Thanks for all your well wishes last week. They didn’t work, but thanks anyway.
Sweet Jesus monkey balls, I have been ill. Whatever it was that came for me took me out at the knees and reduced me to a sweaty, quivering, moaning mess for all of last week and I’m still not 100% yet. So this week’s musings will be brief again due to my continued roughness and the fact that you really don’t want me to document what I did last week. It was not pleasant.
It wasn’t a traditional cold or similar as I have been without the trademark excess mucus. Instead, it has been a high temperature that has seen me hot, cold and everything in between in the space of a few minutes. At its peak, I have been rocking myself back and forwards in bed, emitting low moans pleading for help or death, whichever would be quickest. Sleep has been a stranger for most of the week too due to the fact that I was instead locked in some hallucinogenic hell, with every muscle aching and a headache like Oliver Reed’s throughout the seventies.
It was only on Friday that I started to return to normality, and beyond bored with daytime TV and watching emails build up in my Inbox I did some work from home. I won’t claim it was my most productive day, but having lost almost a full week and cancelled more meetings than I care to think about, I felt better somehow having got back into it on a Friday, so the Monday to come won’t be as gruesome.
I don’t think they got it from me, as they wisely stayed away from my grottiness, but now Tom, Rebecca and Freddie all have colds. They went out last night to celebrate their anniversary and Freddie stayed with us.
A lovely meal, drinks and paracetamol is not the ideal mix for a night out but, they soldiered through and have just taken Freddie home for an afternoon of cuddles and TV on the sofa which always makes things better.
So with apologies for the very poor word count, I have little else to report after my lost week of illness. Hopefully in the coming days I can declare myself back to full fitness and then we can get these blogs back to the thrill a minute action fests they always are. Right?
Probably only because of the amount of lunacy going on in the world right now, somehow, news of my dreadful illness last week was not covered by main stream media. Sad!
At the back-end of last week I had a sniffle and felt a bit rough. I soldiered on admirably, not even abandoning my trek to Marlow. I know, I know, not everyone is made of the right stuff like this. As this week started, Monday saw an escalation of illness not seen since Oliver Reed’s liver in the 70’s. I was in work on Monday but that evening my condition quickly deteriorated into a life threatening state and it was clear I would be going nowhere near work on Tuesday. I haven’t had a day off work with illness for years, so to end up having to take the rest of the week off only shows how sorry you should be feeling for me.
So this week has been a bit of a wipe out and I have felt terrible. This was so far beyond “having a cold” that I waved to that cold as I raced past it on the road to whatever illness I invented, such was its ferocity. I have produced so much snot from my body that I can only imagine that I am made up of 90% snot and 10% fat.
Anyway, never one to labour the point of my illness, I won’t go on about it. I’m starting to feel human again now although yesterday I went to do some food shopping and almost passed out next to the milk. So it is therefore very important that I don’t do much today so that I may return to work tomorrow and rescue the business which has obviously been struggling without my contribution for a few days. I also seem to have passed it on to Emily. I can only hope that her version is not as life threatening or she isn’t as big a baby as I am.
As I said, I’m not one to go on about things like this….
Thanks to everyone for your tips and advice last week. It shows that no matter how many times you go to WDW you can never know it all. I have added several notes to the spreadsheet to check some things out and added other things to do, such as a tip to phone ahead to Keke’s as they get really busy. Nice work folks!
I know a lot about how *we* do WDW of course, but there is always lots more to learn from the experience of others.
I now have even more places I want us to eat at that I cannot fit into the plan. Toojay’s and Olivia’s were suggested and I have seen The Wave on a few trip reports/blogs and really fancy that too. I need a longer holiday or a bigger appetite.
The other key tip I need to run the plan through is the busy day guide, so thanks to those who reminded that this is a good idea. That isn’t an exact science of course but it will do no harm just to make sure we’re avoiding the worst of the crowds.
Anywho, back in the real world, Rebecca reached the 37 week mark yesterday. So I guess from this point on, Freddie can appear at any time. I know Rebecca would be delighted should he choose to come a little early. She is not enjoying the whole pregnancy thing. I suspect a lot of this is down to the discomfort she is in, but knowing Rebecca, it’s also more than a little related to her impatience to meet him and start being a mum.
