A sleepless night but a less ill one. I felt strong enough in the morning that I accommpanied the Gentleman Friend on a 5km walk to Ostend, the nearest town, there to buy some groceries. It was a plesaant walk past fields and vieyards and hills and bays and marshes. Along the way we saw, of all things, a hedgehog. Brought up on English children’s books, I thought it charming but I gather it’s quite the pest here in New Zealand. Anyhow, it was very cute, just ambling across the road into the grass where it found a potato chip. After eating it it snuggled up in a little grassy stand and seemed to go to sleep. We also saw some of the native pigeons, massive, clumsy creatures with a habit of getting drunk on rotting fruit and falling out of trees. Given the size of the creatures I would not like to be standing underneath one.
In Ostend we went to an excellent cafe with a preternaturally friendly owner and superb cakes, bought some supplies including a tray of oysters for pre-lunch (I spat out a tiny living crab which slightly put me off my oysters). And then back by bus, and I’ve since been slow and tired and sniffly but not feverish any longer. Tomorrow I intend to be recovered.