@eth, sounds really yummy. I wish I was closer to enjoy the fruits of your labour, hehe. My cooking has not progressed much since the last round of attempts. But these days I am more likely to 'cook' sandwiches, toasties and occasional freshly blended fruit and veg smoothies (though I haven't done one of them for a little while now too). The latter rely on me getting out with my shopping trolley and on the bus to the local shopping mall for supplies. That's the stumbling block mainly. But at least I am contributing a little more on a regular basis to household eating habits, though my companion still does most of the shopping and cooking. We also regularly have take-away with our closest friend around the corner for dinner. Not ideal, but there it is for now.
Yes, there are two friends who have threatened suicide in the past week. One I feel better able to help than the other, partly because I am much closer to the first. That really is a 'warts and all' kind of friendship that has been consistently close for about 15 years now. With her, it's painful, but my heart is really in supporting her. With the other friend, she gets very drunk and rings then, when she is more aggressive and edgy and histrionic. Last night she asked me to score drugs for her. Even though I am still not completely clean of the green, there is no way I would help someone else into that same struggle, which has not been an issue to her up to now. I think she really needs to be in hospital as she has not been eating at all either. Her mother is coming to stay with her today and she is going to detox in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this may help things.
How disheartening that J moved on to someone new so quickly. Sounds like he was more dependent on female companionship than he might have liked to appear with you. It sounded like an uneven kind of relationship in some ways. I hope you are better off without him over the long haul, though I know there would be many things you miss about your time together.