Marks Grans Blog

I tried to buy a food processor yesterday.  It was sold out everywhere!  It appears everybody has been processing during lockdown and I've come late to the party!  I've never had a 'proper' food processor.  I had one of those mini ones - 'The Magic Bullit' I think it was called and I used it to do some stuff in it but probably not as much as I could have.  It died and the 'New' Magic Bullit had shot up in price since I first got it so I didn't replace it.  I have one of those stick blenders which does the business when I make soup and in 43, almost 44 years of marriage I've got by without a processor.  However, lately I've taken to watching all sorts of chefs and cooks online and I find quite a few mention 'just pop it in your food processor' etc and I feel left out.  Do I need a food processor?  No.  Do I want a food processor?  Yes, at least until I get it and can't work out how to use it and it sits in the cupboard waiting for ...

It's strange but I feel I'm doing better at the moment than normal!  I'm sleeping better; I'm worrying less about the state of our nation though I'm worrying more about catching bugs; time is whizzing by, I can't believe its almost the end of May already; I feel fairly contented most of the time just now, unless I have to go out or go shopping. A random photo of our dog and my daughters dog as I have nothing that fits this dialogue!! Don't get me wrong, there are many things I miss dreadfully.  I miss my granddaughters big hugs, in fact I miss everybodies hugs and I miss feeling safe to stand and chat to friends, neighbours and random strangers.  I would like to stop rushing around with spray bleach every time someone comes into our house or touches the doorbell or the garden gate!  And, frankly, I'd like to stop clapping for the Keyworkers.  They have done/are doing a brilliant and thankless task there is no doubt, but it feels a bit patronising n...

I think one of the nicest things that has emerged during lockdown has been seeing all the new ways people are keeping in touch with each other.  I've noticed many more people are embracing technology now.  Zoom and Houseparty are two I know of.  As I type this, I have just downloaded Zoom to my laptop to 'have lunch' with my art girl friends next week!  One of them suggested it and we've all agreed to download Zoom, three of them are already using for pilates classes and singing lessons!   People are often surprising in their aptitude to adapting to situations.  Until very recently one of our group was incredibly tech phobic, she was still using a flip top phone!  However since this all started she's embraced technology in order to keep in touch with her family, us and other friends and she's up for anything now!  She's the one sending the most photographs of her art work now!  We downloaded Houseparty at the beginning of lockdown and no...

They tell us we should get creative during this lockdown.  I am normally a very creative person.  I do all sorts of crafts and art.  I make cards, I do scrapbooking, I knit, I sew, I paint furniture, I paint pictures - in fact I actually sold a painting recently! I did this painting at my art class and put it up for sale at our exhibition and someone bought it! I am in a whatsapp group with a few ladies I met at an art class I did in a learning in later life class at Strathclyde University.  I met these ladies at the first class I ever did there, how to draw and paint using watercolour, which was about 6 years ago now.  It was a lovely class and we all got on so well we exchanged email addresses and kept in touch by meeting up every 6 weeks or so for a trip to a local art exhibition, a coffee and a catch up and we've kept it up.  There were originally 7 of us however one dropped away a while ago and another has recently moved to Dundee, so although sh...