Scenes from an unclerical life 2

extract from "Scenes from an unclerical life" - "The Unreliable Narrator"
"What they loved was a crisp shining New Years day with the fire fresh lit in the grate, the Christmas lights still shining, friends popping round for mince pies and mulled wine, the New Years Concert from Vienna playing as it happened - a complete first - remembered, switched the radio on, actually listened to it. Glowing and rosy cheeked from their morning walk they all gather round the fire - everyone's up, friends have decided to stay on for tea and drinks. The day before, he had made a vast turkey and ham pie with an equally vast salad with two dressings, one hot and strong it's little fiery tips of chilies peeping out from the glistening oil like the pointy ends of elves  boots, another flush with the green of basil plucked fresh from the plant on the window sill.

But all this is not so.

New Year finds our hapless couple in the throes of sickness and self mortification, unable to rise from their rumpled bed without vertigo, nausea and blunt shafts of pain that take the place of any sunshine that might have shone into their room if the curtains were open and if there were any sun anyway. A peep though the gaps shows a light but dull grey, unbroken seamless cloud. She tries to remember what they did last night - did they actually finish? - an exploratory hand confirms that she is wet and swampy, and the involuntary sniff of her fingers confirms, also, the cod liver fish oil smell of last nights sex. "

The writing conveys the listless regretful sense of too much partying for too little gain. A realistic bit ultimately depressing picture that I enjoy all the more because I am bright, awake and unhungover - I may have missed the New Years Concert but it's all eminently repeatable on Spotify. Janice has been up for hours, deciding to clean the kitchen and bake cheese straws to eat round the fire - so thankful that we ordered that extra load of logs so that we didn't run out for the New Year. Jacob and Marisa are cooking a fragrant Thai curry with lemon grass and lime leaves for supper later. The house vibrates with positive energy and thankfulness for an other years dawn.  There is something fragrant and life-giving in making the decision to stay in, watch a joyful Jools Holland and go to bed about 1.30am.