I got sent home early from work today, because I look so hideous. Can you believe it?? Okay, nobody actually said that, but I do. I was scaring the customers with my giant, swollen red nose, leaky eyes and hacking cough. In case you think I normally look like that, I've actually got my first cold in nearly three years, and it's a corker. I'm single-handedly keeping the tissue industry afloat. Because I can't taste anything I thought I'd eat something healthy for dinner last night that would normally make me gag, but it didn't work because it was spinach and I realised it's the texture I'm not keen on (slimy.) Ho-hum.
My plan for getting on with it, now I've got more writing time, was given a boost at the weekend by my lovely mother-in-law flying off to Australia for a month. As she doesn't live far from us, and we're keeping an eye on the house anyway, I've been popping round there in the mornings with Laptop and being Productive. It's very peaceful there. There's no Internet. It's spotlessly clean and tidy. There are plenty of teabags. There are no teenagers lurching about demanding food and lifts. There's no Molly-dog nudging my hand for a game of grab-the-sock (we know how to live in our 'ouse), although I don't mind that so much.
The trouble is, it's bloody freezing. She lives in one of those lovely, big old rambling places that are hard to heat in the first place, with proper sash windows (none of the wussy double-glazing that we've got) and gappy doors, and only a couple of radiators. I tried wrapping up well in a big coat, fluffy earmuffs, fingerless gloves and thick socks and taking a flask of soup with me yesterday, but her neighbour (who's also 'keeping an eye out') peered through the window at one point, after spotting me propped in the 'old lady' chair by the window, and practically had a seizure.
So unless the weather warms up over the next three weeks I'm just going to have to brave it out at home. Maybe if I keep the earmuffs on I'll be able to ignore the distractions.
20 comments:
Get well soon! If it makes you feel better I would love to be sent home...for anything at all! :)
Poor you feeling so ghastly, I hope you're much better soon. x
But real writers are meant to SUFFER!
Get well soon, Karen. You're suffering for your art - I sympathise. I may be a northern Scot (though softened by many years' living in the South with the Sassenach's) but I've never been able to abide the cold. You'd have to jog up and down the corridors to keep warm but how you'd manage to control soggy tissues and an inspired pen at the same time, I don't know! x
Go forth to bed with your laptop, VIC Vapour rub, hot water bottle and a family sized bar of chocolate (for energy, of course). Hope you recovery soon m'dear
:O Tommox
Aww, get well soon, Karen. Colds at this time of year always seem worse, somehow.
TF's prescription sounds perfect. When you're better, you need to wear a woolly hat while at your
M-I-L's (as well as everything else - not instead of).
You do look a bit ill in that picture:-)
Agree with TF. Bed. It's the only place. A cold is miserable enough without being cold with a cold - if you see what I mean.
Get well soon m'dear.
Get well soon, Karen.
Yes do get well soon. Hugs and Vodka-lemsips coming your way :-)
Hope you feel better soon x
Get well soon!
Eeeewgh. So sorry to hear you feel awful. Hope you get better soon.
Get well soon, Karen - and keep writing :-))
x
Poor Karen!
Can you use the hankie mountain as inspiration? (ski slopes, ice cream, other piles of white fluffy things that won't come to mind right now...)
The image of you all wrapped up made me laugh.
Seriously though, keep warm and rest, spoil yourself with hot toddies and get lost in a book or a film. Forget writing till you are better.
So sorry you are feeling poorly. Poor neighbour, did she have a Norman Bates moment when she saw you in the chair!!
Hope you gets loads of writing done but look after yourself first!!
Michelle
x
Drink lots of water, and rub wonderful Vicks Vaporub/Methylatum (probably mispelled) all around your nosey, upper lip, cheeks, temples (AVOID EYES!!). Breathe deeply. And sleep as much as you can.
And then, you'll wake up from your nap with a brand new thought to put on paper!
Come along, pull yourself together. A bit of misery works wonders for us writerly types.
(And cake has no cals when you're poorly, just in case you didn't know)
Better soon get, as Yoda would say.
X
wow! a blog about books, words, and dogs.
i am settling in here. this will be my new home!
kerry - That's a fair point and did make me feel better :o)
debs - Thanks. I tried not to milk it too much!
dumdad - But being snotty is SO unattractive :o(
lorna f - I plumped for the cissy radiatored warmth at home in the end :o) Visited Aberdeen once and I'd never been so cold in my entire life!!
tommo - Ooh, I never liked that vapour rub! My gran used to smother us in the stuff - even when we weren't ill. (Not really)
patp - LOL at the thought of not wearing anything but a woolly hat!! That WOULD have given her neighbour a shock :o)
lane - That was the most flattering shot as well. Feeling much less red-nosed now thank goodness :o
Thanks Jan, Tam, Helen and Honeysuckle - hope I haven't shared my germs!!
amanda - I actually found writing a lovely distraction :o)
bernadette - It's definitely worth a try...I can usually find inspiration in most things!
cait o' connor - To be honest I was a bit too wrapped up to write properly, but my fingers were too cold without the gloves!
mickmouse - It was definitely a Norman Bates moment, poor woman. I had to dash out and explain but she didn't look convinced :o))
bfs - Sound advice, especially drinking lots of water which I never do enough of at the best of times :o)
sprialskies - I'm glad you said that about cake - it probably has even less calories when you can't taste it properly because of having a bunged up nose :o)
laurie - Welcome! I don't usually talk about snotty noses so ignore that bit :o)
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