Friday 4 January 2013

Love my food

Blogger is still acting up, I've upoladed these pics in the HTML mode. Not ideal as it involves more faffing. Anyway, to continue with my eating diary. I shall only be doing this for the next few days by the way, so if you are getting a bit bored with it hang on in there, there won't be much more.
Breakfast today was bran flakes and a banana with soya milk. Lunch was cream crackers, cheddar cheese, and soft cheese spread. Followed by two fresh peaches, a few grapes and evaporated milk. By the way, the grapes weren't on a yellow sticker, but they are on special offer at tesco at the moment. I wouldn't buy them at full price.
I went out this afternoon, and was very good I didn't buy anything to nibble. I was hungry when I got back though and pinched a spoonful of peanut butter while I was waiting for dinner to cook. The mush you see top left is a kind of a stir fry. It's four sprouts chopped very small, four spring onions chopped, and a handfull of frozen sweetcorn. I cooked it in toasted sesame seed oil on the hob, added a splash of lemon juice and a big teaspoonful of garlic. That's the last of the pasta salad, plus five baby tomatoes. My cobbled together stir fry was delicious. By the way, I find it a lot easier to chop spring onions with a pair of scissors.  
Thought I would just put this one in here. I like garlic but I don't like faffing around with fresh cloves. In the past I have used dried granules, and garlic paste in a tube, but this in a jar is very easy to use, and at only £1 from the continental food section at Tesco, I think that's very reasonable. It says on the jar that it should be used within one month of opening, which I think I will do. In case I don't I shall freeze some of it in an ice cube tray.
This next bit will tell you how to save £1,000. Here is my latest little gadget, a new hearing aid, and it was free from the National Health.
The nice man at the hospital programmed it in for me on the computer, and I must say, I noticed an improvement straight away. My hearing was starting to get muffled with the old one, I felt it wasn't doing it's job properly. My neighbour knocks on the wall because I have the volume up pretty loud while watching programmes on the computer, and I wasn't catching all the words while listening to the radio. Hopefully all will be hunky dory now. I just need to test the effectiveness of it in a public building which is fitted with a loop system, to see if there is any improvement there. I don't know why some people elect to pay for a hearing aid when all they have to do is get a referral from their doctor to the audiology department. I only hope they don't start charging for this service. 
That's all for now, Toodle pip.  

13 comments:

  1. If I want a hearing aid I have to pay, my Dr refuses to refer me as 'Deafness is to b expected at your age'

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  2. Hi Ilona - I thought I would catch up on your blog while my dinner finishes cooking, but I have to say looking at your stir-fry is making me hungry! It looks tasty. I like the way you cook - no recipes, just put stuff together.

    Your new hearing aid looks pretty nifty too. Yes I too am grateful for the NHS - have friends who lived in the US years ago and I shudder to think at the cost of healthcare there.

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  3. I'm not having Blogger problems...have you thought that it may me what you are using on the computer...Internet Explorer is notorious for problems. Chrome is ok, and I have never had problems on Firefox.
    All the best for 2013

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  4. That seems a bit unfair Hester, I wonder if anyone else has had that problem. Can you see another doctor for another opinion? I lost some of my hearing a long time ago so my deafness is not age related.

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  5. Just read recently that audiology departments in the NHS are being instructed to only supply one hearing aid per patient regardless of whether they have hearing loss in both ears. Part of the cost cutting measures.

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    1. Thank you Jess, I can well believe that. They are looking to cut costs everywhere.

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  6. Ilona, I flinch every time you say that your new hearing-aid is free. I'm from the USA. How does the NHS obtain the funds to pay for the medical care it dispenses?

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    1. I'm not familiar with the nuts and bolts of how the government conducts it's finances, Judy. I guess it all comes from taxes and goes into a big pot to be distributed. I certainly wouldn't want to be responsible for deciding who gets what, but that's a whole new topic, and anything political is not discussed here.

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  7. I changed Dr's fairly recently as the bus service that ran past the Dr's was cancelled, but the new one said the same thing, my deafness isn't age related either, but it seems to be a way of economising, it seems to be fairly common in this area.
    I love reading about your walks around Lincolnshire as I was born in Sleaford.

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    1. I think you should have at least been offered a test to find out how bad your hearing loss is. Maybe there is a cut off point. Have you tried complaining bitterly about the things you cannot hear, and how it is making your life very difficult? At worst your lack of hearing could put you in a life threatening situation, at best it can greatly affect your quality of life. If I wasn't able to hear very well I would think twice about walking alone in isolated places, I wouldn't be able to hear anyone following me.

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  8. I have lost 70% of my hearing - not age related - hereditory through the females in the family.
    I had a NHS aid initially but just couldn't get along with it, I found it big, ugly and cumbersome, and as I wear my long hair up all the time, I couldn't hide it, and frankly, found it embarrassing. I know one shouldn't be embarrassed about it, but I just was. I find that a lot of people, when they know you are deaf, speak to you like you are an idiot !
    Also, the NHS aids don't just amplify the human voice, they amplify everything else too, so I found I wasn't all that better off hearing wise, just everything was louder ! everytime I walked, it was like a big base drum in my ear, opening the cutlery drawer was so 'painful' it hurt ! I was told that's the way they were, they couldn't be adjusted. I had permanant headaches.

    so I opted for a 'private' one, made to measure and the difference is amazing, it's so tiny, no-one knows I'm wearing it, and it just amplifies the human voice. - Yes, it was expensive, but to me worth every penny, and as I cut down so much in every other direction of my life, I felt I owed it to myself. So speaking for myself, there was no choice, I found the money somehow !

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  9. Just because you did nt pay for the hearing aid does nt mean it was free, it is paid for somewhere along the way. When I was young most dental care was free in the u.k. those days are long gone right ? The difficult thing is to charge people for something they have always had for free, there is usually all hell to pay.
    My mum used to go to the mobile hearing unit outside Tescos - it is just a walk in and they would adjust it for her. Hearing loss (in her 90s) was the bane of her life, she use to brow beat them all the time convinced that they had something that would restore her hearing. When I cleared out her condo I found six of them ( all free) I took them back to the hearing clinic for recycling.

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  10. Hi Ilona, like the look of your pudding, I really like evaporated milk. Used to drink gallons of it when I was little. I make banana milkshakes with it now. Thanks very much for the info on the garlic as I usually buy the puree in a tube. Shall look out for the stuff in the jar now. Great news about your hearing aid, so you`ll be able to watch your programmes and listen to the radio no problem at all now. Your meals look very tasty. I made scrambled eggs the other week and loaded it up with turmeric and garlic puree, as you had done but without the mushrooms, and I`m sure it helped put my cold away. Read about the benefits of turmeric and gave it a try. Thanks for that. Weather yuk here today so tidying and ironing for me. Have a good day, Christy.

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