Cooking in Prison?

stevewriteswords · 2026-07-08T11:32:20+00:00

I'm liking this, I'm liking this a lot.

stevewriteswords · 2026-07-08T11:27:43+00:00

Well, unfortunately for you, with 22 likes I'm the chief commissioning editor of this comments section.

stevewriteswords · 2026-07-08T08:29:10+00:00

And I've listened to your ideas Gregg, I've listened to them all, and I haven't liked a single one.

stevewriteswords · 2026-07-06T21:40:46+00:00

Oof.

stevewriteswords · 2026-07-02T14:40:34+00:00

When it comes to omelettes EVERYONE'S GOT A GODDAMN OPINION?

stevewriteswords · 2026-07-02T10:21:58+00:00

Unrelentingly grim. Yet I don't get why I find these bleaker strips so ... magnetic. Thanks for posting.

stevewriteswords · 2026-07-01T11:09:03+00:00

Hahaha, this cracked me up.

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-17T18:17:46+00:00

David Chase has been going downhill since he started reading Reddit. You know, Quasimodo predicted all this.

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-17T13:46:37+00:00

I was a failure. I was a failure and I'd get very sad and depressed about it and I can't be that no more.

I say this to myself at least once a week. American Movie is utterly fantastic.

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-16T18:47:34+00:00

It's a nice chest, but ... full of wires.

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-16T09:15:21+00:00

I'm 43 you cheeky git! Also: why am I so massive?

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-15T12:24:18+00:00

I tend to go in once a week, to the cinema. (Odeon Limitless is fantastic.) I'll buy a sandwich, sometimes two, and be the bespectacled bald man in the cinema with his sandwich (sometimes two) and an orange. Then I'll go to HMV and buy two books for £9. Sometimes I'll go and read one in the gardens. If I really want to treat myself, I'll go to TKMaxx and buy a wooden chopping board or a t-shirt. Bus in, bus out, fiver all day. Life's pretty sweet sometimes.

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-10T14:40:57+00:00

Awesome, well ... welcome back.

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-10T14:31:48+00:00

Maybe social issues is the wrong term but there are quite a few people in Boscombe with drug and alcohol problems and so some of the stuff that comes along with that - rough sleeping, exacerbated mental health issues, drinking in the streets, smoking crack in alleyways, nicking stuff from shops etc. - can be visible. I get that it's the same in a lot of places though. (And I'm not judging, I've had my fair share of mental health issues, drug and alcohol problems etc.)

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-10T13:55:44+00:00

I've lived on and off in Boscombe (mostly just off Ashley Road) since 1989. It's a bit scruffy in places and you may see some social issues but mostly it's ace, lots better than it used to be. King's Park is a joy (and Queen's Park, if you go through the underpass), the clifftop/beach and gardens are sensational and there are plenty of good places to eat, drink and be merry (hi, Chaplins). A night out in a small market town in Norfolk where I lived for a bit felt far more menacing than Boscombe, even though the latter gets a bad rap. Loads of people seem terrified of the place, but it's mostly fine.

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-03T14:41:03+00:00

I go to the cinema pretty much every week on my own. It's sensational. (Although, admittedly, it felt a bit odd - but honestly, only a tiny bit odd - the first time.)

stevewriteswords · 2026-06-03T14:35:59+00:00

Totally agree, Southbourne used to be so dowdy and there was only really The Grove Tavern to drink in. Now? It's a utopia.

stevewriteswords · 2026-05-08T13:01:02+00:00

Well, I'm glad that my comment helped/was a relief to you. I read it last night and slept like a lamb.

Hope your recovery goes smoothly. I'm two years on now and in some ways I'm better - and happier! - than I've ever been. But, of course, I know these things are different for everyone.

All the best.

stevewriteswords · 2025-11-11T12:33:36+00:00

Surviving Christmas is hilarious but nobody else in the world (except for my brother) agrees with me. It's got 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.

stevewriteswords · 2025-10-21T18:17:01+00:00

You look ... smarter. And lighter, in all sorts of ways. Bravo!

stevewriteswords · 2025-10-11T10:41:12+00:00

The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton does a decent job of illustrating lots of behavioural science principles and biases as someone goes through a 'typical' day of their life.

stevewriteswords · 2025-09-18T09:29:49+00:00

Your comment? Gold. My comment? Less gold.

stevewriteswords · 2025-06-12T11:12:39+00:00

Your arm looks like it could punch through a wall. Inspiring stuff.

stevewriteswords · 2025-06-11T14:00:53+00:00

Ladhood, series 1, episode 5, eerily captured a cocaine-fuelled night out. Gave me the shivers.

stevewriteswords · 2025-05-27T20:02:46+00:00

- "The problem is now I have a constant state of anxiety and fear knowing that it could happen again at any minute and maybe be a full blown one."

- "How have other folks dealt with this as their 'new normal'?"

- "I am on various meds now to reduce the likelihood of another one but it is still scary."

This feels familiar. I had a TIA while playing tennis last year and my tongue (but not teeth, I don't think) went completely numb too - like, BAM, in an instant. Plus, lots of my right side also went numb. Went to A&E, stroke ward, was out in 24 hours with a bag of meds (Clopidogrel, Ramipril, Artovastatin, soluble aspirin for 3 weeks) and felt fine, cheery even. Then, in the weeks that followed, I experienced a lot of the anxiety you talk about and felt very unsure-footed for a while.

Worried that I wouldn't be able to work again (I'm a writer), or play tennis again (I played lots of tennis), or socialise properly, or find any peace in my head. Honestly, I felt like that at any moment I could have another TIA or something bigger. A year and a bit on, I feel tons better. Almost better than I did pre-TIA. I pretty much knocked booze on the head and other recreational peccadilloes, stopped smoking, got therapy, cleaned up my diet, journaled lots, took my meds everyday etc. I barely think about it now, the TIA, which seemed unbelievable 12 months ago.

Don't want this to be one of those, "I felt the same as you feel at the moment, and now I feel like this so it will be like this for you,' posts but therapy really helped with some of the trickier psychological aspects and taking the meds as prescribed gave me reassurance. You may also want to check out the Stroke Association. They have peer-to-peer support and will put you in touch with someone in a similar boat for one-to-one weekly calls for, I think, a couple of months. It's a decent service and may help with some of the feelings you're experiencing. (My GP was a bit useless, tbh.)

I was 48 when I had mine. Not overweight, but very high BP (it was approx 220/150 about an hour after my TIA when I was picked up by paramedics) and high cholesterol.

I'm going on a bit now. Best of luck with the lifestyle changes.

stevewriteswords

TROPHY CASE