I am under attack from the vicious army of the Common Cold. A veritable squadron of coughs, sniffs and sneezes. Not to mention the hammering headache and a sore throat.
Put it simply, I have possibly the most boring illness ever. Anyone can get a cold, in fact, it seems everyone has a cold at the moment. Why not "I'm ill my nose is falling off" or "I have Unicorn Flu". The Common Cold (even its name) seriously lacks the creativity that I look for in the world. Not only is it a mundane ailment, having a cold makes you feel horrendous, yet just well enough that you feel guilty for taking a day off from busy busy life to lie in bed watching the OC boxsets. To add insult to illness, a cold has the power to completely eradicate your social life in one full sneeze after you've wiped yourself out at work/school/[insert something you have to do here].
The Beast of a cold I am currently fighting is particularly menacing and is attacking me from all angles, like I said, the gloves are off. Not fun. Yesterday, I awoke from a terrible night's sleep with a temperature, killer headache and when I attempted to blow my nose I managed to make myself so dizzy I had to sit down. Ding Ding Round One. I must admit I took the day off work. I was in no shape to look after children, unable to extract myself from my tangled sheets as I was.
Ding Ding, Round 2, I had to flake out on going for dinner with my friends. However at least it was already looking unlikely that we'd get there. Due to the inconsiderate dump of snow we had last saturday which will not budge, or melt.
Round 3, and I think I might be winning the war, even If I lost the last few battles. Feeling a little better, at least I'll be going to work tomorrow. Note to self, don't cough over the young children. Headache hammering away like the blacksmith who made the dagger that is stuck in my throat...nothing a neurofen/strepsil combo won't fix.
As ever I will try to scrape a positive spin from the bottom of the proverbial barrel. I can think of two benefits to this unimaginative and inconvenient cold.
1) I spent all day yesterday watching The OC which I thoroughly enjoyed
2) at least I caught this cold with plenty of time to beat it into submission by Christmas Day
and (Spanish Inquisition style*) 3) the snow is keeping me indoors anyway
So aside from giving me time to drool over Adam Brody, this cold sucks. Whats more is that I had finally relaxed after a ridiculously busy few weeks. Now the smug ones amongst my readership will preach that its 'textbook' to become ill in the holidays. The theory goes that we run ourselves ragged for however many weeks, relax, then BAM there it is, a stupid cold right in your face (literally). I'll admit I have been known to opine something to this effect in the past. However, those of you who are not currently coughing up your lungs over a mug of lemsip, the one sneezing all over you every 5 minutes does not want to know your stress/relaxation theory. Is it going to make them better? No. So don't even bother, it is not worth the grumpy croak of abuse that they will try to cough in your direction.
One thing I am determined to do is beat this petty, tedious sneeze-a-thon by Christmas, I will not let myself be ill, and anyone reading this I need your moral support. Anyone reading with a stinker of a cold like me, you have my sympathies and I hope you feel better soon.
At least my Christmas shopping/wrapping is done and ready, bring on Christmas Day!
Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for reading :)
*If you don't know what I am referring to, get listening to Monty Python now. Right now. No delays. I mean it.
Wednesday 22 December 2010
Sunday 19 December 2010
Ellie
On my desk there is a post-it note. Ok so in the interest of full disclosure there are 4 post-its each with a different list. Yes I have a list-making problem and I've accepted it. My lovely friend Ellie decided to deface each list when she was here and at the bottom of a list entitled blog ideas, it says "Ellie" and is circled many times. So, just for you Ellie, this blog is dedicated to my crazy friend and I have no idea how it will turn out...
Yesterday I spent the day being somewhat of a Christmas Ninja, not only did I manage to buy and wrap all of my presents I also helped to decorate our house and Christmas Tree. I even ended up spreading the Christmas spirit all the way across Sevenoaks.
Having trekked through wind and snow to reach her house I found a "grumpy gremlin" (her words not mine) in Ellie's room feeling particularly tired slash hungover.
I've known this girl since she was just 2 days old, I know that she shares my Christmas "cheer". Every year she hands me a present wrapped so beautifully I'm embarrassed to open it (or give her my slightly dog-eared present which I originally thought looked great). So to pass a bare christmas tree in the hallway and then to find Ellie's room full of presents not yet wrapped, I didn't quite know what to do.
However a cup of tea and a (large) packet of crisps later we were untangling fairy lights that looked like each light had been individually tied in a knot by the grinch himself. Lights on the tree and decorations out of the roof, another cup of tea needed now, naturally. A little coercion on my part, and a small amount of rolling her off the sofa, and we were back on track. As I left she was hanging candy canes on the tree...I think that counts as a win for my Christmas Ninja skills.
If I'm honest this is totally random but I'm proud of my powers of persuasion slash bullying to get Ellie into the Christmas spirit so why not share them with anyone who wants to know.
Added bonus; I can cross this off my list...
