Nige Thank you for that wisdom! I think, however, that our situations are very different. I feel terrible saying this to you, but I have never felt any pain at any time. So despite the balance issues, I haven’t needed the support of a perching stool as I have been able to stand even on exit from hospital. Yes, I have been tired, but it hasn’t been because of having to stand. Today I got a lot of fatigue when denuding the Christmas tree - there was too much stretching and looking and thinking for me. So I gave the perching stool back some months ago, although I did use one maybe twice in hospital for safety reasons to make bans on toast.
Rather, my issue is the tremor in the right arm, that combined with little training in cookery skills. To my shame I have relied almost exclusively on my wife and was quite lazy. I can boil an egg and make porridge well, but that represents most of my achievements. Otherwise the floors and kitchen surfaces get it! That said, I make live yoghurt and other fermented foods for my health and, apart from the stroke itself, have been healthy since well before the pandemic.
Another issue is that our diets are very different. I appear to have some form of metabolic syndrome and for some years even prior to the stroke hardly ever went for carbohydrates. At that time I ate healthily but far far too much, and almost no breads or starchy vegetables. Even now I use what I believe to be 1200 Kcals per day, and it really is enough for me. Maybe this will increase if I can get back on the bike again and I have just got the turbotrainer ready for action tomorrow.
But I greatly appreciate the concern and also the ideas. The slow cooker has been stashed away for a while and needs to come out again. I do like sweet potatoes!
Now to lose the few pounds that I put on over Christmas.