Just say No to swallowing

The flu finally has me. For the past two years it has punctually taken me down at the beginning of Week 3 of term, but this year I managed to stave it off until the end of Week 4! Go me!

I fully reserve the right to blame my mother for infecting me at the weekend.

It's come on rather suddenly — last night my harmless cough suddenly decided to move into my chest, and this morning (and several times through the night) I woke up with a burning sore throat, swollen glands and a slight temperature. Things that were causing me pain: talking, swallowing, coughing. Most of which are handy things that unfortunately came in useful this morning.

I went into my 9am lecture anyway, because it's quite a hard subject to follow just from the notes, but found myself unable to concentrate on anything that was happening. I excused myself from my 10-noon French lesson, and (rather cunningly, I thought) drove to Sainsbury's on the way home to purchase appropriate quantities of soup, lozenges and soft food.

It was fairly embarrassing at the checkout to discover that I had left my wallet at home. Not quite as embarrassing as it would have been to discover this at the uni car park, where I wouldn't have been able to leave, but luckily the barriers were up today, so no tickets required.

I think I'll stay at home for the rest of the day, stay warm, try to soothe my throat with lots of hot liquids (this is a time when drinking tea would come in handy; unfortunately I must make do with hot chocolate), and freak Kevin out by taking lots of Benylin and appearing to enjoy it.