I've been laboring under the cold I caught from my little sister over the weekend. It's a simple sore-throat / cough affair which is unfortunately rather debilitating. I think it's gotten better today thanks to hours of sitting wrapped up warm and being effectively pampered by my grandmother. I might have actually finally gotten through to her that I don't want to listen to her woes all the time even though I never actually managed to tell her (I had resolved to in the elevator up to the flat).
She always looks after her family, in fact she does far more than a woman ought to at that age, with all her cooking and cleaning. Not unlike my mother, although she berates herself for 'being such a doormat', and my grandmother does not. When she doesn't insist upon informing you, in excruciating detail of her troubles she really is just out to look after you (in between ruining weddings and such like).
Being sick in the same house as my grandmother is a startling experience which I have had several times before. She at once keeps her distance from you to avoid the contagion and yet at the same time can't stop fussing over you. I appreciate a good bit of fussing, what with being a man and all but I'm not in the business of pretending I'm dying of cancer like many of my gender, so it works well for me.
Most conversations are akin to those held between Father Ted and Mrs Doyle
Mrs Doyle: Will you have a cup of Tea father?
Father Ted: No thank you Mrs Doyle, I'm doing alright thanks
Mrs Doyle: Oh won't you have a nice cup?
Father Ted: No thanks Mrs Doyle, really I'm fine
Mrs Doyle: Aww go on father
Father Ted: Really I'm ok,
Mrs Doyle: Go on go on father, have a cup of tea
Father Ted: I'm quite alright Mrs Doyle I won't have a cup of tea
Mrs Doyle: Go on go on go on go on
Father Ted: N-n-
Mrs Doyle: Go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go
Father Ted: Alright! I'd love a cup of tea Mrs Doyle
Replace "cup of tea" with " slice of toast" or "bowl of congee" and the names and you get a pretty good idea how what it's like. God help the woman I chloro-*ahem* marry.
For the record 'Congee' is a chinese dish which is essentially rice boiled to the point at which it is more liquid than solid. The slush is then typically served with meat and veg and some soya sauce, it's an acquired taste despite being startlingly bland. I happen to like it.
Today's snapshot is a photo of the tracks at Victoria tube station. Where I would have been were it not for this blasted cough.
Later
John