Scottish Tourism - the Excellent Cats debate Gizmo's suitability as a top influencer

[TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne]

Yeah, right.

Linney is more suitable.

At least he's actually a Scottish cat.

Gizmo is an English interloper, who only came to Scotland in order to get behind my bathroom cupboard.

I made the most wonderful beef casserole a few days ago.

It has made four delicious portions.

I know that some single people don't do much cooking for themselves but I love cooking and I'm happy to freeze the extra portions.

My grocery bills have been slashed!
I can't believe how much we were spending when we were together.

We had our 25 year anniversary this year. Our Silver Wedding.

I'm still wearing my wedding ring. Is that odd?

I bought a couple of recipe books & I batch cook something from one of them whenever I have time, portion it out & freeze the extra. As often as possible I try to pick something I haven’t made before. It’s brilliant to have a freezerful of homemade ready meals.

As for the wedding ring - you’ll take it off if & when you’re ready. There’s no rush on any of this, the timeline is completely up to you.

I enjoy cooking and do make freezer meals for myself, but the best thing about cooking and being single is being able to cook whatever you want without having to consider anyone else. If I want roast Brussel sprouts with jerk chicken, I can have it. If I want a child's meal of chicken Kiev, chips, and peas, then I will.

Also takeaways are cheaper for the really lazy nights. (We have a place in Cardiff called Fire and Flank that does the most amazing sous vide steak, either in a burger or over chips, with chimichurri sauce. I am craving it right now but trying to resist!)

When I was single and living in a flat share with very little freezer space I once made a lentil stew so large that I had to eat it for 5 days in a row. Very economical but my god I was sick of it by the end.

Now in a family of 4 we never make anything last long than 2 dinners, not even a roast chicken ☹️

You haven’t managed to find the legendary Mumsnet chicken that feeds a whole family plus Kettle for a week then?

The other bonus of just cooking for yourself is that you can try out new recipes without worrying about whether anyone else is going to like them. Then I cook the best ones when I have friends or family round.

Living alone is fab, don't think I could ever go back to sharing my house with any other humans.

You can do what you want, listen to/watch what you want, eat what you want, do the cleaning (or not) how you like it, slob around looking like a scruff, go in/out when you feel like it, all on your own schedule. If I fancy Readybrek for supper I can do that, if I fancy a shower mid-afternoon I can, if I want to do bugger all I can (and do frequently). I get up when I want, my kitties don't come on the bed & jump up & down to wake me if they think I'm late unlike most.

If I buy myself a treat, I know it will be there when I fancy it rather than someone else getting to it first. I know when I've opened the last packet of something & add it to my shopping list, so will never run out of loo roll or cupboard staples. I don't get judgy comments if I do something low brow, like watch sporn or junk TV, or comments on my reading choices. I get to watch cricket & F1 rather than football (or in the case of my brother & SiL they had a complete sports ban when I had to stay at theirs for a month mid-house move).

The single life is absolutely great!

I agree Allergic, I used to flat share in my younger days and loved it then but cannot countenance it now.
For all the reasons you have given.
I am approaching full retirement and I rent, so I am trying to consider sharing with someone in my age bracket to reduce costs. Once I had planned how it would work I realised it involved a house converted into two maisonettes where we knew each other to say hello to and perhaps meet for a cuppa occasionally but we would leave each other gloriously alone.
Esgaroth I made a split red lentil stew a few months ago but put in too many lentils so had to add several more cans of tomatoes to make it palatable. Made so much of it I only finished it last week. Won't be making it again this year. It was nice for the first four or five portions....

Welcome to the club @TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne 😃

Who knew so many of us lived up to the single woman with cats trope 😁

Fred is being a bit creepy tonight, staring down at me from his cabinet.

Kettle's at the vet for dental treatment today. Man was he annoyed when he didn't get his breakfast AND I immediately put him in jail.

When I got there they gave me a consent form to fill in that included the ominous question 'Have you had a discussion about the cost of this procedure?'. I checked 'No' but raised it as I handed over the form. Delighted to hear it's going to be an arm and leg, maybe two legs if he needs any teeth out, and of course dental isn't covered by insurance.

And the furry bastard won't even be grateful!

Good luck Kettle- come back and show us your Hollywood smile

Kitty helpfully threw up on the bedroom carpet around 4.30 this morning. And then followed me to the kitchen, thinking that if I was getting the cleaning stuff I might as well get her an early breakfast at the same time.

And I've just had a call from the vet - one of his teeth is coming out. Poor fellow and poor my bank account. Though I'm sure it's cheaper in the long run to have it out!

Warning- every cat we have had has always thrown up in 3 servings. So much so that if we found 1 we hunted for other hidden throw ups.
Best regards to Kitty - she probably need something bland like freshly roasted chicken to settle her stomach

Poor Kitty and her upset tummy. The least you could do is give her an early breakfast. And then of course she'll be hungry by real breakfast time and will need a second breakfast.

@Esgaroth sorry about Kettles tooth. We found making jellied stock from a chicken good if Bready had a sore mouth

Kitty only ever does it once, & then usually heads for the cat grass.

I wouldn’t actually mind roasting her a piece of chicken, if I thought she’d eat it, but I’ve got a strong suspicion that it would just get a couple of licks.

I hope both Kettle & your bank account feel better soon @Esgaroth.

Ours cough up hairballs with monotonous regularity. A couple of nights ago I was woken up by Sybil trying to cough one up on my pillow. Fortunately I managed to shove her off the bed so she could use the floor rather than my or Mrs G's head...

I shouldn't laugh.

He's had a can of tuna wet food, which is the softest most mushy variety he has. I lifted him onto the sofa but he jumped down again and prefers to sit on the floor doing this face. He must be dosed up to his eyeballs, poor guy.

And yes they left the tube in his leg 🙄. I'm OK to take it out myself they say so I'll do that once he lies down.

Poor Kettle.

Poor stoned Kettle...

Oh. My. Gosh! Hello all! I had to start a new name on my laptop as it all went weird on my phone. Sorry been missing so long. Illness took over. Still in the trenches but missed this happy little community too much. How is everyone?

Oh @TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne I just saw! I am so sorry. I do hope you (and Linney and Gizmo) are doing ok.

Oh @Esgaroth his little face! 🤭 It's impossible not to laugh, but do it quietly and preferably in a different room because there will be consequences if he notices...
Hope he feels better soon and your bank balance bounces back quickly.

@LostCats2 how are you doing?

I won't lie, I'm in a lot of pain pretty much all the time. But I'll live 😉
Thank you so much for asking xxx