State of denial

FRANKLY, I don’t think being in a state of denial comes naturally to me. But you don’t get better at something by not doing it, so I’ve been practicing assiduously for two weeks.

Now I’m just about swallowing my husband’s idea that his hip replacement is going to serve as some sort of light relief or jolly jape after the excoriating business of our daughter’s neurosurgery 10 weeks ago.

It strikes me that being — never mind remaining — in a state of denial is exactly like patching up a clinker-built boat, which incidentally, is a heartfelt analogy, for we used to have an old timber clinker when the kids were small, and patching up a clinker takes a lot of work.