Brusque Doctor tells me there's nothing he can do! It's the flu!

Monday November 25^th.

Walk and swim as per usual. I told Sarah there will be a quiz and meal at the pub again this Thursday, being the last Thursday in the month, she has said she’ll be there. I like Sarah, she is down to earth and sensible. She asked if Dave could come too but I had to warn her that the Scampi tails are an all women outfit. So yes he could come, no he couldn’t be a Scampi Tail! We had some guys from work come along earlier in the year. They were slaughtered by our collective wisdom!

Amanda S. was there again this morning. I think she is using me a little bit. Although she came with news of a new Indian Restaurant that is doing lunch time specials for half the price of their evening meals. Now, I am a woman who likes her food. I don’t over eat, but I do like a variety of tastes and textures. Laura and I said we’d come and join her at the Cottage. [I think that is what it’s called.] Feli arrived as we were discussing this and she is tagging along too.

Feli has split from her boyfriend. Another one! She goes through them like I go through shirts! He was very insulting about the French apparently, obviously forgetting Feli is French! She accused him of being racist; he accused her of being a manipulative bitch so she hit him with a saucepan. [They had been cooking tea together.] It caught him just above his eye and split his eyebrow open “like splitting a fucking melon” were her words. Blood flowed like water, insults and recriminations flowed like water, she drove him to A & E and dumped him there. In both senses of the word. He moaned about his car being at her place, to which she replied, “That’s your fucking problem, n’est-ce pas?”

Amanda was aghast. She was worried that he might call the police and have her done for assault. Feli was convinced his chauvinist ego wouldn’t allow him to admit he’d been hospitalised by a woman! I tend to agree with Feli on this. Laura just laughed at the whole business. She told Feli, “You’ll have to turn gay!”  Both Amanda and Feli said something like, “I could do that!”  I just had that doomy feeling again in the pit of my stomach. Oh no!

Feli has tracked down two more cabinets for us to examine. She spent the morning confirming their locations and getting permission for us to come and see them some time in the future. This side project is turning into something quite interesting. I think way ought to mention it to our supervisor at some point, but Feli was adamant we should keep it just between us three [including Laura in the conspiracy], for the time being! That now makes five we have to go and see; to photograph, measure and describe.

I decided that I am going to write to every Major Museum and National Trust Area manager to see if there any other caskets lurking out there. It seems a good place to start rather than continuing our current ad hoc approach.

Laura was delighted by the Indian. I don’t know why the undergrads call the place the Cottage, there is no mention of a cottage in its name at all. The special turned out to be four different kinds of Thali.  I just love this on an Indian Menu. I had the meat special, Feli and Mandy had the vegetable special and Loll had the House special. When they arrived there were even more surprises in store. Although I had explained what they were, Laura and Feli had never had them before and couldn’t get over the tray idea. Feli started to take her dishes from the tray, but I explained how we ate them on the tray.

I had Tandoori chicken, Chana Masala, Sag Lamb, Chicken bhuna, plus the normal riata, rice, nan bread and salad. It was absolutely delicious and only £5.95! I just love this meal from an Indian, you get so many different tastes in a sensible sized portion. I left half my nan bread to wipe out my little dishes and then ate the riata as a separate dish at the end [I always do that – it cools any fires there may be from the spices!] I think we may be using this place quite often in the future. What a find.

Mandy zoomed off to her afternoon lecture and Feli asked, “What is her story?” Laura said, “It’s obvious. She fancies Vicki. I am surprised you can’t tell!”

Oh bloody hell.

We continued translating this afternoon and Loll went to the Maths department for a tutorial. When Laura came back I asked her if she was OK with the Miss Scothern situation. She thought it was funny. It was obvious that Mandy had no idea just how uninterested in her I was. I think we could have a problem down the line with this but Laura thinks having her close is better than having her as a loose cannon! How did I get to fall for such a smart cookie? Anyway, according to the Lollster, my body language is so easy to read that she has no worries about me and Mandy, although she is worried about me and Feli as we have an ease of understanding which, if it was between anyone else, she’d be scared by. Luckily Feli’s sex-life is so erratic, catastrophic and blatantly man-orientated she has no inkling that Feli and I attempted something earlier in the year. I do know one thing. I am not going to say anything! At all. Ever!

She was busy at the restaurant tonight so I did more on my Tree of Life. I can’t believe how much I have done in so short a space of time. Dominic is looking forward to whatever Dad brings back with him from Cochem. So am I Dominic, so am I.

Tuesday 26^th November.

Walk swim breakfast work.

Lunch work home dinner.

Sewing radio walk sleep.

That is my almost Haiku for the day.

I was being a lazy cow today. I felt absolutely knackered. Cold, shivery, aching. I was not a happy bunny. I felt dreadful at work and worse when I was home. I was glad Loll cooked the meal. I listened to the radio until 9pm, took Callie out and went to bed early. I put a ‘post it’ on the table.

“Poorly!”

Laura came to hug me and said I was burning up. She took my temperature. 38.5. She vanished and came back with a hot sweet lemony drink with whisky. I drank it down when it cooled a bit and then fell asleep.

In the night she woke me up to tell me I was soaked. I had sweated so much my PJs were drenched. She made me change into fresh ones and I went off to sleep again.

