Not sure what happened with this day. I just… forgot it. Sorry!

Johar Joshanda, aka “the Magic Tea” is my new favourite thing in the entire world. Really. Right this second, it might even be toppling Belle the iPhone off the list. Yes, I like it that much.

Anyone who has known me through a winter, be that in IRL, twitter, or here on Bright Meadow, will know that I have a tendency to suffer pretty horrible heavy colds. Not flu, but pretty damn close. With the coughing, and the sneezing, and the… tissues. Oh dear god, the tissues. When I get like this, I tend to shut myself in my room with boxes of tissues, lemsip, olbas oil, and every cold remedy known to man.

As an aside, how is it we can surgically reattach faces, beat cancer, and walk on the moon, but are unable to cure the common cold? I know the reasons they claim, but I reckon it is just a big conspiracy by the pharmaceutical companies. They’re making too much money off me from cold-relief medicine to release a one-shot vaccine which would end this misery.

But I ramble. Blame the cough medicine.

I was forced out of my plague pit yesterday by the fact I was running out of tissues and had no food in the house. Fortunately, there’s a handy asian market on the corner not 30 seconds from my front door, so I dragged on some clothes, stuck a hat on my head, hid behind a scarf, and shuffled off, praying all the while I would meet no one I knew. Basket filled with tissues, milk, cereal, cream crackers, and some toffee crisps (do I know how to party, or what?!) I made it to the counter. The nice man who runs the store knows me well enough after 3 years to say hello, how are you, but I we’re not what you would call close. Still, he takes one look at me and goes “Oh dear, you sick?”

I cough and nod. “Just a cold, but feeling rather nasty”. So, not my best line ever, but give me a break, I’m sick!

The Nice Man (forever more his name to me) turns his back and rummages under the counter, before passing me a packet with a furtive look. “Here, drink this. Very herbal, very strong”.

I must have looked a little… skeptical, because he repeats “Very herbal, very strong. Dissolve in hot water, drink, feel better”. And, I swear, he shoos me out the shop like a mother hen!

I get home, put my haul on the counter, and look at the shiny foil packet I have just been passed, and shrug, before reaching for the kettle. Hot water mixed with what looks like some Bisto gravy granules, gives a dark brown, not all-together-appealing looking drink. I can’t tell you if it has a smell because – duh, cold! Still, I sit back in my armchair, buried under blankets, sipping the tea, and I do some intrigued googling. Turns out this Johar Joshanda stuff is the Pakistani version of chicken soup.

And I think it works. I definitely feel more human today. Enough so that when I went back to the shop just now for some lunchtime samosas (they have the best samosas) the Nice Man looked at me, smiled, and said “more tea?”

(P.S., to all you who follow me on Twitter and Instagram and might think this picture looks very similar to one uploaded yesterday , I am not breaking my #365 rules, because this IS a new picture, it WAS taken today, and because I said so 😛 )