Sniffles

Okay, so my "gorgeousness" of last Saturday was probably down to the imminent onset of a heavy cold bringing a rosy flush to my cheeks. I was lingerie shopping in good ol' Marks & Spencer when I realised my throat was sore. I hoped it was because I was dry and thirsty, but a coffee and an orange juice did nothing to help. By the time I got home I was shivery and by 8pm I was in bed slightly feverish and feeling miserable.

I stayed in bed on Sunday, packing Stephen off to the grocery store with the shopping list of Kerry's essential foods for illness (nursery food basically!). I wanted rice pudding, I wanted a ham roll, I really wanted grapefruit juice.... He did manage to get it all (more or less)...but he didn't do too well with the grapefruit juice. It was on 3 for 2 offer, so how many do you think he bought me? 3? No. 2? No. He bought 1 carton of grapefruit and 2 of OJ. D'oh. I don't particularly like shop-bought OJ as its a bit sweet and blah. He wouldn't do well on "Mr & Mrs" would he?!

I had to get out of bed on Monday - although it was a struggle. We were having the central heating boiler replaced as our old one was really on its last legs, and the chaps turned up right on time at 08:30. Of course, the needed access to all the radiators and the water tanks in the loft, so there was nowhere for me to hide, especially as the loft hatch is in our bedroom. I put on a t-shirt and 2 jumpers, grabbed a throw, cosied down on the sofa with my laptop and got to work.

Monday wasn't too bad. Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty awful though. They had to drain down the entire system on Tuesday to connect it all back up and then load it up with the chemical cleaner. This meant that all the external doors were open as they connected all the hoses to the radiators and then drained them outside. You have no idea how long it took to drain it down. I think the doors (including the one right beside the sitting room where I was) were open for a good 3 hours. It was the same on Wednesday when they went through the process again to drain the cleaner and then fill the system. I was frozen! Which is not a great thing to be when you've got a cold! In order to try and get warm I built myself a burrow. I took all the throw pillows and packed them round about me on the sofa to try and block out the cold wind that was howling through the house. It was such a relief when they finally closed the doors and began the process of balancing the system.

Unsurprisingly, I felt utterly awful on Thursday. As there is only one of me in this role at work I had little choice but to get up and deal with the approvals that had come in overnight from the US. When I'd done this, I took my laptop upstairs and crawled back into bed for a couple of hours sleep, then conducted the rest of the days work from under the duvet. The bed rest seemed to do the trick as I felt okay enough to go into the office on Friday.