After a long illness it’s as though the whole world appears again in ghastly grey newness, ready to be loathed afresh. So it has been recently after a seemingly-endless bout with that favorite tropical friend and companion, dengue.
How did it began. It was a Monday. How fitting. Even if it was a public holiday. The girlfriend wanted to go for a picnic down by the river. Bah, I said, I hate picnics, and off we went.
An hour’s drive later, we found ourselves among screaming kids, nowhere to sit, flies (and, unnoticed, mosquitoes) galore, and an adjacent paddock full of testicular-challenged colts with what can only be described as a bowl cut for their tails.
Great. We made short work of the sandwiches we’d brought, looked rather sheepishly at each other as yet another ear-splitting yelp of some small humanoid rodent caused us both to wince, and simultaneously began packing up to leave.
So much for that idea, we both said at practically the same time, and went for an ice cream at a nearby shopping center to soothe the annoyance.
The day ended on a real upbeat note, it was the same day my brother emailed to say he had been kidnapped, and finished very late after a telephone conversation with the Colombian anti-kidnapping police (see other post).
The kidnapping incident dragged on, and with it a not entirely unexpected general sense of malaise. It was to be expected; I was under a lot of pressure, it would go away soon.
Except it didn’t. (more…)