"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see." Winston Churchill
I have a busy week ahead of me: a trip to see a film in the city, a lunch with my Italian class, a visit to friends to help with chainsawing some wood - well that's David - I'm just along for the catch up with friends - and the big one, pick up my returning family from the USA. And, of course, in between all of that I have to cook dinners. How to fit it all in?
Well my biggest and overriding problem is do I need to cook a readily heated up dinner for my returning family? They get back late afternoon - 4.30 theoretically - which means possibly a 5.30 exit from the airport and a 6.30 arrival home. See - I'm already in sort of pre-planning mode. This may possibly mean they just want to go to bed. Presumably the airline will have fed them - but then it's a Jetstar flight so maybe not.
Anyway the thought that I may need - no, would like - to cook something for them is there. So what to cook? Lasagne I think. Easy to prepare and easy to heat up if it's pre-cooked at least partially. So I started thinking about when I would do this - because my week is busy.
Hold that thought as I shall return to it, but as I started thinking through the logistics of all of this I realised that I first needed to understand what they wanted to do. But how to communicate? Mostly they have been communicating via Facebook and What'sApp, niether of which I have, and David doesn't really understand the ins and outs of my 'need to know'. So I have sent emails and text messages, although I wonder whether they will get them, as they have been using an America sim card for the mainly used phone I think. David has told them to check emails and texts so we shall see. But it's somewhat ironic isn't it in this age of ultra fast communication, that I should be confronted with this problem? Too many choices of platforms to use? Limitations of the more normal methods of communication? Or is the problem really me and my clinging to ways of communicating that are rapidly becoming outdated? Is email on the way out?
Let's assume for the moment that a lasagne - and maybe a vegetarian galette for my older granddaughter will be required. So back to my initial problem - when do I cook them?
The obvious answer is in the morning of the day they arrive, but at 11.30 I am out to lunch with my Italian class. The irritating time of 11.30 because of the 2 hour slot rule that many restaurants seem to insist upon these days - and I do understand why - but 11.30 - is too early really. It's a Chinese restaurant - one of those large suburban ones which are always packed with Chinese families - and I guess the restaurant is trying to squeeze in two lunch sittings rather than just one. Why Chinese? Well it's organised by our Chinese fellow student. I could dip out, but that would be unsociable, and besides I enjoy the Chineseness of it all.
I shall have to leave here at around 11.00 so does that give me enough time to cook a lasagne? Theoretically yes. My kind of lasagne anyway - not at all a classic - a fairly quickly cooked bolognese sauce, interleaved with partially cooked lasagne sheets with cheese on top and drizzled with cream. Things tend to take longer than you think though don't they?
My options? Make the whole thing today, or just the bolognese? It should be perfectly fine in the fridge for three days. I could even freeze it - well I think space might be the problem there. Moreover I need an answer to my question about whether they want it or not first. I don't think I can proceed until I have the answer. Besides the mincemeat is frozen in the freezer.
Tomorrow? A similar problem, only this time it's a trip into the city to see a film. Similar timing, similar problem. Maybe a little bit more time before I leave home. But not much. And I get back late, so it will be a very quick stir fry for our dinner.
Wednesday - the chainsaw visit, which includes a light lunch, so I'm guessing I have the same morning problem and not much of an afternoon left.
And here we are on Thursday again. It will have been a fun and busy week until then. I am certainly not complaining about being busy. So I suspect I shall just wing it. It really shouldn't take more than an hour to make a lasagne - the prep and assembly part anyway and David can supervise the cooking if I have to go. I can also surely fit in a galette some time too.
Of course I could just get up early, or cook in the evening. Plenty of time to do that. But I suspect that's a bit of a dream.
"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." Gloria Steinem
I was kind of dreaming of surprising them with a cooked dinner, but then when I started to look at the mundane problems and the planning required, it is becoming increasingly difficult to focus on the excitement of their return which is really the very big and very wonderful event of the week. I mean I didn't mention the extra problem of whether my son will be coming here to pick up his car - and some of the food from their freezer in fridge that were also left here.
No - planning is not really my thing. It takes out all the fun. I shall play it by ear - and if necessary cook into the night. Getting up early is less attractive.
"A good plan isn't one where someone wins, it's where nobody thinks they've lost." Terry Pratchett
Not really an appropriate quote, but he always had something wise to say.
YEARS GONE BY
January 20
2024 - Nothing
2023 - A 46 year-old bottle of wine
2020 - one of those magical number days - 20/01/2020 - Hail the size of golfballs
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Nothing
2017 - Heirloom tomatoes
Busy, busy, busy, bzzzzz like a bee! 😅