I have a cold and I’ve lost my voice. I have a runny nose, sneezing quite lot, but my throat isn’t sore. I don’t like to take pills/medicine, but I do indulge in Neo-Citran or what my husband used to call an Uncle Tom’s Left Tiddly: rye whisky, lemon juice and honey muddled together with boiling water poured over it. I don’t make it now because I never have rye in the house—oh. but try Sortilège—rye liqueur, sweetened with maple syrup—on the rocks. I digress. I was talking about colds.

I remember my nose, always stuffed, never clear for breathing. I tried to sleep but it was a time-limited sleep: first on one side until that nostril clogs up, roll over until the other nostril clogs, repeat. And the edges round the nostril were crusted and green You don’t see that sort of thing nowadays. We didn’t even have Kleenex in those days.

I looked it up and reported but I lost my copy and Low Battery is calling time-out..

À bientôt.