The ME/CFS Society of NSW Inc.

By Vicki Bailey

I have never been a good cook. In fact, I used to describe my cooking to friends as being very pedestrian, and would beg them for their delicious sounding recipes which sounded simple, but would never turn out quite right in my kitchen. I used to make a big effort with the kids’ birthday cakes (thank you Women’s Weekly), and sometimes they’d turn out all right. Other times there was a lot of cheating going on with trying to stick bits back where they should be and cover the lot with jazzy icing.

Icing—now there was a constant source of amusement for the whole family. I never could get the required ratio of liquid to icing sugar quite right, and the piece de resistance was the time the icing was flowing beautifully right off the cake like Niagara Falls, all over the platter, proceeding off the raised edge of the platter and thence all over the bench top. My family thought it was hysterical, and in between paroxysms of laughter, took photographs for the record to make me feel even more encouraged by my ability to provide them with side-splitting entertainment in the kitchen.

You see, I have never been able to understand people who enjoy cooking. To me eating is a bit of a nuisance, but a necessity for survival, not that I don’t enjoy a good meal (so long as someone else has prepared it), but I think it would be so much easier if we didn’t have to eat. Just think of all that washing up not needing doing, people could forget about food allergies and intolerances, and how much time there would be for other things. But I digress.

The whole point of this little diatribe is that although it has created more work for my long suffering family, in my CFS state, I can no longer cook. Since I can barely stand for long enough to peel a carrot, they have been saved from my culinary efforts for the last nine years, and although they have never said so, are probably very relieved. This has had the added benefit of them having to develop their own skills in the kitchen, which are definitely an improvement on mine, so everybody wins.

Bon appetit!