woolly socks and snotty nose

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cold, flue, hot tea, quote, runny nose, snot, snotty nose, staying home, toilet paper

Three days after the first appearance of my runny nose it has not erected  a snot producing factory and has been happily making me blow my nose every few minutes. Because of this tissues and toilet paper have become an increasingly rare and valued commodity along with fresh lemons and honey.

So today I have decided to give this cold one more chance to vacate my body and am staying in with my woolly socks pulled up and a cup of steaming fluid in my hand. No rushing about, no leaving the house, no stress of any kind, just pure relaxation.

Hopefully this will lure the cold out from my head and into the wild, leaving me free of snot, sneezes and throat tickles. But for now I will curl up with a good book, a few movies and a box of soft hankies.

And tomorrow, well I will just have to come up with a plan of how to forcefully evict this annoying head cold.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

American civil rights activist: Fannie Lou Hamer

theater and tissues, going to see Ballyturk

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Ballyturk, Cillian Murphy, cold, Enda Walsh, flue, Galway International Arts Festival, Mikel Murfi, runny nose, Stephen Rea, writer and director Enda Walsh

Tonight I am going to the theater with friends, long planned and finally here. We are going to see the new play written and directed by Enda Walsh: Ballyturk. 

It opened last month at the Galway International Arts Festival and has been talked about ever since. Ballyturk is set in a fictional noplace and deals with existence and the brevity of life, a mix of silly, funny, sad and deep.

Staring one of my favourite actors Stephen Rea – who I met on Christmas Eve a few years back (but that is another story), alongside Cillian Murphy and Mikel Murfi, Ballyturk promises to be a great night out and I am really looking forward to tonight.

The only problem is that my nose is still running and I will have to figure out how to discreetly clean my nose, after all there is nothing worse than sneezing, coughing and nose blowing to ruin a trip to the theater.

And then there is the issue of my bag, normally one takes I like to take a smaller bag with me when I go out, but the piles of tissues I am going to need demands a bigger bag. This then, in turn, will effect my outfit, oh the life of one afflicted with a runny nose.

But I am determined to make theater and tissues work!

Mikel Murfi, Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea in Ballyturk

 

 

home remedies

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breath of fresh air, cold, flue, health, home remedies, home remedy, hot toddy, lemsip, self medication, snotty nose

My snotty nose has called a few friends and Mr. Sore Throat, Ms Slight Headache and Tiny Cough have now joined the game. This ragtag band of symptoms  is causing me some discomfort but since my students all have ‘end of the projects’ to finish up and my Berlin aspirations still need some funding I have to put on a  brave face to go with my red nose and lecture on.

To help me  along I have gone down the route of self-medication.  Yesterday I bought some nasal spray, a mentholy breath of fresh air in a bottle,  some Lemsip, a drugged up hot-drink, and a truck load of tissues. But deep down I am much more a home remedy girl.

My German grandmother use to say that a cold takes seven days to clear up without medication and a week with them. And I think that probably is very true. In my experience the only thing that really helps is a good combination of lots of hot drinks, sleep and staying warm. But since it seems a little inappropriate to doze off in front of my students wrapped up in a sleeping bag the napping will have to wait until later this afternoon.

Another favourite of mine is freshly pressed lemon juice, lots of honey and hot water all mixed up into a throat soothing brew.  However I don’t really have the time or resources to conjure up this cold killing drink while teaching so Lemsip will have to take it’s place until I get home.

And finally my dads favourite of a few hot toddies (whiskey, hot water and honey) is probably the best way to kill off those naughty bacterias and viruses that are plaguing the body, or at the very least get them drunk enough to forget what they were doing.  However I am unsure of how to explain the alcohol breath to my boss and a hangover is not very conducive to early mornings and structured teaching, so again that particular home remedy will have to wait.

SO for now my artillery of medication, warm clothing and a flask of hot tea will have to help me battle on for the next few days and I am sure in a a week or seven days time my unwanted guest will have sough out a new body to occupy.