Her hospital bags are packed, the house is fully prepped and both her and Tom are like kids on Christmas Eve.
So apologies for a blog that is a bit of a wash out. It reflects how my week has gone and I can only hope that my health and the content here improves in the coming week. Thankfully my malaise has coincided with a couple of weeks off from Mustard gigging due to band member holidays and on that note I did promise you some photos from our glamorous photoshoot didn’t I?
Well, you can see them on our Facebook page and should your mouse wander over to the Like option whilst there then that’s probably for the best isn’t it?
I know that I may have mentioned my illness in semi-jocular stati this week, but bloody hell I have been rough. The standard cold symptoms randomly brought their great mates heart burn and muscular aches, and just as I was hopeful of waving the bugger off over this weekend it has thrown one hell of a farewell party. Over the past two days I have experienced pain unlike any other. I’d call it a headache, but it isn’t really. It is more eye ache!
A searing pressure like pain right in the middle of my eyeballs. It hurt…like proper big boy pain, and I don’t like it. As you know I handle pain and illness well so you really wouldn’t have known had you been here.
Today has been a slight improvement with no such repeat of that, and apart from feeling like I have been battered with a big stick, there are signs of recovery. I have done nothing today which has really helped. Well, I took Oli out, and had the intention of cutting my toenails, but I haven’t managed that yet!
Being below par has been really frustrating. I had a heavy week at work, with stuff going on that couldn’t be interrupted by illness so I took my germs to Marlow for two days. What joy I felt in my deluxe suite in which I stay, wrapped in a blanket hugging the lukewarm radiator watching crap football. Who says executive travel isn’t glamorous? By the time I got to Friday I was no good to anyone and crawled home mid afternoon and went straight to bed for a bit.
Still, a productive week, with a key supplier decided upon for a very important project and a key person, with actual technical skills rather than my invented ones, recruited to help me do it. Snot and success in unequal measure….there was much more snot!
So let’s put all that illness behind us (I hope). Some regular sleep and less snot will help so fingers crossed.
Affairs of the teenage heart have been in play this week too, with some “stuff” going with Rebecca and her friend who is a boy. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it now, there is nothing harder than watching one of them going through pain and not jumping right in the middle and knocking heads together or off altogether.
I am biting my metaphorical tongue, and hoping it all gets sorted out without too much upset, and the need for me to remove limbs.
Talking about removing limbs, Oli also came pretty close to losing a couple whilst I was away. It seems that he left a large and damp message all over our bed, and those of you who sees Louise’s facebook updates will have appreciated her slight displeasure at this.
Thursday saw me travelling about in London, and whilst doing so coordinating my parents and a cleaning company to all work together before we got home to make sure we had something clean to sleep on.
My Dad sorted the duvet to the launderette, and Chem Dry turned up to sort the mattress. Apparently they do a lot of work for hotels, so are used to similar work but I suspect for different fluids!
There are lots of theories about why Oli would do this, as he is superb at doing his stuff only where he should, always has been, so we are a bit baffled. I wonder if it is connected to me being away, and him marking his territory in some way, but to be safe he isn’t going upstairs again anytime soon.
Just to remind us not to kill him here he is looking cute and lovable.
Adorable???
By the time we did get home on Thursday we were mostly sorted, and even had time to nip to my brother’s for a drink and pie celebration of his birthday. I had soft drinks and lots of pie, as you need to feed a cold of course.
The other bit of news to share with you this week will hopefully be in the happy to hear category. After the bitter disappointment in the summer for my Mum & Dad who had to cancel their trip to Florida with us with days to go, they are now booked to go just after Christmas. Alas, we are not playing host, rather my brother and his family. The party will be a huge one, nine in total, with his two elder children each taking their partner, so I think they have hired a coach to get them around. Good luck with that!!
All Aboard!
So I am offering some tips, mainly on where to find a donut burger, which my brother is slightly more interested in that my sister-in-law who I’m guessing won’t be partaking.
So here’s to a week of better health as we hurtle towards December. Someone might want to tell the telly that it isn’t December yet, cos if I see another version of the same advert from a bloody supermarket in November I might go and wee on their bed.
Why have they all gone for the same advert this year? A stressed mum being the xmas hero. I have no beef (or turkey) with the idea, but once you’ve seen it 48 times before December starts a dirty protest is the only solution. Maybe Oli was ahead of me there?
