Snotember

I came home early today. I've been fighting this bloody cold all week, and dragging myself through the workday despite feeling like utter bilge, but by lunchtime today my head was pounding so much I could hardly see, so I gave in and gave up and came home for an afternoon nap.
It's funny how different people that I work with react differently to the fact that I am poorly. You know I cover three different sites, right, although most of my time is spent at one particular location, as it's bigger and busier? Right, well yesterday I took myself and my sniffles over to one of the other sites for the whole day. Of the four permanent members of staff who frequent the office, one threw a box of echinacea tablets at me as soon as I walked in the door, one spent the entire time I was there with a mask firmly stuck to her face and with a hospital-sized bottle of hospital-strength sanitiser sat on her desk within arm's reach, one kept making me hot drinks and offering to get me a hot water bottle, and the other one called me a child and told me to get on with it and stop behaving like I had pneumonia.  

With the weather being damper and colder, and with my body being under attack from shitty germs, I have noticed a return of the knee pain that was troubling me earlier this year. I have also been waking up with an unpleasant stiffness and discomfort in my problematic shoulder, that has given me a few niggly issues in the past.  I remember an old relative who always used to moan about Autumn and Winter because 'the damp air's a bugger for my rheumatism' and I think I'm starting to understand what she was complaining about. And I realise, with a shock and horror, that I am starting to get old. Next thing you know, I'll be wearing extra layers, even in Summer, and taking up residence in the nearest armchair to the heaters. Electric blankets will start to look attractive, and a nice mug of Horlicks will tempt me more than a mug of coffee or a Guinness. I might even start watching 'Countdown'. The passing of time is inevitable, and I am noticing it more and more.

RC 30-9-22