Yesterday I spent the day being somewhat of a Christmas Ninja, not only did I manage to buy and wrap all of my presents I also helped to decorate our house and Christmas Tree. I even ended up spreading the Christmas spirit all the way across Sevenoaks.
Having trekked through wind and snow to reach her house I found a "grumpy gremlin" (her words not mine) in Ellie's room feeling particularly tired slash hungover.
I've known this girl since she was just 2 days old, I know that she shares my Christmas "cheer". Every year she hands me a present wrapped so beautifully I'm embarrassed to open it (or give her my slightly dog-eared present which I originally thought looked great). So to pass a bare christmas tree in the hallway and then to find Ellie's room full of presents not yet wrapped, I didn't quite know what to do.
However a cup of tea and a (large) packet of crisps later we were untangling fairy lights that looked like each light had been individually tied in a knot by the grinch himself. Lights on the tree and decorations out of the roof, another cup of tea needed now, naturally. A little coercion on my part, and a small amount of rolling her off the sofa, and we were back on track. As I left she was hanging candy canes on the tree...I think that counts as a win for my Christmas Ninja skills.
If I'm honest this is totally random but I'm proud of my powers of persuasion slash bullying to get Ellie into the Christmas spirit so why not share them with anyone who wants to know.
Added bonus; I can cross this off my list...
Monday 13 December 2010
Tis the season to be busy
Advent calendar's bought and opened...check. Christmas lights on in town...check. School Carol Concert...check. It's impossible to avoid the first flakes of christmas falling like the snow around us, ready to engulf us in a flurry of merriment. I love Christmas and have been counting days since somewhere around the 55 mark. However I failed to realise, and it saddens me to say, that Christmas has become somewhat of a deadline this year.
Although on 25th December I will dive head-first into celebrating, the last week at school is littered with deadlines. Not to mention attempting to start revision for nasty january exams, playing piano in a Christmas Concert and ensuring that my friends and family have some semblance of a gift to open from me.
Christmas time is precious - what I mean by that is everything, ever, apparently must be finished by Christmas. Combine that with the smattering of celebrations that eat up time faster than you can munch a mince pie, it looks as if I'll be working in overdrive to get everything done. For fear of sounding negative let me reiterate that I love Christmas and all its related traditional meals, shopping deals and surprises. I'm not so keen on the rush to finish everything off in time for a day of eating, present-opening and eating some more. How did a religious celebration become a deadline?
You can probably tell from the lack of recent posts on my blog that I have been trapped under the snowdrift that literally and metaphorically kept me housebound for 3 days. Not only could I not open any of the external doors at home, I had so much work to do there was no point in even trying. The heaps of essays, notes and reading that have kept me buried in my house were just about melting when a fresh blizzard came my way, hitting me like a wall of A-level stress.
I guess I'm writing this in the hope that I am not the only one feeling the manic, panic leading up to the Holidays, often associated with the get-everything-done-now-so-that-I-can-relax-at-christmas plan. Am I really the only one with too much to do that I can't think about it all at once without melting my brain? Please let me know if you're in the same boat as me? If you're the one whizzing past in the speedboat of no deadlines, enjoy the ride, and keep bragging to a minimum please...
Whether you're carolling or cooking, relaxing or revising, Christmas will be a busy one this year. Whatever you do, make sure that come the 25th December you eat far too much and do absolutely nothing useful at all.
Although on 25th December I will dive head-first into celebrating, the last week at school is littered with deadlines. Not to mention attempting to start revision for nasty january exams, playing piano in a Christmas Concert and ensuring that my friends and family have some semblance of a gift to open from me.
Christmas time is precious - what I mean by that is everything, ever, apparently must be finished by Christmas. Combine that with the smattering of celebrations that eat up time faster than you can munch a mince pie, it looks as if I'll be working in overdrive to get everything done. For fear of sounding negative let me reiterate that I love Christmas and all its related traditional meals, shopping deals and surprises. I'm not so keen on the rush to finish everything off in time for a day of eating, present-opening and eating some more. How did a religious celebration become a deadline?
You can probably tell from the lack of recent posts on my blog that I have been trapped under the snowdrift that literally and metaphorically kept me housebound for 3 days. Not only could I not open any of the external doors at home, I had so much work to do there was no point in even trying. The heaps of essays, notes and reading that have kept me buried in my house were just about melting when a fresh blizzard came my way, hitting me like a wall of A-level stress.
I guess I'm writing this in the hope that I am not the only one feeling the manic, panic leading up to the Holidays, often associated with the get-everything-done-now-so-that-I-can-relax-at-christmas plan. Am I really the only one with too much to do that I can't think about it all at once without melting my brain? Please let me know if you're in the same boat as me? If you're the one whizzing past in the speedboat of no deadlines, enjoy the ride, and keep bragging to a minimum please...
Whether you're carolling or cooking, relaxing or revising, Christmas will be a busy one this year. Whatever you do, make sure that come the 25th December you eat far too much and do absolutely nothing useful at all.
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