"Going anywhere interesting?" Another bit of automatic speak, this time from a man in a travel shop who assumes that I am going anywhere at all, which I may or may not be. "Usual," I say, a recent defence against this new kind of small talk. "Going on holiday?" another shop person says, "Sort of," I say.
"Oat straw flower, licorice root, chamomile flower, lavender flower, lime flower, valerian root, tulsi leaf," so reads the list of ingredients on the packet of Pukka Night Time, a herbal tea promoting "peaceful sleep". I normally sleep peacefully but some who don't tell that they do after a cup of it in the evening. I try some and find that when I wake I remember my dreams which is unusual for me.
1 comment:
I always think there's a degree of one-upmanship in spelling chamomile with an aitch. Years ago there was a TV adaptation, The Camomile Lawn, which was aitch-less. But that's telly for you
- hinting at but ultimately denying you the finer things in life.
I'd got valerian completely wrong, imagining it to be some kind of herbal threat rather than a soporific. Perhaps because the first three letters made it cognate (I'm sure I haven't got this right either, but I'm determined to use it) with valedictory. The Herbal Goodbye might work as a novel title but only if valerian, taken in a sufficiently large dose. could effect someone's quietus.
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