if you can sense, just based on the amount of green goop coming out of a kid’s nose, and the warbling noise at the base of her throat when she coughs, that more sickness is about to descend upon you, you might have a breakfast of soy and linseed spelt-sourdough toast, generously slathered in fresh goat curd and chesnut honey to make you feel better.

the first slice will be so wonderful that you will make another one, and then you will feel somewhat bloated for the rest of the day.

and then by early evening, you will feel the dull throb in your head, and the familiar tightness in the back of your throat that a purple strepsil can’t quite shake.

(so you will make a pot of duck and sweetcorn congee for dinner — using leftover chinatown roast duck and half a tin of sweetcorn kernals and a large hunk of ginger — to make you feel better, and then you will feel somewhat bloated for the rest of the night.)

tasty, but.