Last night was my weekly DBT group session. I went to bed around 8:00pm so I could get some sleep before the session began at 1:30am. However, I forgot that SF is only 7 hours behind at the moment, because Europe ended daily savings time last weekend. Thankfully my alarm was set for 12:30am, and as soon as I woke up I realised the session was already underway. I text one of the facilitators to let them know I’ll be signing on ASAP, throw on some clothes, turn on the living room lights, close the blinds, and launch Zoom on my laptop. The facilitators are still checking in with each of the group members, so I haven’t missed much. I’m also glad that I’ll be able to get back to sleep an hour earlier, although after the session I’m still wide awake so I end up watching the PBS NewsHour before heading to bed.
My morning routine is the same as usual. After breakfast I decide to spend some time on my personal finances. Since it’s the end of the month, I need to pay some bills, including my COBRA insurance premium, credit cards, etc. I also become inspired to dust off an old financial tracking spreadsheet I had put together awhile back so that I can start tracking my money more closely. My finances have been more or less in free-fall over the last five years, and with the sale of the SF house behind me, I’m resolved to be more on top of things. Plus, I know that I can’t keep burning through savings forever, so keeping track of my finances will be motivation for me to find work. I’ve started to track job postings on Indeed via email alerts, and there have been some that look interesting but they’re in the private sector. Before I apply to anything, I need to dust off my LinkedIn profile and adapt my resume accordingly.
It’s already early afternoon by the time I finish with my finances. I have another SuperValu grocery delivery scheduled for my usual Friday morning 10:30-12:30 slot, and there’s still lots of food left in the fridge from last week. The garbage/rubbish bin is also becoming odorous due to the veggie scraps from the soup I made last weekend, so I’m glad that today is trash day. I pick through a bagged caesar salad to discard some wilted leaves and heat up a pre-made potato ginger soup for lunch, along with some toast since I don’t have any soda bread left. There are still all the ingredients for saag paneer, which I’m planning on having tomorrow with a friend who’s coming for dinner. I decide to make it ahead of time today, since it’s a somewhat involved and time-consuming recipe plus I can throw other food scraps from making it in the rubbish bag going out tonight.
I listen to RTÉ News radio as I’m cooking. There’s a call-in talk show where the topic is about certain Catholic church priests who have compared the Irish government to the British Black & Tans and Redcoats for applying the COVID lockdown restrictions on religious services. There’s at least one priest who has called in, and several supportive parishioners who feel that the government is overstepping their bounds by restricting their right to worship. At the same time, the host is calling them out about comparing the current government’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID to the violent repression of the Irish population by the British government. The year 2020, in fact, marks 100 years since the Black & Tans were recruited to reinforce the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), the British police force that had been present in Ireland since 1822. The Black & Tans were composed mostly of retired British military veterans from World War I and other campaigns, although there were some Irish-born recruits as well. The Black and Tans gained a reputation for police brutality and became notorious for reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian property, including extrajudicial killings, arson and looting. Their actions further swayed Irish public opinion against British rule; their actions incited condemnation in Britain as well (for further background see this Wikipedia article). I’m sure there could be some parallels drawn between the brutality of the Black and Tans and the violence against African Americans that has fueled the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S.
Since I haven’t left the apartment today, I figure why not share some step-by-step photos of the saag paneer recipe, prefaced by a GIF of a Guinness I poured to go with my pre-made Irish beef dinner just for the heck of it.
STEP 1 — Cut paneer cheese into cubes, coat with cayenne pepper, turmeric and cooking oil, then brown:
STEP 2 — Cook down the spinach, drain/press water out, puree in food processor (which in my case, is an attachment to the hand blender I recently purchased):
STEP 4 — Although not necessary, I decided to make ghee using a microwave shortcut (and I set aside the brown bits to use another time):
*FINALLY* All the ingredients are ready!
