This cold refuses to go away despite my best efforts to get rid of it. It has now turned into what I believe is a chest infection and a trip back to the doctors is imminent. My best intentions of launching myself into a flurry of activity and not sitting back and feeling sorry for myself have been scuppered by a microscopic bug. In spite of this life goes on and the only good thing to come out of this is that shares in paper mills and the pharmaceutical industry must be soaring judging by the amount of paper tissues and cough medicine I have gone through.
More than ever my thoughts are turning to the lifestyles of Ted Magnum who is in Argentina having the time of his life. The Traveller is ringing me up tomorrow having come back from Thailand with the latest news and gossip and The Tiler is complaining it is too damn hot in Oz. Apparently no matter how he tries he cannot chill his beer to a suitably low temperature. How my heart goes out to these poor souls and their life threatening disabilities. Yes it is hard not to feel envious when you are lying in your sick bed feeling less than sparkling, looking out at black clouds and the plummeting mercury and listening to the weather people telling me that more bad weather is on its way.
At least I am not on my own. No indeed there are now some new residents in my house. I have discovered that mice have moved in. I suspect their motives are not entirely altruistic and that they have not arrived just to keep me company. Château Ghastanbury has not been bothered with rodents for many years’ thanks mainly due to the best two mousers on the planet, Claws and Fang respectively. Sadly however Fang passed away in January 2003 and Claws followed him to that great sunny garden in the sky in January 2005. I desperately need to obtain another mouser and I have thought of borrowing one of the many cats that frequent my garden. I suspect that “borrowing” is not the correct term and catnapping is closer to the actual act of enticing a cat into your house and keeping it there for a week or so. Maybe I can borrow several for just one day at a time. It does not seem fair to buy a kitten when I could be out of here and into some foreign land within 18 months. I doubt if the cat would be coming with me and it hardly seems fair to get rid of it just because I no longer have any use for it. Offering free bed and board to a couple of strays for a short while seems the most humane thing to do.
Until the next time I would ask you all to spare a thought for these poor souls in hot climates who are struggling to chill their beer and wondering what part of the country they should travel to next. It’s a hard life all round!