Dear LPG,

We all have to eat, right? But our modern lives are so often all about time saving, and time is something that many pensioners have had much too much of since the beginning of Covid-19.

Something I think that we always had time for when I was younger was enjoying a meal.  I have to say that, for me, there was something special about making a meal for the family although even that is changing.  It is said that making a meal is a bit of a waste of time because, even if you enjoy cooking, the fall out is always a load of dirty dishes and that is as true no matter how many or few people you are cooking for.  You then eat it which can be pleasurable, although many of us do that in much too much of a hurry, or while multitasking these days because of some important other thing that we need to do.  And after all that, someone must wash up and sort the kitchen out ready for the next meal, which is a thankless job regardless of whether you wash up or put the dishes in a dish washer. 

If you are like me there is now only you to cook for and so I buy more TV dinners and, because the pleasure came with having someone to eat it with, there are a lot more left overs these days. 

I said all this to a friend I was talking to on the phone recently and we agreed that we cannot wait for the lunch clubs to open up again. It was then that I mentioned something that has made my meals more interesting over the past year. I really have to thank JE and LPG for an article I found on your pages a while ago now (►►►) when eating alone I felt as if it would never end. I know that the end of coronavirus is now a little closer, but that conversation started another weekly online dinner date which I think is helping my friend and me too.  There is also something special about having to be ready to do something at a specific time on a specific day again.

I ask that LPG highlights the article again because I know that my twice weekly video calling dinner meetings have made a big difference to me and adding a third day with another of my friends has reduced the amount of left-overs on both our plates.

AP, Bellingham