KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

Friday brought with it the usual weekly chores ,unfortunately it found non of us in a fit state to do them as we are all still in the grip of the prevailing plague. What is most disconcerting is the dreadful lethargy and the weird floating feeling in the head that seems to be affecting particularly my son and myself. Just staying awake is proving difficult and exertion of any kind impossible and this is causing problems as you may imagine. Breakfast was later than usual as it seemed to take for ever to drag myself down the stair to the kitchen and I felt very grateful that my thoughtful son had organised an extra shopping delivery so that I should not have to go out to the shops. Pa ,always difficult to resurrect proves well nigh impossible when I am unwell as I lack the energy to persist in hoorahing him until he moves his butt. Hoping that a treat would make us all feel a little better I made a batch of blueberry muffins,usually there are none left by the end of the meal,today we could not do justice to what is normally a favourite breakfast and as each of us push his or her plate away a general feeling of gloom descended . Having baked no bread for days I decided that I had better make some for tonight’s meal and for weekend breakfasts, toast etc., by the time I was finished and the bread was raising in the pans I was in a state of collapse and had the be helped from the kitchen at which point the groceries arrived at the same time as a friend with a small and totally adorable dog. I sat on the stairs trying to look normal but managed to fool no one and my friend left almost at once. The feeling of being a puppet with its strings cut became worse as the afternoon wore on until I became quite alarmed, I felt drugged, I wanted to sleep. Another visitor prevented this and I made a large pot of tea and served up the left over blueberry muffins to our guest. Listening to his lively gossip and drinking the hot tea made me feel a little better but a sudden bout of the shivers brought me back to reality with a bump. By the time our guest departed with a cottage loaf and the rest of the muffins in a bag It was time to prepare dinner. I was in no state to cook and the boys in no state to eat much , fortunately a meal of cold meats and cheeses had been planned and so we each ate a little more for forms sake than for any other reason before finally clearing the kitchen and calling it a day. Mainly I am concerned for my son who has been very unwell for the whole of this week, he is talking about gaming with his friends this weekend and is insistent that he will be returning to work on Monday,frankly if he does not improve a great deal I cannot see him managing either. Tomorrow I must try to get things back to normal,the garden needs attention and I have some baking to do, both things that I normally enjoy. I have horseradish. Globe and Jerusalem artichokes to plant as well as sweet woodruff and kale and wild flower seeds to sow. I know that there is no use fretting about these things but each day I am unwell the list of chores becomes longer and longer. I have just read the last sentence and have come to a decision. To hell with the chores, to hell with worrying about next week. I am off to my bed with a hot water bottle and a glass of whiskey with lemon and hot water. Tomorrow will just have to take care of itself!