fashionably blighted

Illness is hugely fashionable here in Wetville this week. Numbers at work were decimated. Almost everyone actually present at work was hoarse or flushed or very pale or otherwisely looking like they were about to go down or should be at home. I croaked a little and took a lot of vitamins.

In the middle of yesterday, the vitamins lost the fight. I sat at my desk at my work as a wave of heavy heat descended over one eye. Not so very good. The first casualty was my patience. After an afternoon of weird one sided increasing croakiness in which I was quite a good mother, I could not be bothered with the sensible option of drinking nettle tea and juicing broccoli leaves and opened the wine bottle instead. Given that I actually cooked dinner on Friday night instead of paying for takeaways and regretting the expenditure very soon afterwards, two glasses of wine were entirely warranted.

Now I am at home instead of on the league sideline, the four year old is so very quiet that no doubt she is doing something she absolutely should not be, and the heavy feeling is over the other eye instead. And my nose.

But. But but but, the world is still a beautiful place. In my garden I have the beginnings of both purple and green broccoli heads. We get one little perfectly formed brown egg each day. Not a huge haul for five chooks, but it serves us right for killing the last lot so damn early.

We have made a start on the care workers exhibition. It was very interesting on Thursday and I only wish I had more time to immerse myself in it. While I was in Blackball, Brighid and I went to the Blackball Salami shop, where they had just finished making saveloys and so Brighid got a warm sav for free. I can remember being four and being given a saveloy for free at the butcher's. I bought zillions of sausages, saveloys, bacon ends, salami ends, black pudding and biersticks.

I bought a dictaphone. Firstly I bought a useless one because the shop assistant assured me it was not useless. But he was wrong and a dictaphone which won't download to a computer is useless. So I returned it and got a refund and took my business down the road to where they sell more expensive dictaphones which actually do as I want them to do and also the shop assistant checked the machine before answering my questions rather than making the answers up. Plus I was offered a discount of $11. Go Ellerys. It is true that we have spent a LOT of money with them over the last almost six years.

What I am going to do with my new dictaphone is to record some interview for the care workers exhibition and to record my Mary K's stories. Mary K is 84 and she tells wonderful stories and I want to preserve them.

This morning I decided a knitting project was in order. It is at the very early stages but when it is done it will be the pinafore below, for one of Brighid's dolls.


I don't have anything else to report because I seem to be at work a great deal at the moment.