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Intermission.

And here we are in the depths of winter - and the coldest snap for fourteen years - and immersing ourselves in stews and soups; and toasted sandwiches the size of doorstops, with cheese melting out onto the plate; and porridge with honey in the morning and raisin toast with honey at night; and red wine and black beer and mashed potato and well-roasted pumpkin and caramelised onions cooked in ghee piled up on mountains of rice and red lentil cooked with cardamom and nutmeg and cinnamon and black pepper.

All well and good. But not if you can't taste it. I had a slight winter chill last week and thought nothing of it. On Saturday morning I got out and set myself the task of removing a section of invading agapanthus. I took a splitter out of the shed. It was like digging up a rainforest. The further you go in, the more there is. I turned the radio on and listened to Off the Record and that kept me going. They played more of The Dingoes' new release and a bunch of other great music including an old live track from Ummagumma and something from Levon Helm sounding like Billy Thorpe at Sunbury. I dug and cut and threw roots and leaves across the yard. The tubers were four feet high, entwined over each other. They couldn't grow out, so they had grown up. I kept finding lost treasures such as tennis balls from the days when they were white. Remember when tennis balls were white? Of course you don't.

It was a sunny day, but cool, and I was wet; and I stayed wet from sweat while I pottered around and carried armfuls of chopped agapanthus and stacked them and threw the splitter down and said the hell with it. Then I put the tools away and shut some gates and changed my shoes, and then I realised I was cold. Next day I was still cold. Then I started shaking.

The doctor checked my ears and told me I didn't have flu. So far, so good. Then he got out the stethoscope. 'What have got in there?' he asked, rhetorically. Or ironically. Or mischievously. You can never tell with doctors. Each of my lungs felt like one of those paper bags of concrete you used to see at building sites along with hand mixing machines and Italian migrants with knotted handkerchiefs on their head and a Rothmans in their mouth.

The doctor told me to go home, and take penicillin, and go to bed. The downside had an upside. I get to hibernate for a few days, and see the house the way you never see it at this time of year. The sun, low in the northern sky, comes right into the room and makes pools of warmth on the walls, and then on the floor, and then across the bed. After that it jumps out the other side and crawls up the other wall.

So down comes the curtain for a week or two. When it rises again, there might be another player on the stage.

Comments

  1. Oh you poor thing! Sorry to hear you're feeling poorly. Now, stay in bed, take your medicine, eat chicken soup and drink lots of water and flush that nasty bug right out of your system. Feel better soon!

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  2. mmm, you're making very hungry & thirsty with all that talk of yummy winter food and booze, hope you're well enough to enjoy it again soon

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  3. Here's to a speedy recovery for you KH. All the best

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  4. Oh dear, hope you're up and about again soon. In the meantime, enjoy the enforced rest.
    And, fingers crossed for the newest player!

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  5. Feel better! And your doctor was probably being rhetorical, ironic and mischievous all at the same time. We tend to do that.

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  6. Thank you all. On deck again soon. Meanwhile, pile of books diminishing to my left.

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  7. well. sometimes chill is a lot bad than just causing flu - if you had flu you would have felt a lot better in just a day or two - anyways i wish happy and speedy recovery for you - get well soon and start again

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  8. Are you like, going to be a new father again, or should that be new old father? Anyway, hope you're well again and everything is okay.

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  9. Neil everything old is new again. You should know that. All well here; hope winter is treating you well. Posting resumes soon.

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  10. I do hope you're OK KH. Getting a little worried about you. Regards Jo_blue

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  11. All fine, WD and JoBlue - but have been very, very busy!

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