Growing up as a schoolchild in the seventies with red hair
could be challenging. My mum always used to say, “you’ve got to learn to fight
your own battles”. A harsh lesson I
thought, as bullying is a difficult one to overcome. But look at me now, standing on my own two
feet, with my own little business with the support of my lovely family and
friends. For the last four days I have been fighting another horrible battle, which
couldn’t have come at a worse time for me.
Chicken pox is a pretty awful disease in it's own right and if unlucky enough to catch it in adulthood, it is 10 times worse. (No I am not making it up, check it out on
the internet!) Thankfully today, I had
my mum with me who has prevented me from going into mental decline of continued
isolation and my mother-in-law keeping my son entertained at hers for the
day. I am so grateful to them both and also to my friend who stepped in to look after my boy yesterday, despite having 3 kids of her own.
I have had lots of SMS well-wishers, calls and also emails from complete strangers empathising with my situation.
So at precisely this moment in time, I was supposed to be at
a proper bakery, mixing up some 55 kilos of dough, in preparation for a big
bake-off in their bread oven at some unsociable hour of Friday morning. As I reported last time, I was supposed to be
representing myself at the Kings Walden Farmers Market at 11am on Friday [ok, ok,
you don’t have to plug it anymore… inner monologue]. I am devastated that I can no longer fulfil that
obligation, owing to the growing number of blisters breaking out in every area
of my body. According to my research, I
could still be manufacturing these little blighters well into Saturday, so I am
not yet sure when I will resume ‘normal’ baking. New information will be posted up here and on
my Jo’s Loaves FaceBook page as and when I am creating nice little crusts of my
own… (sorry, couldn’t resist!)
I was going to put some pictures up that my mum and I took
today, but you’ll be pleased to know, I thought better of it. Not a pretty sight, but we had fun doing it.
Next Bake Day: TBC
