Two topics today. Firstly, I am currently suffering, yes SUFFERING, a nasty bout of sciatica. It gets me every now and again, usually after I’ve spent a lot of time doing the book learning (which I am at the moment what with my counselling course and healer training) and I find myself so absorbed that I forget to get up and stretch every half an hour or so, and before I know it I’ve spent three or four hours sitting at an angle to my desk with my left leg wrapped around the back of my right leg and then it’s TOO LATE - the damage is done.
I wonder if I shall ever learn? I know the rules: sit properly in the chair with both feet on the floor, sit square to the desk, not at a squiffy angle even though it’s initially the way I like to sit, and thirdly, get up and move around at regular intervals. I keep telling myself this over and over, all good intentions, then the delights of psychodynamic theory or quantum physics distracts my mind from receiving pain signals from my poor body which seizes up more and more as the minutes tick by. And here I am again, stiff as a board, eeeking and ouching with the twinges and walking around with a miniature hot water bottle stuffed down the back of my trousers. I’m a ridiculous person, sometimes. But it will pass in a couple of weeks. Basically, when I get out of bed I can’t move, then within half an hour I can move a bit, and within three hours and after some groovy tummy in/arse out Pilates stretches and visualisation exercises I am pretty much functional for the rest of the day providing the day doesn’t require anything to do with running, skipping, jumping or maintaining a smile on my face.
Secondly, custard. Explain the obsession, please. What is it with people and custard? Why does everything pudding have to be covered in custard? In my opinion, if you want to spoil a perfectly lovely crumble or pie, put custard on it. Apple and blackberry crumble? Lovely! Tastes of apple and blackberry and buttery crumble. Apple and blackberry crumble and custard? Yuck! Tastes of custard. You might just as well have the contents of a vacuum cleaner bag if you want something lumpy for pudding, because whatever you put custard on, the whole effect with just be custard. In fact, cut out the delicious middle man of pie or crumble - just have custard.
One school I worked in had a canteen obsessed with custard. Part of my job was to eat lunch with the children in order to help them socialise and learn some table manners. And in recompense, you got a free school lunch. This was fine - a good variety, and who doesn’t love a cheesy baked potato in the middle of a cold day? However, come pudding time, there stood the ominous jug of custard. It was offered with everything - custard with your sponge pudding? With your fruit salad? Custard with your flapjack? Your cookie? Seriously, who has custard with a flapjack or cookie?? Lots of people, so it turns out. I think it must be a weird Midlands thing.
Or perhaps it’s me. I’ve never been a custard fan, not even when the pudding place is correct for custard like in a trifle. I like my pudding to taste of what it’s made from, and not just custard. But then I don’t like vanilla, so perhaps that’s the issue. Or the fact that custard looks like this...
I mean, seriously? Bleurgh....
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