7 March 2008

Ready to pounce

I'm ready to pounce.

Hanno went to bed last night with a raspy voice and a sore throat, I think he'll get up this morning and tell me he has a cold. The nurse/mother in me is awakening and I'm all set to sooky him. Mind you, I did give him the cold so I do feel half a pang of guilt, but having someone to make warm, to squeeze juice for and to coddle makes me smile along with that quickly diminishing feeling of guilt.

When I was a young girl my mother used to make a big fuss of us when we were sick. She'd make us jelly and junket, or soft boiled eggs with toast soldiers - bliss! So I guess I have modelled her behaviour with my own family. When my boys were sick I tried the jelly and junket treatment on them, and although they liked it, they preferred juice and toasted Vegemite soldiers.

I think illness brings out the mother in all of us. There are very few times when we can really pamper the people we love. Of course, we do it in small ways every days, but I'm talking about the grand style of pampering when we fluff up pillows, make up the sofa as a day bed and which involves warm lemon and honey tea and going to and fro getting all manner of things for the patient.

I have to work today - I swapped a day earlier in the week because I was sick - but I hope to have Hanno bundled up warmly on the sofa before I leave. I'll put hot tea in a thermos and the squeezed juice in the fridge so it will be easy for him while I'm away. There will be magazines on the coffee table, the remote control on top of the magazines and a box of tissues and bin for used tissues next to him.

Sleep is the best treatment for a cold, along with being looked after with lemon drinks and soft foods, so I hope Hanno sleeps while I'm gone. Knowing him as I do though, he'll probably sit down till I leave, then work in the garden most of the day. If I were here all day I could insist on bed rest and all the flufferies that go along with it. I guess I have to be content with what he feels comfortable with. But if he gets up and says he's got a cold, I'm ready to pounce.

GLOSSARY ;- )
sooky: Treat with excessive indulgence.
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12 comments

  1. Oh that just tickeles me...the fact that you made mention of your definition for *sooky* haha! I have to admit, I was kinda wondering what that meant! I hope he is feeling better! Ironically Sooky is a little nickname I called my daughter when she was a baby, she is only 5 now, but I do still say it once in awhile. I love that little word....

    Kelly

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  2. I hope Hanno's feeling better soon. Your post reminded me of my own dear Mum - a favourite meal when we were ill would be lamb chops with redcurrant jelly, mashed potatoes and peas. Not exactly soft food! Having just come in the door from Casualty after getting a dog bite tended to, I wish I had someone to look after me!! Diana x

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  3. In my home that is known as "getting the pink blanket treatment". That comes from my dear mum who looked after me that way (wrapped up in a fluffy pink blanket and laid on the settee). If ever my children where off school on days when I had to work they went to mums to be wrapped in the same pink blanket. My children now have children of their own and they get the pink blanket treatment. I think the expression is firmly in the family vocabulary now. Its so nice that Mum is remembered in such a loving caring way. Incidentally the poem Warning which you published the other day was Mums favorite. It brought back such happy memories reading it. We used to "practice" together running our sticks along the park railings !!!
    Hope Hanno is well again soon.

    Best wishes, Eileen.

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  4. Hope Hanno feels better!

    And thank you for your aussie glossary - a real help to us foreigners. :)

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  5. Rhonda,

    I had to giggle at the glossary, I'm familiar with the term sooky but at an utter loss as to what junket is.

    When we were sick we were coddled but never allowed to watch tv. We were expected to stay in our rooms and rest. If we were well enough to be watching tv, we were well enough to be in school.

    Hope Hanno feels better.
    Maggie

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  6. My mother was a social worker, and my mother in law a nurse, neither has much patience for sickness unless you're really really sick. Got a headache? Have a panadol and stop whining. I think they both used up all their caring (or perhaps it changed their perspective on illness) at work.

    I tend not to be very patient with minor illness either. My partner gets very forgetful when he has colds, and I tend to laugh at him for the duration. I do make cups of tea though.

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  7. Maggie, Junket is a loose pudding type of desert made with milk and rennet, and usually nutmeg. It's not a common thing stateside any more but was real popular around WWII (not that I was around during WWII, but I worked at a museum from that time period and we had several packets of the instant variety at the store).

    About the soldiers bit - are these just triangles standing on end or did you actually cut them to resemble soldiers?

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  8. Oh yes, spoil them. I still do with my daughters - 20 & almost 14. I serve them their food on a tray, run out and get them a shake from McDonalds, let them eat on the good couch, etc.

    Blessings,

    Sher

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  9. I like the sooky term. I hadn't heard it before but I sused out the meaning from the context easy enough. Also thank you to Tameson O'Brien for explaining junket which was also unknown to me until know.

    I hope Hanno is well soon and enjoys the spoiling while he's not. ;-)

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  10. awwwww Rhonda can you be my mum xx

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  11. thanks tameson for the junket explanation.

    When I was home at Christmas I had a wicked case of a sore throat, to the point it felt as if it was sandpaper. My dad took pity on me and brought home a Tim Horton's Ice Cap for me every afternoon when he had coffee with the boys. It was one of the few things I was able to drink without crying in pain.

    I suppose that's being sooky, eh?

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  12. Toast soldiers are long thin pieces (not triangles), so a standard slice of bread might become four soldiers, perfect shape for dipping into a soft boiled egg.

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