The Cold of Winter

Hi lovely readery peoples, how has your January gone so far? Sadly for me, mine hasn't really got started due to the dreaded cold, flu and general all round sickness which has made bed seem like the best location in the world and soup more appealing than sex with chocolate on top, well, only when the cold relief capsules and sinus spray haven't kicked in.

Over Christmas I came down with something that was more of a bad cold than a flu, I tried to kill it off with whiskey and cold relief medication and this either contributed to it's downfall or the virus realised it had a problem and checked in to AA then took up religion. So, as it turned out, I was just feeling better the week after New Years. I got a good week of a fully functioning face without leaks and I even joined another gym with Norngirl. We're not total newbies to the gym but we'd only ever joined our local council one before and now we're attending a cheaper but much shinier one in town. We've made it 3 times so far and there are some fun looking machines to bend you every which way but the the treadmill is still my favourite and this one is very cool... literally, they all have in built fans with 3 settings. It's like running through the streets especially since they have several in the windows looking over the square.

Then from no where came along the reformed virus, born again from the afterlife and looking to convert my cells. *blaaaaaaarrgurghhhhhh*. The day after our 3rd trip, I got the start of a sore throat, that turned into a head cold. By Thursday it had me falling asleep at my mother-in-laws house after work and I dropped into my bed at home soon after 8pm. If I'm in bed without wife or laptop before 11pm at night there is usually something amiss. A long night of fever and sweats followed.

As an undiagnosed idiot (at least not legally) who doesn't wish to be penalised by his workplace for having the audacity to be off sick when I am actually sick, you know, just in case I'm actually sick again later in the year with something I can't physically walk with - I went to work anyway (everyone else does). I felt oddly alert that first day but I think that was more to do with the caffeine in the cold relief capsules, the plentiful supply of snack sized Haribo and throat lozenges that I was using as an aid to create a hole in my neck to get some air in my lungs. Ta Santa! Friday was a harder slog and I was far off the mental and physical pace but each night I had chance to recuperate and I got the work done I had to do.

By the weekend I could narrow it down, it seems I had caught myself some seasonal flu, aka man flu, that scourge of the male psyche, maybe a viral pathogen dreamt up by a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who had gone through a bad break up with a man and wanted revenge and to also make millions of dollars in the process by selling relief that involved making men visit chemists.
I wonder if there will be a mad scientist one day who will come onto a show like Dragons Den and ask for all their money under the condition that otherwise that they will release 'Women's flu' into the populous. No doubt the money lenders will all be sceptical and ask for a demonstration then all we'll see is Deborah stating that she must keep working as she falls asleep drooling phlegmy saliva onto her pile of cash.

So yeah, so far it's not been a brilliant start to the year. Norngirl is under the weather too health-wise. So we're hoping we get well soon and can kick start 2011 again.
On the positive side. With half a month of 2011 gone, one of the vaguely held bucket list of to-dos is ticked off with getting back to a gym, it's stereotypical timing but I won't let that deter us try to look after our health since I'll be happy to not have a face full of snot at some point. One thing that has been surprising, but in retrospect understandable, is the amount of times I've burnt my tongue with hot liquids. Being slightly doped up with the cold relief - a little out of it with the symptoms of the flu and the amount of hot drinks and soups consumed - it all stands to reason. But it's still a stupid thing to do to yourself, a life lesson to be learnt there somewhere.

Other positive news is that we're getting stuck into some DVD box-sets, namely all of the Benidorm seasons which we finished on Sunday and now can't wait for the next season (RIP Mel of course). Next stop is digging our teeth into season 1 of Enterprise, 4 episodes in at the moment.
We know its the least popular of all the Star Treks but I haven't seen all of them and Norngirl is willing to give them a try, so we're going all out.

In other news, Dean the fish is still alive and swimming, the football season is going better than expected and we ran out of gas again... though Dean doesn't mind, he quite likes the cold. Hopefully my sinuses will let me stay out of the house for longer periods soon and I might have more than just the rest of the highlights from NYC to blog about :)

Feel free to post your stories or links to yours pages in the comments section about how your year has gone so far, hopefully you've had more luck than us so far!