Too Much of a Good Thing

Brought up to be weary of medicine (never mind my inability to swallow pills bigger than a dust particle) and to trust natural remedies instead, my first instinct to fight against the first signs of a cold is to inhale salt water.

This time, I must have OD-ed on the salt, though, dissolving a good handful of good (from the Himalayas, no less) cooking salt in boiling water. I only noticed when on Tuesday morning, my sweet breakfast tasted campari-bitter. I first thought the jam had gone mouldy or the bread roll had been stored next to something salty at the baker's. Then I nibbled some trail mix with chocolate and noticed the same phenomenon. Yikes.

Slightly worried, I picked my brain about possible causes, blaming the cold remedy I had taken on Monday night until it dawned on me yesterday that the strange after-taste was salty rather than bitter. I imagined my throat lined with salt crystals, stalactite cave style. I told myself that it might be a good thing in disguise - if sweets taste bad after you have ingested them you might go off them for a while. It's gradually wearing off today and I am after all rather relieved that chocolate doesn't taste like poison anymore.