This shall be briefer than a Helen Flanagan bush tucker trial. I am sick and tired. Not a reference to another impending rant but a genuine reference to my physical being. What I thought was just dog tiredness for the past week or so has turned into the lurgy. Whether the tiredness was a first sign of the illness or the tiredness allowed it to possess my body I don’t know and it matters not. I am male and ill….pity me!
The girls have had it for a week and just as they started to recover both Louise and I have inherited whatever they had. It gripped me on Friday and I spent a day at work in my dressing gown. This was for a pajama based day in aid of Children In Need but it felt quite apt. If only I had worn something underneath it, I may have attracted fewer strange looks, and less of a breeze that may have made matters worse.
So allow me to battle the throat, the sniffles the hot and cold sweats and weirdly horrific heartburn, and I shall return to you next week, plague free and back on form.
For now, I shall retreat to my bed, chair or whatever position of self-pity suits me best, and try my best not to infect you via this bloggage. Alas, I have a busy and travel full week ahead. Deep joy.
Having had Emily at home all last week due to a nasty bout of tonsillitis, it would seem that the baton of grottiness has now been passed on to me. I wouldn’t mind being ill so much, if I were able to be off work with it, but in the current circumstances that will not be an option, certainly on Monday anyway. Is it every company that devotes most of Monday to meetings at which, if you are not there to present, the earth will cease to turn upon its axis?
I also have a new starter turning up tomorrow, so not to be there would be very bad form. How much better it will be that I drag my sorry carcus into the office, and infect him with my illness so he can have time off later on in his first week!
Stepping out
Other than lots of work, which means stress, hassle and problems, in the usual seemingly unending stream of nonsense, the only other thing to report this week is that Oli has been out for his first walks. With Emily too ill, Rebecca and I took him out around the block on Wednesday night, and he did surprisingly well to be honest. He obviously hasn’t got the rules yet, and does tend to spend most of the time eating his lead or sitting down, but he could be a lot worse.
On subsequent days he has ventured further afield, and discovered that he really doesn’t like cars, and feels compelled to chase every leaf that moves! I’m sure he’ll get used to everything. On Saturday Emily and I had him on the local park for the first time, and then Rebecca had him down to my Mum’s. This eagerness to walk him won’t last with the girls I’m sure, but it is good whilst it lasts.
Rebecca’s willingness to be out with the dog is based on the amount of attention he attracts. If Oli brings “cute boys” into any sort of conversation with her then he will have served his purpose. She’d better make the most of it though, as at the rate he is growing, it will soon take all four of us to manage him on the lead, which will cramp her style just a little.
With half term on the horizon, we’ll see how willing they are to have him out when the inevitable lashing rain and icy winds kick in next week.
On Friday evening, Louise and I went out for tea, and the biggest plus to come out of that was that we were then able to spend Saturday night watching the programmes we Sky plussed on Friday night, rather than endure the seven hour marathon that is the X Factor. Modern Family and An Idiot Abroad are two of our favourite programmes, so not being able to watch them on Friday made for a much more palatable Saturday. My decreasing health levels, having to pick Emily up after a gig, and not much sleep last night have led to a Sunday of extreme couchiness for me.
Louise has had to do the BIG SHOP, and the ironing, added to a load of decorating yesterday. Yes, it continues. It might sound like we have a kitchen and dining room the size of Surrey, but we haven’t. It is very nearly done now!!
Before I slumped into this life threatening cold, I did manage to splurge some random words out for the WDW Dads site. Feel free to go have a read if you are so inclined. It covers one of my favourite subjects, food!!
It does seem that most of the other WDW Dads spend 90% of their daily lives inside one of the parks, which makes me sick in a whole different way!! Their constant tweetage from these places is both informative and depressing in equal measure. Jealousy isn’t pretty, but then again I never claimed to be in any way pretty.
So that’s your lot for this week, my illness obviously is affecting my ability for bloggage, and I need to go and feel sorry for myself some more. It is funny but in dozens of trips now I have never been ill on US soil, and never had so much as a sniffle inside a Disney theme park. For the sake of my health, and the NHS it is my duty to be there as much and as often as possible. You know it makes sense.
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