cooking

What does one do when one cannot go out, either cos you feel like shit or else you have had chemo and are in that immune-compromised week (days 7-14 after treatment) and cannot go to public places apart from work?

As someone who used to go out six times a week, maybe five if I had a chilled Saturday night, spent Sundays declaring "what's next on the agenda?" and at the very least dashed off from work to go to gym, this enforced stay-at-home has been quite a change.

My colleague Marianne, who has been plagued with severe injuries, some from extremist mountain climbing and most recently, some severe knee problem which saw her holed up for about three months (apart from work where she temporarily changed her job to a sedentary one so she could sit with her injured leg on a chair with books and cushions) came with a brilliant suggestion in passing one day: cook, she said. She said that some days her energy was low and she could not do much but others it was better and she had fun exploring things to cook.

I have been doing that, I just realised. And even though my choices are super limited as still banned from veggies, fruit and dairy and cannot stomach protein apart from tofu and boiled eggs (did eat boiled clams the other night though), it is amazing the fun one can get from cooking. And even if I am not allowed out, can visit a friend if he/she is not sick and can always cook the basics which the friend(s) can augment with more interesting and easy fare such as cheese.

So well done Marianne, it works. And thanks.