Thursday
Go for a run at the gym. Maybe the treadmill is out of kilter, ‘cos I do 5km in 17:30, which is, like, 90% of a world record, not the usual best of 82%. That evening, lots of sneezing, maybe two dozen full-throated roars. Lose a cup-ful of fluid in nose-drips and think remotely oh damn, pollution getting to me, or an allergic reaction. Sneezing stopped about bed-time - 21:00.
Friday
Okay to sleep on the back. Wife not in town so no-one to care about snoring. Put two handkerchieves to dry and pick up three more for a day at school. Steady stream from the nose, but at a level I can cope with. Kids not happy to see handkerchief - a cultural thing; they’d rather have heaps of tissues left on a desk. Beginning to think may caught a cold. Think back to life in Britain and that a cold will last a whole grim 14 days or, if you’re lucky, merely two weeks.
Ran on track that evening - 14 mins for 3.4km which is s l o w; 4:11 per km, not 3:31. In the hour after running the sneezing is even worse than the night before. Clearly caught something.
Day ends with dinner out with visitors; no sneezing; beer and wine. Lady wife arrives. Life is looking up. Sneezing recurs on the walk home, but not so bad. Ended up being a two ‘kerchief day.
Saturday
Bad head could be the wine last night or a head-cold symptom. Took a pill but could be for either version of bad head. Nose sore but under control. Skin dry as if under-hydrated. Weight back to target, unlike this time last week. Different sort of exercises planned for the weekend and will try not to share the cold.
The domestic boss agrees that she had a cold last week and that she caught it from phoning her family, so she is quite pleased to have passed it on via email and, at the same time, she won’t be too upset if she takes a share of it away back to BJ. I promise to try to teach this piece of biology during the next week, electronic disease transmission.
That afternoon, breathing almost clear. Not quite ready to run - could ruin a recovery.
Sunday
A day off, with the lady wife. Lots of that and the other. Almost better. Write 1st draft of this.
Monday
Several sneezes. AQI high (300?) 5km in 17:37 in Gym. Must be better? Only seven seconds slower than Thursday.
Tuesday
One sneeze. 5km in 17:41 in Gym, going fairly easily. Obviously better, then.
Wednesday
What cold? 17:27 in gym. That’s under 3:30 per km and therefore highly unlikely to be a true measurement.
This is not a two-week illness, more like three days. Perhaps we need a different descriptor?
DJS 20140313
