Tag: covid-19

The Numbers

288 new deaths bringing the total to 28,734.

The News

The have announced the pilot of an official contact tracing app in underway on the Isle of Wight. All part of the build up to the track and trace strategy that will make up part of the next phase of the “War on Covid”.

However, John Van Tam said during his briefing that the rate of new infections is still to high to consider ending the lockdown. The PM is going to update us in this respect on Sunday

The New Way of Life

Still haven’t got my mojo back. Can’t really comment on other people’s moods in case they read this, but I suspect I am not alone. Indeed. a few friends have confessed to feeling a bit down over the past couple of days.

I’m even finding it hard to motivate myself to write this blog.

I read an article in The Huffington Post about the reasons for our fluctuating emotions during the crisis and some tips for how to keep going when you feel down. They describe “dip days” as days when it all gets too much. Our longing for normality overwhelming us and causing sadness, loneliness, anger, boredom, fatigue, lack of motivation and anxiety and depression.

I can confirm that I have experienced all of these emotions and this journal is a testament to that.

Apparently, we have all experienced a significant and unexpected shock and, now that the initial shock and novelty of the whole thing has passed, we are having to knuckle down and get on with it and it is completely normal to have good days and bad days.

Oh well, at least I’m normal.

Its been hard to motivate myself these last two days, but I baked a Turkish Yoghurt Cake, we went on another long walk and we had a quiz in the evening with one of M’s coaching friends. I cooked Bajan spiced salmon with Rice n’ Peas and Avocado Salad for dinner.

I’ve been trying to write my homework for the next writers group meeting on the 15th, but I just can’t seem to get going on it!

 

 

The Numbers

“Only” 315 new deaths yesterday. Again, it is the weekend so the figure is lower than the real numbers, but still definitely declining.

The News

Honestly, there wasn’t any new news today! All the talk now is about getting back to normal and how this might be possible.

The New Way of Life

I think this has been my worst day today. All the talk is of things getting back to some semblance of normality, but I just can’t see how that can happen for us.

M can’t take the risk of being exposed to the virus and who knows when that will be available, if ever. I made the mistake of reading an article by a senior public health figure in the USA, who was of the opinion that it is highly unlikely that an effective virus will ever be found. Even if , against the odds, a vaccine is found, when will it be available to “Jo Public” like us?

The next best alternative is the “immunity passport” scenario. There is some evidence that the immunity test may be more reliable. Also, talk about people being re-infected is now not thought to be the case. Second positive tests in people who had previously had the virus, are now thought to be due to infected dead cells in their lungs or something.

So, people who are immune can be put on some sort of register. There has even been talk of facial recognition etc. That’s great for them. And it could be could for us in terms of being able to mix with people who are immune. I could get my hair cut by an immune hairdresser, and we could safely receive healthcare from immune nurses and doctors.

But, and it’s a massive BUT, what if you can’t get an immunity passport? What if you can never take the risk of getting the disease? Would you become a second class citizen in some dystopian future? Unable to work, unable to go out to socialise, unable to travel?

I’ve also been wondering if we could already be immune and don’t know it. All this would be for nothing! We are hearing anecdotes about people in Europe who have had the virus way back in December. I think it was in France, that they are re-testing blood samples from people hospitalised with pneumonia in December and some of them are showing up positive.

I had a virus in the first week of March, and M felt really rough while he was having his treatment in February and March. I put it down to the treatment, but he is so much better now that I have found myself wondering if even he may have had it. Although he has bronchiectasis, he is a strong man. Maybe he has already fought it off!

I am so fed up of doing the same things every single day with no real prospect of doing anything different for the foreseeable future. I crave variety. The things that M and I enjoy the most in life are travel, sport, entertaining friends and family, eating out, going to the cinema or the theatre and seeing our children and grandchildren.

Without exception, all of that has been stripped away.

I have no idea when I’ll ever be able to have a cuddle with my granddaughter again. It’s killing me.

We have always enjoyed travel and our lives are geared around that in particular. We haven’t chosen to spend our money on a big house and garden, fancy cars, expensive clothes and accessories. Most of our disposable income is spent on holidays and weekends away. We have missed two trips as a result of the virus. One to Athens and one to Marseille.

We are due to go to Barbados next April for 6 months. We’ve aready booked the house. Now, even that, is beginning to look doubtful. It is predicted that air travel might become prohibitively expensive in the future. Will the property still be available? What will happen to the island as a result of the impact on tourism? Will we be allowed to travel if we don’t have immunity? Hundreds of questions like this keep rolling through my mind.

