You’d have to be living in a cave not to have seen the TV ads for Robinson’s Squash’d – a micro-dispenser of very highly-concentrated squash.
The ad features a whole bunch of people creating large glasses of cold drink with the tiniest of squeezes – but how does the reality measure up to the hype?
Well, truth to tell, it comes up short. Very short.
Depression and Hydrocortisone.
Hydro is, without a doubt, the major current cause of my depression – depression so shatteringly severe it feels positively dangerous.
I’m not normally depressed, but I am prone to Continue reading
Nobody with even the minimum number of functioning brain cells could have missed the fact that, over the past 4 years, the BBC has become the Coalition Broadcasting Corporation.
Now I’ve always believed that the BBC’s Royal Charter required that it be politically neutral, as befits an organisation funded by the people it serves. That, however, seems not to be the case.
I downloaded a copy of the Charter
My nurses are taking the piss.
Yesterday I was told that my two lesions had merged into one big ulcer. Not happy, but not unexpected.
Thing is, I can’t actually see for myself due to the awkward location – I can see it clearly only with my camera and it was late yesterday when I thought to check for myself (I take photos at every dressing change). This is the result. Continue reading
Note: This is based on Beanfeast, Bolognese flavour. I doubt that there is anything can be done to redeem the generic soya mince and chunks available from health food shops. Except maybe a packet of firelighters and a box of matches. 
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First of all, never lose sight of the fact that the first use of textured soya protein was as insulation in the doors and body of very early Ford cars. It was never intended as people-food!
Yes, I know part 5 was only two days ago, but it’s a steep learning curve and new stuff to share comes along pretty quickly (and bear in mind that even though you might know this, there will be someone reading it who doesn’t – and sharing information maximises its value).
So, what do I know today that I didn’t know on Saturday?
For openers, my morning Hydro doesn’t remain in my system long. Diuretics and Addison’s are a poor mix, though the reason why isn’t made clear, but as I pee for Britain (an absurdly precise Continue reading
For reasons I’m not entirely certain of because, in hospital, my consultant was obsessed with the “fact” that I had colon cancer – I didn’t, as it turned out – to the exclusion of almost every other aspect of my condition, I’m supposed to have a high-protein diet. And, because my diuretics cause me to pee for Britain, I need high calcium, too (a lot is lost in urine).
As I’m a veggie – mostly – that means, for the calcium, a dependence on dairy foods, and that gives me a problem. Ever since I was a little kid I’ve loved cheese. Apparently I wouldn’t eat meat and got most of my protein from cheese – left alone I’d have probably been a natural vegetarian, but this was the 1940s, deep in the post-war slums of Manchester, and I doubt anyone had heard of vegetarians, despite the fact that the movement had gained its first formal existence in nearby Salford.
Anyway, despite my life-long love affair with cheese, I seem, of late, to have developed an aversion to it. This is partly because Continue reading
We don’t value food because it’s not expensive enough – thus Kate Humble, in the Guardian.
Seriously? That depends almost entirely on one’s income, and I doubt La Humble is feeling the pinch the way many of my contemporaries are.
The list that follows is what this pensioner spent on food last week – it’s fairly average. Some of it is, clearly, destined for the store cupboard/fridge (herbs and spices, cupboard; Clover and eggs, fridge; the quiches and bread are for the freezer):-
I can’t help noticing that in parts 2 to 4 I dropped the terminal s from Chronicles. Apologies. I can’t do anything about that without confusing Google but, from now, it’s back.
One of the first things I learned about Addison’s is that it slows down healing dramatically, especially recovery from infection, which explained why I had such an horrendous year in 2013.
Additional Hydro would have helped, but as the fuckwit endocrinologist at APH failed to tell me I had Addison’s, and my GP failed to spot the reference in my discharge notes until I poked him with a stick a year later, by which time I’d figured out what was wrong with me myself, that didn’t happen.
What I didn’t know, and only found out a couple of days ago, while poking around the online version of the British National Formulary, is that
This recipe came about after buying an organic Savoy cabbage and two organic caulies from Tesco – which tasted of bugger all. So, left with one caulie, and always loathe to throw out food, last night I decided to break it down into florets, slice up the stalk, douse it in melted clarified butter, and roast it. In my mini oven, to keep the cost down (if you’re on benefits and, like me, have no gas supply, then a mini oven is vastly cheaper to run than the one in an electric cooker; a good one will set you back close to £100, or even more, but a basic one can be had for around £30).
Once roasted, it was left
Ron's Rants... 