Urgh.

I have spent the last day and a half between bed and bathroom with a horrible gastro bug. This is the second time this year! At least it's taught me something - if we ever redesign our bathroom, it should be so that I can sit on the loo and throw up into the basin or bath at the same time.

Sorry for that charming mental picture.

My cats and my husband have been wonderful. TSC has sorted himself out for food (me standing in the middle of the kitchen bent over, trying to control my gag reflex was probably some indication that I was not up to the task of cooking), done the pharmacy run for me, fed me dry crackers and Lucozade (the only things I've been able to keep down), undertaken all chores and generally been an absolute sweetheart. I don't like being crowded when I'm sick, so although his instinct is to cuddle me, he's learnt to give me space.

My cats, the darlings, plonked themselves on each side of me on the bed and put up with my feverish tossing and turning, taking turns to follow me to the bathroom each and every time I got up. They seemed to know I needed their furry distraction, although Sapphire did take it too far at one stage.

I had just showered and washed my hair (not by choice - it had puke in it. Lovely) and ventured into my office to check emails (I have a big story deadline coming up and I was waiting for some responses from interviewees). I suddenly felt very hot and dizzy, so I lay down on the carpet. I still had my towel on my head and Sapphire thinks that all towels are hers, so when I lay down, she promptly climbed onto the towel, on my head, and happily starting kneading away and purring. She wasn't even fussed by the strange noises I was making - somewhere between a moan, a gag and an attempt at a giggle.

Today I'm feeling a bit better. Thank you Lucozade and Petrolyte (an amazing concoction, that besides tasting and looking like banana-flavoured cement mix, worked wonders for my stomach). My stomach is still bloated, aching and generally unhappy, but at least projectile activities have ceased from the various orifices. The fever comes and goes, but the nausea is much improved.

The caffeine from two glasses of Lucozade has given me more of a buzz than my usual morning coffee, and although the head is fuzzy and the body sore, this self-employed chick has got to get back to work, so off I go.

But I thought seeing I've probably grossed you out with this post, I'd leave you with something from my inbox to make you smile:

Why cats are awesome

I came down with a nasty head cold on Friday. By Saturday I was feeling miserable and that's how I've felt right until today. So the long weekend wasn't quite what I'd planned (although thankfully I didn't have to cook for the whole weekend, and I got to go to the R3 and R5 nursery and spend time with my folks and TSC).

There's no sick leave when you work for yourself, so yesterday was spent working from bed, trying to think through the fog in my head. This morning, I was sitting here in bed feeling sorry for myself because today will be more of the same, and all I want to do is sleep and make my nose stop hurting from being blown so much.

So I was having a little pity party and my cat, Sapphire, who normally flat out refuses to sit on the the bed with me, jumped up and has curled into a little purring ball on my lap. I feel much better already. Margaret Atwood was onto something in her imaginings in her disturbing book Oryx and Crake where she wrote about how purring at a certain frequency heals disease. Maybe my kitty's purring won't cure the head cold, but it has sure made my heart feel better ;-)

I wonder what effect the purr of a little squirrel would have? Yes, it's worth clicking on that link for a serious dose of cute.

Home post

I have another nasty head cold and am blogging from my bed amidst a sea of tissues and flu meds.

Have just read Fiela's Child in one sitting (it was actually a pretty good book) and am now thoroughly bored. You know how you fantasise about taking a sick day to recover from work and stress and catch up on all the things you actually feel like doing, whether it's watching random TV or reading magazines? And then the reality is that you feel so crap that all you want to do is sleep and write a whiney blog post about how crap you feel?

So I'm trying to cheer myself up by sifting through old photos. There are some cool ones that capture awesome memories...

My 21st birthday party (the dress-up theme was the elements and TSC and I went as fire); my dad and I on the beach when I was a toddler; me holding my baby brother when he was just a few months old; my 15th birthday party (paintball); my gran riding an ostrich on our holiday in Oudshoorn (sp?); my parents' cat when she was still a tiny kitten...

