Sick as the proverbial

Sorry, just a short-ish post today as I'm sick as a dog. Dammit. Woke up at 3am with horrible catarrh problems and haven't been able to eat or sleep since. There's a hell of a lot of snorting though - so if we decide to have a snorting contest in the Olympics, then I'm a front-runner. I've read all the annuals in the living-room, watched a hell of a lot of television about buying a house - which actually seems to be the same television about house-buying that I watched when I was last sick. Do they have it on a loop? I've taken all the pills and drunk all the Lemsip I can have without exploding and put my towelled head over a basin of hot water and Vick's Vapour Rub. Lordy but I know how to live.

I've also spent most of the morning wearing my dressing gown, a woolly hat and a scarf in an attempt to keep my ears and throat functioning. Thank the Lord nobody called round ... Plus I've been loaded with guilt and protestant trauma about leaving poor Carol at work doing the mentor interviews on her own. I hope she's okay. Though I have managed to do some work remotely so I don't leave the poor boss high and dry for the upcoming meeting on Monday.

The one nice thing is that I did scrape up enough energy to have a very slow bath with rose-scented bath oil at about 1.30pm so at least I feel clean. If exhausted - washing is so tiring, you know. Lordy but I'm even dressed. I suspect that's probably enough exercise for one day though ...

Have also watched the video of Larkrise to Candleford so that was nice too. Tonight, I might even stretch to the emotional energies needed for Who Do You Think You Are? But I'm not counting on it - housing programmes might indeed be my intellectual limit so far.

Oh and I've finished the latest edition of Equinox poetry magazine. I don't think it was quite as sharp as the last edition, though I did enjoy Nicola Daly's Pillow Talk (a charming snapshot of factory life), Thyrza Leyshon's The Red Dress (a model's feelings about the picture she's posing for) and John Younger's Out of True (landscape changes contrasted with emotional ones). All three stood out for me.

Best go and lie down and have some more Lucozade now, I feel. Where would I be without it?

Today's nice things:

1. Lark Rise to Candleford
2. Rose-scented baths
3. Poetry
4. Lucozade.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - keeping the Lucozade factory going in these difficult times ...