I’ve still not got much of an appetite, or inclination to cook myself a proper meal. I should probably make more of an effort. I should eat my greens. I should eat more beans and lentils. Should give up the fags, and keep my weekly intake of booze down to whatever is currently governmentally acceptable. I should drink less coffee and drink more water. A lot more water. Should positively drown myself in the stuff. I should do more exercise. I should learn to love myself. And every morning I should bow down to the sun. But, generally speaking, I find I really can’t be bothered. I’m newly widowed, for Chrissake. Give me a fucking break.
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As I’ve already noted, this time of year I get a little obsessive about the extra minutes of daylight. You do sometimes sense darkness’s grip beginning to slip. But it’s never quite fast enough.
I’ve always been of the opinion that the seasons are a good month or two out of synch with the weather. That when the days really start to stretch out it’s only spring and, heat-wise, we’re rather lagging behind. Then, before you know it, it’s getting on for the longest day and you find yourself thinking, ‘Hang on a sec. What the hell are you talking about? Mid-summer? There’s barely been a week when it’s been properly hot.’ The seasons just need a bit of a nudge – one way or the other … I’m not entirely sure which way – then we could all relax a little and it would all make a lot more sense.
While we’re on the subject of vegetables, I once read an article somewhere about a report regarding asparagus and how it makes one’s pee smell rather musty. It’s one of those odd little things, and I must say I’ve certainly noticed it myself. In fact, I’m sure most people have. Which is rather the point since, according to this report, the population can be clearly divided into people, like me, whose pee smells powerfully pungent after they’ve been at the asparagus and those whose pee smells just the same.
Anyway, a couple of months ago I was leafing through the Sunday papers, which of course contain very little news at all and consist mainly of prattle and titbits which have been dressed up as something important, when I tripped over an article which claimed to have the latest news on asparagus and pee-related mustiness, and how some new research suggests that the reason some of us smell it and some of us don’t is, in fact, nothing at all to do with what’s in the urine, and everything to do with what’s going on in the nose. It transpires that only some of us have the olfactory wherewithal to identify the scent. Apparently, every last one of us produces musty-smelling pee after eating asparagus. It’s just that not everyone can pick it out. Which rather encourages one to take the latest scientific proclamations regarding diet, etc., with a healthy pinch of salt.