Saturday, December 18, 2004
Daddy-Daughter Day
Despite my Chrimbo night out, it was me who rose early with Laura at about 7’ish. It was in no way an attempt to gain Brownie points (though it may have helped), but rather just a need to be with Laura – watch cartoons – open our festive calendars - play with toys and just be having some fun as we await the arrival of Santa. Laura said it was good to have some Daddy-Daughter time together – sometimes she is so grown up.
Most of the day in fact was geared up with us being together and having fun. With Gail out and about getting ready for her own works night out (Murrayfield stadium, 3-course meal, live entertainment, stretch limousine’s to get them there), it was clearly much posher than anything I could have hoped for.
So me and Laura got wrapped up and popped into town to breathe in the icy air and get some goodies from the shops. We bought pizza-making ingredients, some Busted-related reading material and some stuff for my chest, then counted Christmas trees as we walked home.
Back at the house we organised the presents that have gathered so far under the tree and gave the place a bit of a tidy. Once Gail left we watched Alice in Wonderland and The Muppet’s Christmas Carol while making and eating our pizza’s.
It was a great day.
With Laura tucked up in bed I boiled up some water and dropped some Eucalyptus oil into it, held my head over it to try and unblock my hardening capillaries. The oil-filled steam was quick to burn through into my lungs and I started to bring up some phlegm which, will disgusting, was better than the dry coughs experienced for most of the day up till then.
My pal Devon sent me a recipe for making a hot toddy, one I had not seen before, so I gave it a try; malt whisky, tea, lemon, honey and cinnamon in a large glass. I couldn’t drink it I am sorry to say, so I remade it without the cinnamon – much nicer, and I could feel the warmth spreading into my chest.
To complete the trilogy of chest-fixing attempts, I rubbed some Vaporub into my chest before hitting the sack, exhausted.