Wednesday twenty bloody seventh of No bloody Vember.

I am not well.

No dog walk, no swim. Couldn’t face breakfast. Felt like crap. Temp still in the 38 point something; Laura didn’t actually tell me the number!

I want my Mummy!

My throat is really sore and I feel absolutely knackered, as if I have just climbed a Munroe or something. The worst is my nose feels so bunged up and blowing it does nothing, I just make a noise like a fog horn and the tissue stays empty. My legs are really wobbly too. The muscles ache so much. Even lying down I can’t make the ache go away.

Laura took the morning off Uni and ran me to a 9.20am appointment. Dr Brookes says I have the flu. I think he was a bit pissed off at me going to the surgery and wasting his time. All I can take for it is paracetamol [or ibuprofen]. I have to drink lots of fluids and I should be over the worst by about Sunday.

Sunday?

I don’t get it. I was fine on Monday and then on Tuesday, wham! I am not a happy bunny. I don’t get ill. I am healthy. Being poorly is not on my radar. I have obviously got someone else’s illness by mistake!

I have been asleep for most of the day and in the loo, piddling, for the rest. Apparently dehydration is a common problem so I have been drinking gallons of liquid. The trouble is; what goes in has to come out. Laura brought the portable CD player down from the study and I gave her a list of CDs to fetch.

I have gone through all the Beethoven piano pieces today, although I think I may have dozed off during some of them. I listened to part of Woman’s Hour and fell asleep through that too.

Even doing this is a bit of an effort.

I have had to change my PJs again. I am just so sweaty. I put both pairs in the washing machine and have spent the day in my tumbling teddy bear ones. I haven’t worn these for ages.

Loll has been in and out with different foods since she came in, none of which I can face, and hugs which I can’t get enough of. She went to work as usual and even brought home some of Dom’s brilliant prawn risotto to tempt me. I could manage that either.

Callie is so confused. She pads up stairs to her bean seat. Pads back to her crate, then back to her beat seat. She sat next to the bed this evening and kept putting her paw on the bed. It just made me cry, I have no idea why.

The thing that has kept me sane has been dipping in and out of Y!A. I know, I am sad cow.

Thursday November 28^th.

Mum came round for the morning.

I was asleep. Callie went ballistic when she let herself in with her spare key.

I got up [new PJs again!] and sat under a pile of blankets on the sofa chatting to her[Mum, not Callie!] . She reheated Dom’s risotto but I still couldn’t face it so I put the plate down on the floor and Callie snagged the lot. I mean seriously gobbled it down like it was going out of fashion. I got Mum to call Loll and ask if she’d fed Callie. She hadn’t last night or this morning! No wonder the little pup wolfed the prawns. That was probably why she was putting her paw on the bed last night too. Mum gave her some fud and she scoffed that too. She had half of a second bowlful before she gave up. [I call it her “Dog fud” and Callie knows what I am talking about.]

At about 12 I woke up to find Mum sitting opposite having a quiet giggle. I asked her why she was laughing and she told me that I had fallen asleep in the middle of a sentence about 15 minutes ago. It reminded her of the time when I had fallen asleep in my dinner in the Queen’s Head Inn at Troutbeck. I was 8.

I think my life is defined by points like that for my Mum. She always has some story about me doing something silly or funny or outrageous or dangerous. I once set fire to the net curtains by focusing the sun’s rays on them with a magnifying glass. I was only trying to singe the bottom but they went “Whup!” and burned like nobody’s business. I had the sense to shout for help after I had set a cushion on fire too by using it to try and put the curtains out! She hasn’t mentioned that one for a while. It was one of the reasons why I bought a fire extinguisher for my house when I moved in!

To be honest I felt a little less like death warmed up today. Certainly by tea time. My temperature is still 38.1 though! I am normally 36.1! Mum went off at about 2pm and I stood on the back garden so Callie could have a stretch on the grass and perform. Ann came out and asked if I was OK. I guess it’s not every day you find you neighbour standing in the garden in her PJs, Dressing gown and bobble hat. I explained and she volunteered to take Callie up to the Wood for a romp. I was so grateful. They were gone about an hour and I was fast asleep, again, when they got back.

We shared a cuppa and had a gossip. It was nice to hear local stuff from a new source. We were still gassing when Laura came home, so we had refills all round and more chat. Ann joined the long list of people who are surprised to learn that Laura is doing a Pure and Applied Maths degree. I don’t know what they expect her to be doing, but obviously her appearance doesn’t seem to suggest Mathematician to most people who meet her. When she talked about the fluid dynamics work she is doing at the moment you could see the spreading incomprehension on Ann’s face.

The Scampis went ahead to the pub for the meal and quiz without YT. Two of them did pop round to see how I was beforehand, which was lovely. Claire phoned later on to tell me they had won by one point. Rah, rah rah.

I didn’t take the call, I was asleep again. She left an answer machine message. Which Laura played when she got in from work. I felt like a shower when Laura had gone to the restaurant but once underneath I had a wave of enervation wash over me. So I just stood there for a while under the spray then got out. I did feel better, if hardly any cleaner!

I hope I am OK for Saturday’s concert. We have tickets for the Arcadia String Quartet at the Crucible. I bet I will have to miss it!