Three Drams Full
Sunday 20 February.
A 7.45am phone call from my Castle Street student daughter. Whispery voice: “Mum, my tonsils are up, I’ve hardly slept.” Ah. “Good morning,” I say, “you probably have Omicron.” “Yes, Mum, I know,” she hisses, “but I don’t want my flatmates to know, and I don’t want to get tested.”
Yeah, I think, fair enough. 10 days locked down, obliged to contact all close contacts… most folk panic, think drama and near-death thoughts, and she will be blamed for everything… all for a mild dose of the ’flu for anyone like her, young and healthy. She’s had the bad one before, Alpha, back in 2019 when in Europe. It was a mild dose for her, just tonsils up for a few days and a sniffy nose although she totally, like 100%, lost her sense of smell for a while, which alarmed her.
“OK, I say, have you been taking your Vitamin D? Have you some iodine throat gargle? You’ll be OK, just have a good sleep and lie low today.” “Yes,” she hisses again, “I’ve been doing all that… gargled in the night, even.” “Good,” I say, “you’ll be right.” “No, Mum, I don’t want my flatmates to know I’ve got symptoms. Can you please come and pick me up now?”
So I rush and make up the spare bed, go get the daughter, drive home with car windows down, bustle her into the room, give her more iodine gargle, and promise I’ll make up some chicken soup.
I had a busy day already planned but I finally managed to make the chicken soup at 2pm. Then my daughter phoned me from the bedroom. “Mum, I’ve had a good sleep, feeling much better now, and by the way, I’m just about to be picked up by H.” “Pardon,” I say, “I’ve just spent a good deal of time doing this chicken soup prep.” “Yeah, Mum, thanks for that, could you keep some for me? Tonsils much better, I’ll just get on with my day.”
Omicron, yeah right. I can’t resist saying, “It was no big deal, was it? You got it, you have likely passed it on … it’s a virus your body can handle, you’re young and healthy… hmmm …. maybe if you hadn’t been triple shot you would have had no symptoms at all.”
