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Half way through an enforced period of abstinence

A painless abscess requires attention it seems. I have been putting this off since December, refusing to take antibiotics over the Christmas period unless absolutely necessary but the absence of any nerve endings in the vicinity has let me off the hook until now.

Christmas and New Year were very jolly - two weeks in the Vaucluse departement in southern France and, for once, not even a bus man's holiday: I didn't visit a single vineyard whilst I was there (although I did buy a few bottles from the Caveau in Gigondas and stopped off in Burgundy on the way home but that's allowed, I think). Lots of brisk walks up and around the Dentelles de Montmirail and across the rolling countryside still failed to halt the increasing pounds the seasonal stuffing insists on adding though. So, time to do something about this and the abscess.

I had put it off as long as I could. Over Christmas with friends, it was clearly a non-starter but when they left and we had arrangements to get together with other, local friends, with wine a shared passion, it didn't seem realistic either. New Year came and went (with a rather good bottle of Rene Rostaing's Cote Rotie) then it was only a couple of days before we were heading home so it didn't seem right to end the holiday on a low.

However, fate had reserved something of a kicking for me. I had finally set on Sunday for the first day of antibiotics (which would have meant only one more day to go!) but, thanks to Eurotunnel, our crossing was so delayed on Saturday that, instead of arriving home at 6pm with a bottle of something suitable to look forward to, we got back at midnight with a firm resolution that I would allow myself just one more day.

I don't know what happened to Monday.

All I do know is that my oldest son discovered that his usual Monday evening activity doesn't start until next week so by 6.15 my will had been broken and I was rummaging around for something - probably to locate some determination in the rack alongside the bottle of Burgundy that came out first.

So, Tuesday morning - a new school term and, without pondering it any further, out came the antibiotics. Just 15 of them over five days and I have now had eight although I don't count that as just over half way through when I still have three evenings of abstinence ahead of me.

Of course, I still get to sniff, second hand, when a glass is waived, maliciously, under my nose.

Come Sunday, normal service will resume - now where did I put that Jeroboam?

Comments

  1. Needless to say, I made it through. Funnily enough, on Sunday, the wine selected to break my fast seemed overly intense. I should have dug out one of those over-the-hill bottles lurking unwanted at the bottom of a stack of boxes in the far recesses...

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