been because it was 1st December; I can’t believe that there will be 24 days of exclusively Christmas tunes. I took off my splint to write them because otherwise my writing would be too messy. Inevitably I still have a few changes of address to sort out but I’m 99% finished. Chanel and I have been keeping in touch with regular messages and phone calls and on Tuesday I got a really heartfelt and beautiful message from her, which actually made me cry. She is a lovely person.

Ally W came round with her lovely basset hound Nelly yesterday and we went for a walk around the park, pausing on either end of a park bench for coffee from my new Chilly bottle. It’s so light and thin compared to the bulky flasks that I used to carry to school with my soup in them, and yet it keeps the tea absolutely piping hot! Ally has been ill recently so it was lovely to see her.

Today we woke to a light dusting of what might almost be called snow. James went out early for his walk and said that our street was like a sheet of ice but the park was extremely well gritted. I had a very pleasant trip with Catherine to Rouken Glen Garden Centre this afternoon. It was all carefully socially distanced but I’m not quite sure how it justifies being open as an “essential service” just now. We got takeaway coffees from the Boathouse Café up by the pond and had a nice chat. 

James has been doing some excellent baking recently which is not good for my waistline. At the weekend he made shortbread; very thin and delicious which is the way I like it. It literally melts in the mouth. And yesterday he made his signature lemon madeira cake which we have all been enjoying. 

This evening we gathered cosily on the couch and watched a Rangers game in the television room, well the other three did, while I browsed around in my phone. Rangers won 3-2 so James and Ally were well pleased, and so was Cat, who has also become an enthusiastic Rangers fan!