illness and general whinging

Since Saturday I've had an acutely painful mouth ulcer thing, which means that I can't talk, eat, or smile without wincing horribly and/or involuntarily crying, and I wake up in the night every time the painkillers wear off. This feels like a particularly stupid and pointless way to be unwell, especially since I am not visibly ill enough to cancel all my work meetings and stay in bed.

I'm also just embarrassed by the heavy-handed literalness of this, like - could it be that I am feeling silenced and plunged into a constant state of misery by the current political disaster?? I knew that already, thanks, I did not need to embody it.

I think that I owe various people comments, or replies, or fic. Oddly, though, trying to be very quiet in real life also translates into being quiet online rather than the reverse.

On the bright side I have concluded that Isle of Harris gin, drunk neat with lots of ice, is medicine, on the grounds that it is made with sea kelp, is very very expensive, and comes in a blue glass bottle.