cold season

Tags

cold, cold season, getting sick, health, hot tea, oranges, staying healthy, Vitamin C

Like so many who stand in front of a class and teach getting sick is part of the course. After all when you are surrounded by pupils, no matter what the age, you’re bound to pick up a few bacteria and viruses, no matter how often you wash your hands.

Yesterday, as I was explaining how to create templates, I felt that unwelcome tickle at the back of my throat. As I took a sip of hot tea, my constant companion when I lecture is a flask filled with herbal tea, I had the sudden realisation that cold season is back.

Since I don’t have the time to get sick right now I decided to try and take it easy for the next few days, drink lots of fluids and make sure my vitamin C intake is high. After all we all know the best way to get rid of those pesky germs is to stay warm, hydrate and rest.

So as soon as I got home I put on a pair of woolly socks, cuddled up in my shawl and spent a few hours avoiding my desk while drinking honeyed tea and eating a few oranges. And I have to say I think it may have done the trick for now as today I feel so much better, the tickle is gone and I hope it stays away.

 

woolly socks and snotty nose

Tags

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

cracked and shattered

Tags

broken pieces, cracks, hairline crack, hot tea, meredith brooks, mug, mug of tea, music, psychology, shatterd, transient nature

A few weeks ago I noticed that my favorite mug has a crack … a big, long one down the side. I got quite upset when I saw it, but the crack hasn’t opened up, it doesn’t leak and the mug is still whole.

But seeing the crack in my red and white polka-dotted mug every morning makes me think of all those cracks we carry within us. We have all lived through situations  when we’ve thought we would shatter, break apart. But somehow our inner glue holds us together and over times seems to mend the cracks. But like in pottery these inner cracks may be sealed, but they are still there, making us vulnerable.

Our first heartbreak makes us more cautious. Our fist rejection letter makes us more aware of our abilities. The first time someone we love dies, makes us understand our transient nature. But all these little cracks make us who we are, make us unique, just like my big red and white mug with a hairline crack running down its side.

And while I was pondering these thoughts, a song I loved back in my twenties came on the radio, it was Meredith Brooks singing ‘Shattered’. How apt.

So while I have a lovely but busy day today and the next five days will be filled with “things-I-need-to-do-before-Berlin“, I feel shattered, not just cracked. Hopefully that means I’ll make it to bed early and wake up fresh in the morning to savour some hot tea from my favourite mug. Sadly I know it is probably only a matter of time before the crack becomes a tear and then it will shatter. But when that happens maybe I can make something out of the broken pieces and it would be  great excuse to by a new favorite mug.

my cracked mug

 

 

cold day

Tags

cold, head ache, health, hot lemon and honey, hot tea, hot water bottle, miscellaneous, random, sick-day, staying home

When I woke up this morning my body was not very happy. A headache, sore throat and a bit of a temperature. Of course by boss was not impressed when I called in sick today. But the idea of standing in front of students and talking all day just made me curl up in bed, my throat throbbing and a cough tickling my tonsils.

So I decided the better idea was to stay put for the day and battle teaching again tomorrow. Once I had given myself permission to submit to being unwell, funnily enough I felt much better.  Staying in my PJs and cuddling a hot-water bottle I have spent the morning reading, sleeping and sipping hot tea.

Now with my head-ache dissipating and the day turning into evening I feel much better and have started preparing my classes for tomorrow. But while I was typing I started thing about how people use to “convalesce” at home or away when they felt unwell.

In Jane Austen’s books and in Downton Abbey times it seems as if the women and men of a certain era thought it completely normal to take time out from everyday live and relax. to just give in to those little niggling pains and colds for a bit and de-stress. So while I can’t jump on a boat and travel to Bath or the Swiss Alps, a day in my Pjs feels like a good substitute.

As my hot-water bottle needs a refill, as does my cup of hot lemon and honey, I’ll pull up my wooly socks and stagger into the kitchen. And I believe I even have some soup in the fridge, the universal cure for the common cold.

tickles in my throat

Tags

cold, health, hot tea, miscellaneous, random, vitamin c intake, watery eyes

A sneeze woke me up this morning and much to my surprise it was my very own (it would have surprised me even more if it had been someone elses as I live and sleep alone). And the sneeze brought a few friends,  swollen nose, watery eyes, a tiny headache and tickles in my throat.

While the warmth of my bed was trying to pull me back into dreamland I dragged myself into the bathroom and got ready for the day. I just can’t afford (literally) to be sick right now, and as I hate being unwell I have decided to stick it out till the weekend and hope Mister Sneeze and his friends decided to pack up and leave.

So while I still have one session left to teach for today and two days of entertaining students lie before me I can’t help but yearn for the weekend even if it is only Tuesday. But with a full day of lectures on my timetable for tomorrow and a few hours scribbled in for Thursday the week stretches out quite long before me.

Sadly all I can do for now is battle down the hatches, drink lots of hot tea, look after my Vitamin C intake and try and get a good few hours of sleep. So while I pack my bag for this evenings lesson, I pop in a lozenges and hope the lemony- honey goodness will kill all those annoying and pesky germs.  And who knows maybe my students won’t notice my blurry eyes or believe I just have a hang-over. And if I am lucky they’ll all be sick next week giving me a few free hours.