Poor me

On Sunday morning we braved the cold temperatures to go to the local school and buy a Christmas tree. We were both wrapped up like Nanook of the North, and yet there was someone there in shorts - mad fool! We picked out a 6ft tree and, learning from last year (when we had pine needles in the car for months afterwards) got them to strap it to the roof of the car for the 2 block journey home. We got it into the stand and upright on all axis (eventually!) with only a minor amount of marital disharmony...we would get it straight, screw the bolts into place and then discover that it was leaning when you looked at it from a different side. We were both getting a little niggly!! Stephen lit a fire and withdrew to the TV room to watch football, leaving me with a giant tangle of fairy lights and two tangles of garland. Several hours later I had finished decorating the tree and was quite grumpy. I wasn't feeling great and I really had just hit a wall in terms of energy. Everything was an effort!

I had hoped an early night might help, but I woke up on Monday feeling pretty crap so I decided that a day in be might not hurt. I had my laptop home with me so I was able to deal with the urgent stuff...unfortunately the urgent stuff took all day. I think I worked (albeit sitting in bed) from 7:45 through to about 5:45. I got up in the afternoon and adjourned to the sofa as a couple of UK friends and colleagues were over and were coming to the house to say hello before heading out for dinner with Stephen.

Tuesday I woke up feeling like I had swallowed a couple of golf balls which were lodged at the back of my throat. I was staying in bed. Thankfully I was able to dispatch all the work e-mails early and managed to get a lot of sleep during the day. I was only woken late in the afternoon by the persistent ringing of my cell phone. I pressed the ignore button and checked the voicemail. It was someone looking to contact the UK folks who were over. I was trying to waken up properly in order to return the call when they called again, so I answered. "Kerry, I hear you have the cold...". Hmmm, this could only mean that they called the office and someone had told them to keep trying my cell phone...is the term sick day meaningless??

I went back into the office on Wednesday (it seemed pointless to stay at home if I wasn't going to get peace!) but I was tired, grumpy and not terribly well. I still had golf balls lodged in my throat and I was once again mostly deaf. I must have looked how I felt as the following day someone remarked that I must be feeling better as I looked like I "might give a damn today"! Wednesday was lightened by the delivery of a gorgeous flower arrangement sent as a Thank you for arranging the holiday party, AND by having an enormous tub of Coldstones ice cream. Tim, Colin and I were all feeling ill and ice cream mixed with Reeces peanut butter cups is a great healer of sore throats!