Week 93: Thinking about the muffin

June 13, 2020

Something I realised while in hospital for a routine scan was that if L has any covid symptoms he won’t be allowed at the labour. So there’s some nightmare fuel for my final few weeks of pregnancy.
In hospital I went to my favourite place on earth, Muffin Break. I bought two muffins, one for me and one for L. My scan revealed the baby is an absolute unit so they sent me upstairs for “more tests”. I was dying to eat the muffin, but it would have involved (a) removing my mask and (b) washing my hands. Now there is the added complication that the reason the sonographer is worried about the size of this baby is that he thinks I have gestational diabetes again, so there is now problem (c) which is that I’m trying to convince these doctors I’m fine, but them seeing me eat a muffin in one mouthful is not going to play into that narrative.
The “more tests” was actually just waiting in a corridor for 50 minutes thinking about the muffin, followed by 5 minutes of chat, followed by another hour of thinking about the muffin, followed by a doctor very cack-handedly taking some blood. In this time I touched many surfaces, but kept my mask on.
Finally, after about 2.5 hours of waiting and 30 minutes of action I was able to leave the hospital. I went to the bus stop without washing my hands, took off my mask and shoved the muffin right down.
Last Friday (ie not yesterday) I sent what I thought was an OK email and got into an absolutely icy response from the recipient. I immediately realised that it was not an OK email. I tried to do some damage limitation but really the damage was un-un-doable and my best hope was to extract myself from the situation. I spent the weekend worrying about it constantly. I was confused and mortified. Absolutely nothing could take my mind off of it, until Sunday afternoon that is, when I woke up from a nap with the realisation that it was fine. I had tried to help. I had not succeeded and now I should just get over it. The lesson here is: take more naps.
With the extra time and patience afforded by E going back to nursery I tried some new Meera Sodha recipes this week (Fennel and apple chaat with caramelised almonds / hot green bean, cashew and coconut salad / new potato and chickpea chaat). All from her very excellent book Fresh India. Instant hits. I can’t wait to make them again. I love her book. We cook from it a few times a week. If you want a next vegetarian book to get after A Modern Way To Eat then this is it.
It seems E has developed a nemesis at nursery. About time.