Ironing and the purpose driven life away from the toilet

930am on New Year's morning and I am ironing the two trousers and the one shirt in the tub because I am feeling some kind of buzz even though I had spent most of the night before in the toilet or being anxious about going to the toilet or thinking of 2017.


Ironing seems to be a stoic thing to do, resistance to succumbing to the feelings of negativity and fufiling purpose without distractions. And it is not much ironing.

There is an irony in how the gluttony of the season this time has ended in a serious belly wuk.

9am on Old Year's day I know I should not be indulging in the final bit of gluttony on a stomach which had started to feel weird.. maybe from fruits rescued from flood waters or other things.

10am on Old Year's day I drink a gravol tablet to deal with the nausea. There were warnings about how it knocks you out. I get knocked out and the body seems to slow down.
The nausea subsides, the head feels heavy, the stomach is still weird.
I drink clove and tumeric and eat ginger in the hope that I could sleep through the squibs and bombs.
I am repelled by food.

Belly wuk in the night with a head heavy with gravol is a kind of punishment. 2017 looms as I change sheets and pajamas in a methodical way. A separate person is doing this while the other person wanders why now.. what omens for 2017?.
Some omen as I realise the separate body, detached from worries and fireworks and squibs is my nurse..I am my own nurse.

I find two lomotil to drink. The belly wuk and squibs continue during the night. I catch a glimpse of fireworks and I think I should go take a look but part of me is like the fireworks at this time is a mockery.

The body though dozes off lightly as though to jerk up to rush off and come back.
Dreams in between.

At one point on old year's night, I mix up the Oral Rehydration Salts(ORS) solution and drink some.  Champagne for 2017.. the ORS.

I manage to get up on New Year's morning . I drink more lomotil and ORS . The ORS works better than caffeine I think. I feel buzzy like I can do anything...the ORS seems to nurture the nurse

So I iron... and I contemplate packing the wardrobe and other things.. I start thinking of work things. A woman had asked me about resolutions and I had explained that I had given up on plans etc since none of them came through and I live day to day, moment to moment.

Nice conversation with a woman who is moving from one interesting place to another. She told me about antibiotics she had to take for belly wuk. Another woman tells me to boil up guava bark. A man tells me boil guava leaf and clove.

An email from a loved one a hundred years ago tells of music and mountains and travelling and progressive and interesting work and offers a nice distraction like the ironing and a sense of possibilities.

A phone call from a loved one who is married.. brief call.. has me wondering whether to hell with it.. indulge in adultery as the sins are already being paid for and I end up stuttering and stumbling rather than being pleasant and engaging.

I overdose on the lomotil which is not working because it helps to supress until it wears off.. .. temporary relief like the gluttony did with the mental health issues.

Night 2 is better.. wake up at 3am to go to toilet and doze and dream and rush again and then too scared to sleep and I see the place get bright. I start to think of reasons for all of this and work and things.

I drink more ORS solution at 5am.


Another woman tells me that the belly wuk is a good sign, that the year can only get better. I start a dry cough though on the morning of the second day and I imagine that better might mean learning to deal with belly wuk and dry cough.


I take time to go to the 24 hour pharmacy in the hope I might get something else other than have to contemplate guava bark. The pharmacy is closed.

I take it as a sign that I will have to deal with whatever comes.

The ORS solution might become a habit.