To some extent, it was that that was keeping us going through this. The prospect of a prize at the end. Something to look forward to. Take that away, along with everything else that is important to us, and the future feels pretty bleak.

Honestly, it’s incredibly depressing and I’m finding it really difficult to be thankful for what we do have and to stay positive at this point in time.

I’m sorry for the negativity. I’m well aware that I’m being selfish and that there are many, many people way worse off than us. I’m just being brutally honest about how I’m feeling right now.

Hopefully, I’ll get my mojo back in a day or two.

On  more positive note, we had a long FaceTime with our son in Sweden in the morning, my sauce was a hit at the birthday celebration and we enjoyed some ourselves with a BBQ’d steak for dinner, and we had a lovely long walk in the afternoon.

 

 

 

The Numbers

621 new deaths bringing the total to 28,131.

The News

PM wants the country back to work by the end of May.

He has named his baby Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas. The Nicholas is a tribute to two of the doctors that looked after him in hospital.

The briefing was all about helping people who are suffering from domestic abuse during the lockdown.

The New Way of Life

Lazy morning. Read and made a few phone calls.

I started the sauce for my daughter. Its a very sticky, sweet and sour sauce. I thought I’d turned it off when we went pour for our bike ride the whole house was full of smoke. Instead of turning it off I’d turned it up! Nearly burned the house down.

I had to go round to Tesco and buy some of the ingredients all over again. It’s a 3 hour process. Have started it all over again and I’m about half way though now.

Lazy Saturday night though still, pizza and shit TV!

Short one as I’ve done one today already!

The Numbers

Now that deaths in the community and care homes are being included the death rate seems higher again, but the government has confirmed that we are past the peak.

There were 739 new deaths yesterday, bringing the total to 27,510. We have the second highest new deaths in 24 hours after the USA and the third highest total deaths after only Italy and the USA. Our rate per million is 405, after Italy at 467 and Spain at 531. Belgium actually has the highest deaths per million over all at 665. The USA rate per million is 199, but New York has been more badly hit than other states and is more comparable to Europe. With a population of around 20 million and a total death number of around 17,000 their death rate per million is around 850!

Brazil is creeping up to the top of the table with 509 in 24 hours, however they are a very big country!

We are told that the virus is starting to hit Sub-Saharan Africa now, I don’t suppose we’ll ever get a clear picture of the numbers of people affected in this part of the world.

The News

All the talk is about ending lockdown now. When will it start? How will it happen.

It sounds as though it’s going to be in small staged steps. Opening up a sector at a time, and then watching the impact on R using testing and contact tracing, always ready to pull back if necessary. Facemasks and temperature checks are all being cited as possible features of the new world outside lockdown, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

No-one has said anything about what this will look like for the 1.5 million extremely vulnerable who are currently “shielding” for 12 weeks, including M. It’s all gone very quiet around that group. When anyone is asked they fudge the question and talk vaguely about vaccines.

The government have stated that five tests are going to be the key to unlocking lockdown. These are:

1. Making sure the NHS can cope
“We must protect the NHS’ ability to cope. We must be confident we are able to provide sufficient critical care and specialist treatment right across the UK.”

2. A ‘sustained and consistent’ fall in daily death rate
“We need to see a sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rate from coronavirus so we can be confident we have moved beyond the peak.”

3. The rate of infection is decreasing
“We need to have reliable data from SAGE showing that the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels across the board.”

4. We have enough tests and protective equipment
“We need to be confident that the range of operational challenges including testing capacity and PPE are in hand with supply able to meet future demand.”

5. Making sure we don’t have a second peak                                                                             “We need to be confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelm the NHS.”

The government say they hit their target of delivering 100,000 tests a day. It appears to have involved a bit of jiggery pokery like including tests that have been posted out to people, whether or not they have been used and returned.

Oh, and Trump is saying the he has seen evidence that the Chinese created the virus as a bio-weapon. Funnily enough, the Chinese are saying it was created in an American laboratory. Ho hum.

The New Way of Life

Yesterday was the first day I haven’t written this blog. I’m actually writing Friday’s post on Saturday morning!

I can’t remember what we did Thursday evening. I suspect we ate dinner and watched TV, as that’s what we do every night in the Time of Covid. We did have “the clap” and there were loads more people out again. I wonder if its something to with the fact that the weather has changed? Maybe people were enjoying the sunshine so much last week that they just forgot.

