I've become a dinner/luncheon party aficionado. Something I really haven't embraced with a whole heart since my husband died. But now...bring it on!. I've revamped the gazebo, it's like a Moroccan riad, complete with a fire pit that the daughter fires up most evenings for aperitivo. Having come from six months of winter in Europe, we're not keen on arriving bac here for another winter period, so being outside tricks the mind into believing autumn is being prolonged. Last night, we laughed with our Greek friends. My friend relayed her first week of panic buying (when it was assumed that a pandemic would hit Australia as badly as it did in Europe). She bought Spam! I had to laugh as I remembered my childhood days when we had spam out of the can with a salad for lunch, with the obligatory condensed milk and lemon juice dressing. It was war/depression food, and being Greek, she would be ready for any eventuality. She shopped daily for the fluctuating supply of toilet paper, she has a cans of tinned food which she has never bought before and may never be eaten. She shopped daily for exercise but mainly to make sure the pantry was stocked.
Talking about this, as we ate our way through another meal I had created from the #Jerusalem cookbook, I decided that they were a few types of Quarantinies. There are the Stockpiling quarantinies; investing in food for the house and their emotional wellbeing; basically they cook and plan their way through. Then there's the Workout quarantiny, a lone breed that exercises their way through, coming out slimmer, toned, alcohol free, getting up early; fridge full of different coloured vegetables; a portable gym in the living room; waiting patiently to be let loose back into the wild/world. Next is the Chef Quarantiny, those who are making their way through cookbooks that have collected dust over the years; those who have bought herbs and spices that have never been bought before and then have dinner parties, adding to the numbers invited as the lockdown measures decrease.There's the Creative Quarantiny, ordering kits online, finishing projects that have been languishing in the back of the cupboard for years; starting online courses; deciding that this is the year to be consumer free and attempting to make all handmade gifts for the rest of the year. Then there's the Handyman/gardening quarantiny, who finally has the time to do the odd jobs they've been putting off for years, and getting their gardens sorted out even to the point of tweezering out weeds from their lawns. And last, but certainly not least, there's the Cleaning quarantiny; this is a interesting breed, they can be a mixture of the above but some are all out cleaners. They browse online for cleaning equipment; fluff and dust suddenly can be seen out of the corner of their eye even when pretending to carry on a conversation but those to whom they are speaking, know that their mind is elsewhere. They clean every second day; if working from home they have been known to remake hospital corners on beds, basically they have too much time on their hands. The daughter is one of them and I am eternally grateful, the house has never been this clean. I am a mix of most of the above, mainly the Chef/Creative one with a bit of Workout/Cleaning thrown in. Maybe there's more, let me know. What are you?
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