food the enemy

The first meal after 3 days of (literally) bread and water, is most certainly the silver lining to food poisoning.

I have rarely seen food as the enemy: always it is the stuff of celebrations, feast-days and a way to everyday happiness. To look at it with suspicion and associate it with making you feel terrible is an awful way to live. It was a stern prompt to value my health much more: I really do appreciate that for some people food is a daily battle.

But, to my point: ham. Roast ham, to be specific. After 3 days with a spoon of porridge here, some dry spaghetti there, marmite toast was my gateway substance back into experiencing taste. What a world of colour after so much bland! And then on Christmas Eve I had a couple of slices of roast ham, pushed into unbuttered bread. An explosion of savoury taste sensations! Never has a slice of ham tasted so strong, so salty, so powerful. It was like tasting anew - I felt like Frankenstein's created man experiencing sensations for the first time.

My relief was great: not only did the sandwich avoid disagreeing with my stomach, but it meant I could, after all, have Christmas lunch the next day. What an alarming prospect to have been facing!

What caused the illness? I have no idea, thank goodness: as I don't know, I can't have bad associations with anything I ate the previous day. I would be loathe to make an enemy of any foodstuff for longer than 3 days. I do so hate to feud.