Yesterday was a really busy day! I don’t think I actually stopped all day. I got up early (well 9am – early for me in the Time of Covid) and headed down to the butchers to pick up M’s humongous meat order. I was half-way through sanitising that and bagging it up for the freezer when my equally humungous Ocado delivery arrived an hour early.

It took me the rest of the morning to clean it all and pack it all away! I then decided to have a cleaning blitz in the kitchen area.

I then started cooking for our Friday night curry. This week it was Saag Paneer, Dal (the last portion of the Cauliflower Dal from the freezer), Goan Crab Curry and rice. I also made a Coriander Chutney by blitzing lots of fresh conrinader with chilli, garlic, ginger and lemon juice.

Had a sad moment when our daughter popped round to drop of some ingredients. It’s her partners birthday on Sunday. She wants me to make a sauce for his birthday meal. She brought our little granddaughter with her. She was so excited to see me again, but this time she tried to run straight into the house. When her mother stopped her she was heartbroken. It was awful. I wonder when she’ll ever be able to come into our house again. I wonder when I’ll be able to give her a kiss and a cuddle again. I suspect its going to be a long time.

It’s different for us. Even when social distancing is relaxed for others, I don’t think we’ll be able to have physical contact except possibly with people who we know have been isolating as strictly as us. Several of our children are still working and therefore mixing directly, and indirectly, with lots of other people who we don’t know. We just can’t take the risk. It would just make all the sacrifices we are making now, completely pointless.

I only just finished cooking around 6pm and after we’d eaten it was time for the quiz. Another boozy night on House Party and we won again!

The weather seems a bit better again today. We should be able to get out on our bike ride.

 

 

 

 

The Numbers

We have now reached 26,771 deaths. We have the third highest death rate in the world. However, the good news is that we are officially past the peak.

The News

The government is beginning to think about exiting lockdown. It’s all about the R number now. Little steps to see if we can keep it below 1. Looks like we will be asked to wear masks when we all start venturing out again.

South Korea has reported that they have beaten the virus – for the moment anyway. The big fear is around a second wave – possibly more lethal than the first. Remember the Spanich Flu?

Captain Tom was 100 today. He’s raised over £30 million for the NHS.

The New Way of Life

It wasn’t five-spice last night. I think I may have had an olfactory hallucination. Maybe I am losing my mind! It was still really nice though.

We watched an episode of Our Girl and last Saturday’s BGT last night. Exciting times!

It’s been a funny old day today.  Pouring rain pretty much all day. And cold, it felt so cold I had to turn the heating back on. Isolation is so much easier in the sunshine!

I had a walk round to drop in a prescription for M’s antihistamines. He thought he was getting hay fever when the weather was good but it will probably go away again, along with the sun.

Rape is usually a good predictor of his hay fever. We cycle through some rape fields on our bike ride. When we started it was still green and only 6 to 8 inches tall. Now, it sin full bloom and looks about waist height. I’ll take a picture next time we’re out.

We couldn’t cycle today. It was too wet. I missed my bike ride yesterday as I was sleeping instead. So today, I did and hour on the exercise bike while I watched an episode of the Great British Menu as a distraction from the boredom. I did 18.6 km and challenged M to see how many he could do in an hour. I think he did 21 or 22. I’ve forgotten.

I answered an emergency call from my daughter and took a phone charger over for her to borrow, as hers had broken. I dropped in on her doorstep then stepped away whetn she came out to get it. My little granddaughter was so excited to see me. I so want to give her a cuddle! We had a chat through their dining room window for a while until the rain forced me back into the car.

It was weird being out. I’ve almost forgotten how to drive! I took the long way home just for the hell of it! I drove down Shirley High Street to see what was going on! Nothing! Saying that, it was busier than I expected. Quite a few cars. Banks and some takeaway food shops seemed to be open. Aldo looked especially busy wit very little sign of social distancing going on between the crowds of people around the entrance. I shan’t be going there any time soon.

The weather made me crave a lazy afternoon snuggled up on the sofa watching TV so thats what I did.

I made a bake with all my leftover vegetables for dinner; potato, tomato, red pepper and aubergine with feta cheese and porcini mushrooms. It’s in the oven now, bubbling away while M’s has a bath.

 

The Numbers

Numbers are up on yesterday. As expected we are still catching up with the weekend. The total numbers of deaths is now 26,097 as community and care home deaths have been included for the first time. It seems that we are still in the middle of the peak and not coming down the other side after all. It’s relentless.

More people n London have died of coronavirus than died in The Blitz.

