Ello all.

Quiet here today, innit?

Where are you all?

Off having fun, no doubt.

Well more fun than me anyway -- the reason I haven't been around all week is that I went to a fantastically enjoyable wedding last Saturday (aren't they always? I'm such an old softie) and got back late Sunday. Yes it was a very good party . . .

Anyway, I then started a ridiculously busy work week, then on Tueday came down with the most disgusting cold I've had in years. Felt so awful I couldn't bear the idea of staring at a bright screen. Hence my absence.

And so now I'm hugely behind with everything and have to work all weekend to catch up.

Though as a desperate measure to cheer myself up, I did go out and buy WOLP yesterday. Hurrah!!

No time to read it though.

So I thought I'd see if you lot were around to cheer me up . . .

Moan moan moan



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

I'm here at the moment, but not for too much longer as I've errands to run. I've been hanging about this morning waiting for the expected folks to come clear up the huge tree branch that fell onto my mother's pereniall bed during a storm yesterday, but I've seen no sign of them so far.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

I'm here, for a little while: As it's the first Saturday of my Summer holidays I didn't have to go into work this morning and in fact chose not to get up until shortly before noon... I'm currently using one of the computers at the llocal ibrary, but time on that is rationed (maximum of 2 hours, then at least an hour's break before a person can log on again) and as they close at 5pm on Saturdays I won't be able to log on again later today. Expect me again at some point during Monday afternoon...

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

Hi - I'm around, every now and then, in between catching up with my blog friends and reading the absolutely wonderful book which has just been lent to me by Simon. I work my socks off during the week, so this is a highly enjoyable lazy Saturday!

Hope you get rid of the remains of the cold soon - colds are especially tiresome during the summer (eh... all right, then, what passes for the summer in this fair land). Next time you get a cold, try taking echinacea as soon as you start to feel ill. It won't generally stop it altogether, but what it will definitely do is reduce the duration, which is no bad thing!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

i've been too busy moving house and i still don't have internet at home...

it will be another 2 weeks probably... but we will be getting wireless broadband woooo

I usually stave off the worst of a cold by taking loads of vitamin C and raw garlic (ok so you can use garlic capsules but I like raw garlic) as soon as I start to feel ill. Works wonders.

This cold came on too rapidly for that to help, though.

My favourite trick for dealing with colds once you've got one goes like this:

1) Pour one 1/4-pint glass of orange juice.

2) Find a jar of the hottest cayenne pepper money can buy.

3) Take a heaped teaspoonful of the cayenne and mix it into the orange juice; stir thoroughly

4) Knock back the mixture in one go.


Once you've recovered from the shock, you really will feel a lot better. Honest. No really it's true.

No idea why, mind you.



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

Yes, well, if that doesn't clear your passages nothing will!

I never could knock anything back in one go. I think I'll stick to hot whiskey toddy when I have a cold; this is sipped delicately, and is very comforting. I tend to go fairly easy on the whiskey, adding just enough to take off the excessive sweetness of the generous dollop of honey (the honey is wonderful for soothing the throat).



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Hot honey and lemon drink just before bed is the best thing I've found for a cold. I'm on anti-depressants so have to be very careful about taking any cough medicine, but a tablespoon of honey and the juice of a lemon mixed up into a hot drink (add boiling water to taste) soothes the throat and helps you sleep. And it tastes heaps better than any cough medicine I've ever tried.

Oh, I like the taste of Benylin (brand of cough medicine). I'm quite happy to take a good dose of that when necessary !

I was doing a temp job a few years ago and was chatting with others at the same desk. Oliver, the rather quiet music graduate, suddenly announced that he had pushed a dried pea up his nose when he was three.
"Mind you, I was high on Benylin at the time," he added.



I'm knackered at the moment. I've spent the evening dusting, sorting and reshelving books. Today I organized about 290 books, booklets and bound volumes. I've rediscovered the living room table and parts of the games room floor. Can't be more than 1,000 or so more volumes to go........

(And why do I have two identical books about Sheffield's cinemas ?)

I'm not all here. I'm never quite all here, or there.

But then I guess that wasn't what you asked, was it?



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

That reminds me of the story about the well-meaning clergyman who went to conduct a service at the local lunatic asylum. He began his sermon with, "Why are we all here?"

To which he got the disconcertingly lucid response from a member of his congregation: "Because we're not all there."



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Oooh - Skiffle, if you don't want the duplicate cinema book, can you bring it to Leeds and I'll buy it off you? The boyfriend's very into old cinemas...



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Do something pretty while you can...

I've seen the "Why are we all here?" joke attributed to a schoolteacher & one of their pupils, too.

What I usually take for colds is a large plateful of home-made (very hot) chile con carne.

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"This was willed where what is is willed... can get rather silly."

Sarah I wholeheartedly agree. A nice hot toddy works wonders.

They will also help you sleep even if you don't have a cold. I prefer them to hot milk.

Dante: if I can still find the second book when I'm in Leeds, I'll certainly bring it.

In 'Muppet Treasure Island' they sing a song that says "Although we are all here we're not all there."

skiffle - ta!



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Do something pretty while you can...

Kaz, I'm guessing that you've seen that movie many-a-time.

take:

A half full balloon of brandy
A hot bath

Get into bath
Float brandy balloon in bath
Inhale fumes
Sip (brandy, not bath)

Not necessarily good for a cold, but a great way to break the ice at parties.

oooh, lots of ideas for killing colds - I must go out and buy some brandy and whisky and try all of them :) I am currently suffering from a nasty cold, probably due to not looking after myself over the finals and a couple of weeks afterwards. As soon as I stopped doing anything, it all hit me in the back of the head. John's mum bought me some echinacea tablets a while back - I did try taking them when I started feeling ill, but all they did was make me throw up :(
I am finding that lying in bed and re-reading WOLP is helping slightly, as is taking all of John's Cold and Flu tablets.



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.