Sat, 6th Jan 2007

All Friday, I had the 24 hour stomach flu. I woke up to crippling stomach cramps, rushed to throw up last night's light dinner, and made numerous visits to the bog. Achy bones and cold sweats added to my misery.

My children were absolute angels, Mark made me an Eno and brought it to me in bed, helped me out of bed when I had to go, and Hazel rubbed Eucalyptus oil on my tummy and pep talked me out of my sorry state. Mark asked our helper to bring me a hot water bottle (and, guess what - she filled an old spaghetti sauce bottle with hot water and brought it to me, carefully cradled in a soup BOWL) - I was too weak to make any reaction except collapse with laughter with the children. * see footnote.

Needless to say, nothing entered my mouth the entire day/night. Woohoo! Woke up on Saturday feeling heaps better, but with a slightly sore tummy. When we were small, Mum will make light rice porridge for us when we were ill and this is what I made this morning.

A small cup of rice, 2 dried scallops & 4 dried oysters and water were thrown into the crock pot. The scallops and oysters will impart a delicious flavour to the porridge. I added a small chunk of meat into the porridge for extra taste. Turn on and leave for almost 9 hours.

The curries looked absolutely delicious at Emma's but I dared not risk it so this was what I had when I went home. My still sore stomach could only manage two small bowls of porridge and a morsel of bread/gravlax and dip AND some wine. At this rate, I might be able to get into that dress.

Wm & P had grav lax.

One more.

Wm brought some Turkish bread which she had bought in Victoria's Market in Melbourne, which she had stored in her freezer.

I made a simple dip of extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and grated raw garlic.

We shared a bottle of this:

M & H had porridge too and I baked some chicken drumsticks for them for added nutrition.

Hazel had 2 drumsticks and Mark made himself 2 sandwiches with Turkish bread. With butter.

Footnote: Our helper, bless her, had been shown how to fill up a hot water bottle, "not full, but half way, squeeze out excess air, put cap on tightly, make sure there is no hot water remaining in the cover, and cover with a tea towel" - so she must have 'forgotten'.