More people have died in the USA than died in the Vietnam War.

The News

Boris Johnson, and his fiancé Carrie Symonds, have announced the birth of a baby boy. It seems earlier than expected but this has not been confirmed. I’m not a fan of the man but 2020 is turning out to be quite a year for him!

A massive asteroid has whizzed past the earth today. It got as close as 3.9 million miles away which, in space terms, qualifies as a near miss.

The News

Yesterday evening we watched more Simon Reeve in the Mediterranean after dinner.  M had a busy day working on his “Resilience” project and didn’t make time for his exercise during the day, so he did it upstairs later on in the evening and I watched some TV on my own downstairs. I caught up with the end of a BBC Production of Dracula. It was screened around Christmas but I never watched the last episode.

Spending the evening alone seemed to give me too much time to think and I’ll admit to having had a little wobble. It all seemed to catch up with me and I felt a bit sad and emotional. I think it was probably a good thing as it got it out of my system and I didn’t have any tiger dreams last night.

Generally, I think we are all getting very numb to the whole situation. When I think back to 7 weeks ago it was all so shocking and strange. Now it really has become the new normal never to go out anywhere other than for exercise and the odd bit of grocery shopping (and these are few and far between for us), to have minimal face to face contact and zero no physical contact with friends and family and to watch the news ever day to see if the number of people who have died overnight has fallen to just a few hundred instead on almost 1000.

I probably didn’t dream last night because I didn’t manage to sleep much again. I woke around three and couldn’t get back to sleep. Head buzzing with lots of questions and concerns. When is it all going to end? When will M and I be able to resume some aspects of our life and how will that happen. How can I avoid putting M (and myself for that matter) at risk when I attend my hospital appointment in June?

I have decided to attend the appointment because if I push it back further I wont be able to get my gallstones sorted out in time for our trip to Barbados next April (assuming we will soon be going but that’s  just another thing to wonder about). I’m going to have to self-isolate from him for 7 days after I come home. We’ll have to work that one out very carefully!

M has an appointment next week to see an immunologist. His consultant thinks that some of his problems with persistent weird and wonderful infections could be due to some sort of immune deficiency. There is no way he’ll be setting foot in a hospital next week, so he rang up to postpone or arrange a telephone consultation instead. They’re going to get back to him.

To be fair, it’s not urgent at the moment as he is better than he has been for the past 2 years! He’s infection free, feels great and is hardly coughing at all compared to a few weeks ago. Sometimes, you would look at him and think there was nothing wrong with him. It’s brilliant!

Today, I have written my critiques of my three fellow writers last “homeworks”. That took most of the morning and then I slept in the afternoon trying to catch up from last night.

It’s 7pm as I write this and I’m off to have dinner. I can smell M cooking from up in the bedroom, Smells of aniseed! Five spice? I wonder what he’s making. I thinks it pork of some kind.

The Numbers

Yesterdays new deaths were 360 but today they are back up again to 633. There is always a delay in reporting after the weekend. But, things are moving in the right direction. Globally, there have now been over 3 million confirmed cases and over 200,000 reported deaths.

They have also reported that there have been 4343 Covid deaths in care homes across the country since Easter, in addition to those that have already been reported in hospitals.

The News

Today the country held a minute’s silence at 11am to remember all the key workers who have died during the crisis.

They are still talking about how they are increasing testing capacity even though we are way below their target of 100,000 a day, and we still have some of the lowest testing rates compared to other countries.

There are reports of a dangerous new, Covid related, inflammatory syndrome that is affecting children. There is still so much we don’t know about this virus.

The New Way of Life

The weather has changed. We woke up to rain this morning and it has rained all day.

Last night, after dinner, we watched a couple of episodes of Mediterranean with Simon Reeve and then the latest on of Killing Eve. I’m beginning to tire of our evening routine; cook, eat and watch TV. I’d love to go out for a drink, a meal or to the cinema, even a takeaway would make a change from cooking and washing up every night. Of course we can’t. M suggested maybe playing a game instead. It’s not something we’ve ever really done together much, but maybe we should give it a try.

Today I’ve done some more work for the business. I’ve baked some coconut bread and finished editing Chapter 4 of Wait for Me! At last! Only another 11 to go.

M has heard that the funeral of his cousin in New York will take place via Zoon in a few days time. It’s being streamed on Zoom so that mourners can take part during lockdown in New York, but ironically, it has worked for M in that he will be able to attend whereas he would probably not have been able to travel to New York for it in normal circumstances. There again, she would not have died in normal circumstances.