Those are the printed out photos from before we had a digital camera. Here are a few that make me smile from my PC's archives:

The table flowers at our wedding:

Sapphire, our timid cat, dressed by TSC in my teddy's glasses:

Me, posing at the entrance to The Lost City on our weekend at Sun City.

TSC on horseback on Noordhoek beach - our 1-year wedding anniversary.

Photos definitely cheer me up. I reckon I'll spend the remainder of my bed-rest compiling a CD of the photos I want to have printed out. There's still loads of bare walls in this house to be filled!

I'd love to know about some of the photos that make you smile!

Blegh

Yes, an auspicious beginning, wasn't that?

That's how I feel - blegh. I worked till midnight after my dinner guests left last night, and then crawled into bed only to spend the rest of the night rushing to the toilet to throw up. I haven't thrown up in years, so I found this quite disturbing. I don't know whether I've got a tummy bug or if it's something I ate. Hopefully not the latter - don't want to have poisoned my guests! Although hubby seems fine.

Urgh. My stomach feels like it's trying to digest itself. I'm going to finish up my most urgent work taks and then go home to bed. Hopefully I'll get to spend some time sleeping there this time.

Anyway... wish me luck for my Saturday dinner with my gay uncle, his new Muslim boyfirend, my homophobic father, my teenage brother and his vegan girlfriend, my mad granny, carnivorous husband and my semi-normal mom!

Too miserable with flu to be creative...

So here are some funny pics:

you'll only get this if you dig the movie, 'Office Space' (from which my office-equipment-bashing fantasies arose):

you'll only think this is funny if you like or make LOLcats.

Have a happy Tuesday.

A small ball of stress and snot

Please excuse the graphic heading, but that's what I feel like today.

I am sick AGAIN. So tired of it. But i think it's the stress of the past few weeks finally catching up with me.

I have to laugh at myself... In 2006, I finished up my degree, graduated, got married, tavelled overseas and moved house. In 2007, we moved twice, adopted two cats, both resigned, relocated to JHB, and both started new jobs. I swore that 2008 would be my quiet year. Hah!

Man plans, God laughs. In the first half of this year, we've been to the USA, I got a new car, we've both resigned again, he's decided to study, and I'm going to freelance. We're also looking at buying a house, but that's becoming less and less likely. If that's quiet, I'd hate to see hectic.

The past few weeks have been crunch time, with deadlines on my side, his project finishing up, both handing in notice, visiting career counsellors, being sick, finding a new job, reassessing finances , him working overtime all the time and both of us generally being a bundle of nerves and worry.

I feel like I need a holiday. As Boldly Benny says, there's value in getting away. I think I should try to organise a weekend away from everything for the two of us. But, then again, that will cost money. *sigh*

I just feel like there's too much going on right now. Stop the world, I want to get off.

I've now agreed to help my current company out by working four hours for them in the afternoon for the first two months. So I'll be working solid overtime at two very concentration-intensive jobs. It's going to be mad. But I guess I can survice two months.

Sorry that this a very me-me-me post, but I'm really wondering if I'm doing the right thing. So please all chime in and tell me that of course I am.

*sigh* five-day work week ahead

After a two-day work week last week (with 3 public holidays, for those who don't live in SA), this five-day one that lies agead seems very long. Especially seeing I have gross phlegmy, achy and generally disgusting flu and have spent the past three days in bed.



What a waste of a long weekend! But at least my bed and I bonded. We spent some quality time together. Usually we don't get enough time alone, what with hubby and two hyperactive cats encroaching on our space. Seeing I'm still coughing up little bits of my lungs (well, that's what it feels like, anyway), I may just return to that dear bed and take my laptop to work from there. Hmmm... That sounds like a good idea.






I leave you with this... an oldie, but a favourite. Take good care of your cats if you live near an Asian take-away joint, people.