Not well!

I have a cold.

I’ve had it for several days, starting with a nagging sore throat like someone had tipped a load of broken glass into my throat as I slept, then progressing onto a nose that ran like Niagara Falls, and which then blocked up like a drain full of cooking fat (yuk – nasty image!) needing Dyno Rod to clear it. Now, it’s just left me feeling generally below par and with an occasional nagging cough which will probably take weeks to go.

Of course it’s only to be expected and it’s incredible that it has taken a whole week since panto for me to get ill. In fact hardly anyone was ill during the panto run at all, which must be a record. There’s usually at least one panic as a principal loses their voice and crawls into the dressing room croaking “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve lost my voice. Can someone sing for me tonight?”.

Naturally as a female I have soldiered on! Despite feeling like rubbish, I’ve persevered and gone to work, done a gym induction, done all the chores and brought the ironing and the admin up to date. If I was a bloke (cue outraged denials from any men reading this), I would have claimed to have had man-flu!

I did have a flu jab this year, which I firmly believe helps stop you getting colds and similar minor ailments too badly even though they tell you it doesn’t. I have experienced similar illness patterns in previous years when I’ve had one of these, and not been nearly so ill with bronchial stuff as in the years when I don’t. They dole flu jabs out at work for free, so it’s a minor inconvenience and they have never given me a mild dose of the flu either, which some people claim they do.

You’d think by now that some bright scientist would have developed a prevention for viral stuff wouldn’t you? They seem to pay scientists to research the bleeding obvious most of the time, so why not pay them to do something that’s useful for a change? Surely there must be some university academic that is currently under-utilised and who would welcome the opportunity to squander several year’s worth of public money developing a cure/preventative treatment for the common cold?

Until they do, I suppose we all just have to soldier on making a fortune for Kleenex and Beechams in the process. Perhaps there already is a cure, but its all a plot by the pharmaceutical companies to retain their profits? Who knows?

At the  moment, I look like Rudolph on a bad day and no amount of make up can disguise it. Maybe that’s an opening in the market – viral symptom disguising make up? Hmmm, thinking caps on!