I never feel so incompetent as when I am trying to log in to a seldom used program - should I say app? Passwords proliferate and get more elaborate and complex as we go along. I can't stand it. I freeze, I can't remember, I lose it. It seems so much easier to admit I forgot my password and then they give me a new one but then I have to remember it. My bank made me change mine after years and years and then IT didn't remember - I'm not joking. I went for several weeks changing constantly because it wouldn't co-operate. I finally phoned and got fixed up but it won't copy in one place. Never mind.

The reason I've been so stressed is that I've been trying to fill out all the forms for Visas to only three of the countries I'll be going to next year. (The cruise people are looking after the other 75.) Lots of passwords, plus my passport, plus dates. Some of them want year, month and date; others want date, month and year. And all the way along you get warned about terrible consequences if you make an error or lie. I wouldn't dream of lying, of course, but by the end of this afternoon, at the end of this interminable, stressful week, actually, I was even spelling my name incorrectly. Now I have to go to a copy shop and make lots of duplicates of everything I've done.

I HATE paperwork.

I don't want to talk about it any more. I'll think of something.

Oh, BTW, thank you to the commenter who liked my who-am-I? blog. That was very nice of you. I'm always so surprised when someone reads my blogs. I feel as if I've popped a thought into a remote mailbox, never to be picked up or noticed or read. I think I have about four readers now, not all at once, and not regular, but it's comforting to think of them - you. I want to say, keep up the good work, but I'm the one who has to keep up the good work. No problem because I know the password.

I'm having a very bad time with several stressful things, so I'm not going to talk about them. Instead, I'll talk about food . I had some leftover, lightly steamed broccoli and you know I hate to throw away food, so I made a broccoli-apple salad. The nice thing about cooking with leftovers is that you never have to measure anything, you just taste it till it seems right. So - take some cut up broccoli, and if it's too big and you have a little Cuisinart chopper/grinder, you could give it a whirl. Chop up a seeded, but not peeled, apple and add to the broccoli in a bowl large enough to accommodate some other things as they occur or appeal to you, beginning with a little red onion ((I heated it a bit in the microwave so it wouldn't be too strong). So then I dumped in some raisins and walnuts (chopped a bit), and some apple cider vinegar. It seemed a little too acid so I stirred in some liquid (melted) honey and then some low-fat mayo and then tasted it again. It was okay, but too much for me, so I took a bowl of it to my next-door neighbour and he invited me in for a glass of white wine and we had a talk and I told him about my stress. So you see. Good leftovers make good neighbours.

And reduce stress.