To add insult to injury

On top of everything else this weekend, the slight cough I mentioned on Friday has turned into a full blown head cold..

Bastard.

Lung butter

Did the normal blurry, half-awake walk to the bathroom this morning after the alarm clock had rudely dragged me from my slumber.  Turned on the shower, stared blearily at the fuzzy reflection in the bathroom mirror. 

And suddenly, with no warning, I coughed. 

And it did catch me by surprise, as coughing is not something I do that often anymore..

So it would appear that I may well be getting the first of the winter colds that I seem to get around this time of year, usually about five minutes after the hay fever naffs off.  I'm very curious, however, to see how severe this bout of winter colds are going to be, as this will be my first winter without cigarettes (for about 17 years).  Winter colds used to head straight for my chest, which would mean a good five minutes of hacking coughing fits every morning before I could do anything, and these coughing fits brought up shocking amounts of "lung butter" that nearly cracked the toilet bowl on their explosive exit from my mouth.  Smokers amongst you will, no doubt, know exactly what I am talking about here.

So what will it be like without ciggies?  I'm curious to find out.

Little Voice

The summer is here, hours of sunshine, temperatures soar, records are broken, roads melt and I get some mad summer cold.

No, really, my throat is as sore as very sore thing and I have acquired a cough, sneezes and.. most embarrassingly.. I lost my voice over the weekend.

I cannot remember the last time I properly lost my voice.. and I'm not just talking about being a bit croaky, I mean literally trying to speak and having nothing but a whisper of air escaping your mouth. I'm sure I lost my voice a couple of times when I was a kid (or was that puberty? I cannot remember), but since at least going to Uni, I've never had my vocal chords produce nothing at all I'm sure.

Anyway, losing one's voice would be embarrassing enough without adding to the fact that it finally gave out in the queue for food at Crewe Alexander's ground during half time at the Crewe v Liverpool pre-season friendly on Saturday. Now before you ask, I hadn't been shouting all the way the first half, partly because my throat was already soar, but mostly because pre-season matches just aren't that all exciting.

Now if I had been stood in the queue on my own when my voice gave out I would have most likely saved myself from looking like a cock, and just headed back to my seat to watch the second half. But I was with Dan, and he was hungry (and he was as well they had these Meat & Potato pies on sale for £2.10 that were as big as his head, but he polished it off in no time at all..), so I had to remain there and get him some grub. So there I was, when we eventually got to the front of the slowest moving queue I have ever stood in, harshly whispering (to the amusement of all the staff behind the counter) that I'd like "A meat and potato pie, please". I felt a complete idiot, I can tell thee..

Still a bit raspy today, but am on the mend (pity, with the weather set to improve this week, could do with a couple of days "sick")