Tuesday 10th May

I have just returned from a lightning quick visit to England, where, though the weather was lovely, I barely had time to notice it.  To be honest it all passed by me in a blur, a flurry of dashing about on trains and tubes and processing invoices as I tried to cram too much into my too short visit.  To tell the truth I felt awful on Friday and travelling back Saturday too.  I put this down to a lack of decent sleep; worrying about getting up on time and going to bed too late, but also waking too many times in the night needing the loo or just checking the time before falling back into a fitful sleep.  And on the plane, though I felt shattered I didn’t manage to relax and sleep.  Yesterday (Sunday) was a bit of a rush too, working in the café in the morning and then painting the kitchen radiator, a long and tedious job, then back to the café for the latest Artist’s vernissage.  It was a bit quieter than usual, for some reason we only had about twenty people attending, but some good conversations, mostly in French.  I got a take-away pizza and sitting watching telly about nine I felt shattered, all adrenaline gone and I was falling asleep on the sofa.  I hauled myself to bed at ten and slept badly again.  I seem to remember waking almost every hour, and then about three in the morning I realized I had quite a headache.  I had only drunk two or three small glasses of wine at the vernissage but I felt almost hungover.  I made tea and had two paracetomol and fell back to sleep. I knew I had to get into the café early to tidy and wash up after the vernissage and was up at 6.30.

And then as i woke up it hit me, like a brick thrown through the window by a vindictive neighbour; I had a cold.  In fact I was streaming with a cold and a slightly sore throat and still a thumping headache.  Or rather my head felt wrapped in a blanket, almost all sensory perception blurred.  I stumbled through early morning tasks; washing up from last night, feeding the dogs, shaving and showering, walking the dogs and opening up the café.  And now I am sitting here dabbing my dripping tap of a nose and feeling slightly sorry for myself.  Another wretched cold, though the first one this year.  I know I just have to go through a few days of runny nose, sore throat and that it will gradually improve but that moment you wake up and realise you have a cold is quite depressing.