Dreams in the Time of Covid

I’ve been having really vivid dreams over the past few weeks.

Normally, I don’t remember my dreams at all.

Last night I dreamt that we had decided to take a chance and have a Chinese takeaway. When we got there we were shown along some secret passageways (probably prompted by a snippet from the Simon Reeve programme on secret Mafia safe houses) to an underground, illegal restaurant. It was heaving with people. We couldn’t find anywhere to sit and people were constantly getting too close to M and even touching him. I was frantic.

In another one, I was at the hospital where my granddaughter was being examined in A&E for symptoms of the new illness that is affecting children (this time probably prompted by my daughter telling me she had a rash and fever a few weeks ago and wondering if she had had it). I was cuddling her and kissing her before I suddenly realised I shouldn’t be doing that and was anxiously trying to work out what I could do, whether it would be ok just to shower and wash my clothes when I got home, or whether I would need to  go and stay somewhere else for a while, to avoid passing on the infection to M.

In both dreams, there was tiger lurking about in the background. Passing through the crowds in the restaurant, moving past doorways in the hospital, always just slipping in and out of view, but adding to my fear and anxiety.

I used to dream about tigers a lot during another uncertain period of my life. After I divorced my first husband, I moved house and started a new job, all in quick succession. Tigers featured in my dreams for many months around this time. They only stopped when I finally confronted the tiger in a dream. It didn’t bite me. It just closed its mouth around my outstretched hand and pressed its teeth against my skin. It didn’t draw blood or even hurt me. I never dreamt of tigers again (until now). It was as if I had exorcised it by being brave enough to confront it! Weird!

 

The Numbers

It’s only 1.30pm and today’s numbers haven’t been announced yet. If they come through as I’m writing this I’ll add them at the end.

The News

There is a bit of anxiety that we are at a key stage right now. The rate of new infections is slowing but it is not slow enough to justify ending the lockdown. If people start to relax there is a real danger that a second wave could hit which could be just as bad, if not worse, than the first.

Boris Johnson has returned to work today and is reinforcing this message. He really seems to be very focused on the health of the population and saving lives, as opposed to rescuing the economy, unlike other government ministers.

Germany has followed the USA’s lead and made the wearing of masks mandatory. We don’t seem to have decided whether or not this is a good idea.

New Zealand have announced that they have currently eliminated the virus and are easing lockdown restrictions.

Italy and Spain have also started to cautiously lift carefully selected small restrictions.

Furloughed workers have been asked to consider taking work as fruit pickers due to a shortage of migrant labour as a result of the virus. Good luck with that!

The New Way of Life

We watched a lovely film last night on the BBC iPlayer; Victoria and Abdul. Would definitely recommend.

Anyway, its Monday morning, first day of week 7. Today we’ve been thinking about the state of our brand new business, Key Ways Consulting, in The Time of Covid.

Our work has all but dried up. We still have some outgoings but currently have no income so we needed to have a think about what to do. Don’t get me wrong, we’re ok at the moment, but we just need to think ahead a little bit.

So, I’ve shared our Mindfulness post on social media this morning, to remind people that we are still here and still working.

We’ve also decided to run an Insights Discovery Personal Effectiveness (Virtual) Seminar in May, and I’ve put together a little promotional piece on that. When K has put it on the website, I’ll share that on social media too. Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

The Numbers

438 new deaths today. Definitely seeing a slow decline now.

The government figures show a slight increase in cars on the road and this is definitely the case in our cycling experience.

The News

The Prime Minister is returning to work tomorrow.

The New Way of Life

Last night’s birthday surprise for M went well! A week or so ago he said that the thing he missed most since the lockdown, was sitting outside watching live rugby. We have season tickets for Wasps. This all started only half way through the season, which has now been postponed.

So, I tried to recreate a rugby stadium in our back garden. I created a screen by clipping a sheet to the fence and projected a game from You Tube. I picked arguably the greatest game of rugby ever played; Australia versus New Zealand from the Tri-Nations series in 2000.  I served pie, chips and beans, washed down with Purity Ubu. It was fun and we both enjoyed it. It got very nippy around 9pm but we snuggled up under our fleecy blankets. The evening was made even more special with a great view of Venus in the sky above us.

Today, we went for a bike ride in the morning and I did some braised lamb shanks with mashed potato for Sunday Lunch. It was another glorious day weather wise, but the forecast for the next week is not so good.

I’m wondering how long I should keep writing this? It’s a long slow process and we are only half way through. There is very rarely any new or interesting news to report, and I’m sure our humdrum lockdown lives do not make very interesting reading.

