My arm tics make it hard for me to prepare meals safely. Before Poppy lived at the castle I used to rely on the microwave and supermarket ready meals to fill me up. While we lived together she used to make delicious dinners for us to share, so in the last couple of years I’ve got used to a much better quality of dinner.

Even though she’s moved down the road, Poppy’s offered to keep helping me out with cooking and she’s going to prepare batches of food to go in the freezer when she comes to support me at night once a week.

She’s not the only one looking out for me. My regular agency carer was concerned by how much salad I was eating, she described it as, ‘Grass!’ This evening she made me an amazing curry with plenty to go in the freezer for later too.

My eating habits were on Fran’s mind this afternoon too. She suggested that on her night at the castle we could prepare a selection of lunches for me to take to work.

In the wake of the recent ‘horse meat scandal’ there’s been a lot of press about the quality of pre-prepared food and ready meals. Thanks to my friends I know exactly what’s in the ready meals I get to enjoy these days – fresh ingredients, and a lot of care.