What is that whining noise?

 I heard a good Australian joke at the expense of 'Poms' (people from the UK who go out to Australia, usually to live). It goes like this:

"How can you tell that a new planeload of Poms has landed at Sydney Airport?"

"You can still hear the whining after the engines have stopped."

So we residents of the Sceptered Isle have a reputation for complaining in an unattractive and self-centred way about things that are wrong. In Oz it might be the weather, the beer, the insects, the lack of any local understanding of our own superiority, anything at all. 

Well I'm afraid today is my whining day. I have waited long enough for it and it cannot be brooked. You may notice a gap in my posts for a few days. This is on account of a health issue but one that irritatingly has nothing to do with myeloma. I have come down with a really crap cold (above the neck and below: full set) and have felt crap for the last five days. I assumed that my 'superior' immune system would soon have me back up and running, but that hasn't happened and I am now resigned to one of the 'ten days to two weeks' variety, and I have put myself to bed. I was told that rest was good, so after a full eight hours of sleep last night, I decided this morning to stay in bed today and see if I could sleep some more. Answer: yes you can. Two-and-a-half hours this morning and another three-and-a-half this afternoon. I'm assuming this is therefore what my body needs, and frankly the fewer hours I spend awake with a disgustingly productive head and chest cold, the happier I will be.

And stepping back a little to view this temporary state and its nature, I can feel a few things. The cold means that I do not have the mental flexibility to take on anything that needs a well-written email, but I don't mind. These things can wait. And I don't feel guilty about this, because it feels like my body has given me permission, and nobody else will suffer from my inaction (and likely I won't even). And on the plus ledger, being able to write this blog post is an indication that something is coming back. 

I also wonder, as one does, if I am myself a whiner, making a very simple rhinitis into a snotty tragedy. It is only a cold. I have been careful to isolate myself from any close proximity with friends and have warned them if we meet in the street, so that isn't whinish. I have given my nearest and dearest a little of my coughing over the phone, and they have been very good about it (even one of my sisters who had and still has an even worse bout of a horrible cold, which has gone on for about two weeks. You know who you are. Solidarity!). So I'm hoping I'm not a whiner, though if I get any poor you replies, I may have to concede that I was fishing for them. And if anyone correctly points out: "You have been treated for myeloma, and you are complaining about a cold. This makes no sense", I would have to agree. 

So I am now ensconced in bed and when I have finished this I will need to structure my day in some way that involves staying here and not seeing people. And luckily, apart from a lot of books and a lot of book suggestions from a previous post, I also have the final 12 or so episodes of Breaking Bad. Cometh the hour, cometh the box set. See you all later....