Up to scratch...or not

You know it’s not much fun when you don’t feel ‘up to scratch’

Now where did that expression come from?  Well according to Google 

Years ago, fighters would not start fighting at the ring of a bell; instead the referee would scratch a line into the dirt on the floor. The fight would start when both men stepped over the line. If a man was unable to step over the line, people would say that he was ‘not up to scratch’.

Anyway that’s how I’m feeling today.

After a slightly dodgy night I thought that it would be OK to head into work, and it was for a while.

Note that I said was. I changed my mind about that and decided that I would be much better off at home. Well that’s’ the advice I would give if someone like me rocked up in my clinic. So I took my own advice and came home. 

So my train of thought went rambling and had me thinking about my favourite food when I a kid and home sick. And do you know what that was? 

Of course you don’t.

My friend Vikki only wants red jelly when she’s sick. I crave homemade black currant jam sandwiched between thin slices of buttered white bread. Cut into triangles too. And none of your store bought jam either, only mum’s homemade jam was be good enough. I can smell the rich purple-sweet aroma of it, taste the purple-summer of it. Mmmmmmmm. 

Just the smell of it transports me back to when my parents were at Tama Street and I was about nine or ten. Purple stained fingers from topping and tailing the small purple berries. 

There was something magic about the way that mum turned those sour berries into them most delicious tasting jam. 

Not that I had any of the stuff in the cupboard, or really felt like it either. 

Just give me a cup of spicey aromatic ginger tea.

 

That’ll settle it’

Hopefully.