Decided to stay in bed after not sleeping because of a painful throat and a constant stream of mucus running down inside threatening to choke me. What with shivering and various aches, I felt terrible. But Mrs D. cares for me well. She asked if I wanted anything. A cup of tea and a couple of plain oat cakes duly arrived. It was all I could face. The only thing is that when you are not well you are supposed to get the Peter Rabbit Plate. The oat cakes were not on the Peter Rabbit plate.
The Peter Rabbit plate spends most of the time in its original cardboard box and comes out only when someone is ill. You might know the story it shows: the one in which Peter has been naughty by sneaking into Mr. McGregor’s garden and eating so many vegetables he feels sick, and Mr. McGregor spots him and chases him with a rake, and Peter gets wet hiding in a watering can but eventually makes it home tired and frightened. Then, Peter is unwell during the evening so his mother puts him to bed and makes him some camomile tea; ‘One table-spoonful to be taken at bed-time.’ It is a suitable plate for someone who is ill.
You won’t believe that I’ve never been thought ill enough for the Peter Rabbit plate. Even when I had proper flu and lost two stones in weight, or when I came home in pain after a nasty operation for an epididymal cyst, there was no Peter Rabbit plate. Mrs D. once got it. So did the children. But me, never!
The day I get the Peter Rabbit plate I shall have very grave cause for concern.
OH NO, NOT THE PETER RABBIT PLATE.......
ReplyDeletefollowed by "aaarrggghhhhh!" and then silence.
DeleteOh dear - sorry you are not feeling well Tasker. My presription is this - Get up tomorrow morning and watch England beat South Africa to secure The Rugby World Cup! If you don't feel better after that then there's no hope for you - with or without The Peter Rabbit Plate. It will be the brass plate instead "Tasker Algernon Dunham - 1940 to 2019 - R.I.P."
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that watching rugby is unlikely to make me feel any better at all. They made us play it at school. Hideous game.
DeleteI played rugby too. I loved it. What a shame that our lads in fact lost to South Africa. On the day we were beaten by a better, tougher team. When being picked for rugby I guess you were one of the last - standing next to Billy Casper and Fatty Arbuckle..."Oh! I guess we'll have to have Dunham then!"
DeleteI was the school star at sweeping up leaves and helping the gardener. They once asked me to run up and down the touchline with a handkerchief pretending to be a lineman, but I was even sacked from that (and for blowing my nose on the handkerchief).
DeleteThat's a very charming family tradition! I hope you feel better soon, with or without the Peter Rabbit plate.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked that line of kiddie's china. The only place I know to buy it here in Edmonton is at the Royal Doulton store at West Edmonton Mall.
What do you mean kiddie's china? We were both over 40 when we bought it.
DeleteWe have the same plate plus a bowl and a mug. The only worry I would have in using them with a sick person is that they might get accidentally broken because the patient might not have good coordination! Apparently ours and yours are special because they were made in England, the new ones are made in China.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am glad you are not so ill that you needed the plate.
I don't get any sympathy from anywhere. Man-flu is real you know. Women are protected by the extra X chromosome and all those hormones. I didn't realise it was special, though, possibly even more so because of the mistake in the painting of the lettering underneath.
DeleteI had my cocoa every night in the Royal Doulton bunnikins mug. I also had a dish and used to like watching the rabbits running round the edge; well it looked like that at the time.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the betting that you still do?
DeleteI had a Sooty and Sweep plate and a Noddy dish - everyday - not just when ill.
ReplyDeleteGet well soon
Thank you, plus same response as to Rachel's post above.
DeleteWe have a bunnykins Royal Doulton plate . Mummy rabbit is bathing her baby rabbits in a tin bath. She must be from up north like thee and me.
ReplyDeleteI want one. I hope you are allowed to use it, at least occasionally.
DeleteI have a Bunnykins bowl which is perfect for a serving of four Wheatabix; I used to like making the remaining milk line up with the river view in the picture. Alas the bowl still lives at my mum's house so I haven't used it for some time.
DeleteFour! That's a big bowl. As regards the milk line, it's nearly as obsessive as me. It really bothers me that I didn't get the plate completely level in the first picture.
DeleteI will put in a blog post for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to think I might have started something.
DeleteMy daughter received the Peter Rabbit and Bunnykins sets for her christening and all we have left are the cups from each. I didn't know they make them in China now. Not the same.
ReplyDeleteHope you get over your man-flu soon despite not having the Peter Rabbit plate.
It would seem ours owes its survival to having remained safe in its cardboard box.
DeleteIt seems your Peter Rabbit plate has not survived so much as moldered, shut away so long in the box. Even it may have contracted man flue, shut away there in the dark. I'd ask Mrs. D to bring it out to check.
ReplyDeleteWe'd better make it some camomile tea immediately.
DeleteI hope you already feel a little better today, and will be right as rain again soon.
ReplyDeleteI have a set of Brambly Hedge cup, saucer and plate, which I bought for myself when I was already in my 20s. The mug is still my favourite one when I want to drink some hot vegetable broth spiced with ginger. It is my preferred way to fend off a cold.
It sounds as if crockery animals might have medicinal properties. Not sure about vegetable broth and ginger, though. I'd probably risk camomile/chamomile tea first.
DeleteA lovely story! You obviously touched a few chords with this.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carol. I'm beginning to think rather a lot of people have favourite plates and cups.
DeleteAh, I love both that story of Peter Rabbit and your story of the Peter Rabbit plate. I should think that your proper flu would have merited receiving the plate!
ReplyDeleteI should have mentioned that when I had proper flu it started on Christmas Eve so received little sympathy from the rest of the family.
DeleteTasker, Last Winter I invested in a jar of New Zealand Manuka Honey.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly I had no colds, flu or any regular Sinus problems. Looks like it's time to get another jar.
Love the Peter Rabbit plate.
I actually have a whole set of china Snowmen from the Raymond Briggs story.
Thought for a moment you were selling it. I read something recently about honey being one of the things that blocks the receptors through which cold germs get in. Not sure it has to be specifically Manuka honey.
DeleteWell it's a few days since your one of bed rest- hopefully you're back in the world of the living, not feeling grotty (or snotty)
ReplyDeletePeter Rabbit needs to come out into the open instead of living his life in a cardboard burrow - that way he'd be able to signal (maybe wiggle his ears) when he thought he could be of use as a pick me up for anyone feeling poorly enough to stay abed:)
Thanks. So all you would be able to see of him would be his ears sticking out of the bed clothes wiggling? I am much better but Mrs D. caught it. She refused the Peter Rabbit plate.
Delete