I’ve decided that I’m going to continue for the 12 weeks that M and I kn0w we are definitely going to be in isolation. We enter week 7 tomorrow. After, that I may just post important or interesting updates.

The Numbers

There were a total of 738 new deaths yesterday. Our rate is the highest in Europe now and we are rocketing towards the 20,000 mark. Turkey has appeared in the highest ranked countries now and over 50,000 people have died in the USA.

Over 100 UK  healthcare workers have died.

The News

The government offered home testing to any keyworker and their families with symptoms yesterday. The web-site was overwhelmed with demand and had to be closed after the first hour.

A vaccine being developed in Oxford, has moved into the human healthy volunteer testing phase. Fingers crossed its effective and is available as soon as possible.

Most of the conversation now is about how and when lockdown will end. I’m still worried that when it starts to be relaxed for the general population we will be forgotten. We are half way through our 12 weeks but what will happen after that? Nothing has been said about what the exit strategy will look like for the 1.5 million extremely vulnerable people that have been told to stay at home in strict isolation for their own protection.

The New Way of Life

It was quiz night last night. We nearly won again but lost it in the last round, which was on Disney movies. I can’t stand Disney. I think it’s down to overexposure to sickly sweet princesses, talking and singing animals and inanimate objects, when my kids were little.

We had good fun though, got a bit tipsy and fell into bed around midnight. We put some music on in the bedroom for a while but had to wake up to turn it off about 2am.

It’s M’s birthday today! He’s 63! Last year we celebrated in the Outer Hebrides, the year before in Mauritius, but this year we’ll be in the back garden. I have got a big surprise planned for this evening. I hope it works out and that he enjoys it!

I haven’t been able to get out to the shops (obviously),  but managed to add a few “non-essential” items to my last Ocado delivery. A beard grooming kit to encourage him to enjoy his developing facial hair, a bottle of Baylis and Harding Fuzzy Duck Whiskey bubble bath and a very special bottle of Columbian La Hechicera rum, that has been aged in an old Muscat barrel. I don’t think he’s going to want to taste it any time soon though after our little overindulgence last night!

We had a bit of a lie-in and a lovely long facetime with our son and his wife, and our grandson. Later, on our daughter dropped off an amazing birthday cake that she had constructed out of donuts, and we had a little doorstep chat in the sunshine.

This time she brought our little granddaughter with her. We haven’t seen her since the 15th of March. It was lovely to see her, but it was upsetting not to be able to give her a cuddle or play with her. She’s going to be 2 in May, so it’s all very hard for her to understand. She stayed on the other side of the gate and we stayed in the doorway. At first she rattled the gate a bit and tried to get in, but eventually she seemed to understand. Quite sad … can’t wait to give her a big cuddle!

North Indian Chicken Curry

I love this recipe from Indian Food Made Easy by Anjum Anand. It’s simple but delicious.

You start by heating some oil and frying; 7 cloves, 3 shards of cinnamon and 7 green cardamoms for a minute. I also added a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds at this stage because I love the authenticity that fenugreek adds to a curry. You then add a couple of finely chopped onions and cook them down until they are golden brown.

 

This takes a good 10 to 15 minutes, but it’s important to take the time to do this properly, to develop the flavours of this curry.

When the onions and whole spices are done, add some minced ginger and garlic. I used a good couple of teaspoons of each. Cook again for a minute or so then add the powdered spices and a teaspoon of salt; 1 teaspoon each of turmeric and chilli powder (I added a teaspoon of crushed dried Naga chilies here as we like our curries hot!), and half a teaspoon of coriander. Again, cook for another minute at the most.

Now add your tomatoes. Blitz 4 ripe tomatoes and add them to the pan. I used a can of tomatoes as they were all I had until my next Ocado delivery comes on May 1st.

Now cook it down until all the moisture has evaporated and the oil is starting to separate from the dry masala.

Now add the chicken and stir-fry in the masala until browned. The recipe calls for chicken joints on the bone but I used chopped chicken breast as, again, it was all I had. If you use breast meat, treat it gently so that it doesn’t dry out. I stir fried just to seal the meat and then added water to the pan to reconstitute the masala into a sauce and simmered gently for 30 to 40 minutes.

Add a teaspoon of Garam Masala and (if you’ve got some in The Time of Covid – I didn’t) chopped fresh coriander before serving.

I served it with cauliflower dal, steamed rice, raita and tomato and onion salad.