Thursday 4th January

I always seem to get a Winter cold.  Every year, I never miss out.  In fact sometimes I am greedy and have two.  And the older I get the nastier I seem to like them.  There is something about the combination of a sore throat, runny nose and a headache, together with the grotty rainy and cold weather that can make you thoroughly depressed.  And I try to fight against it, I try to put on a brave face.  I have rarely taken days off for a cold, preferring to soldier through (no doubt contaminating half the town in my wake) rather than take to my sick bed.  In fact I am a very poor patient.  But this winter’s cold I have been going to bed early and sleeping for hours, waking only to check the time before turning over for some more sleep.  And in the morning I wake up feeling a bit better.  I tell my wife I am feeling better today.  And I am.  For a while, but gradually the day catches up with me and by evening I am feeling poorly again and begging for my bed.

I am fairly sure that my Winter cold is no worse than most other people’s.  But somehow that is no compensation.  The fact that others are suffering doesn’t make me feel any better.

And every year after a couple of weeks or so, things begin to clear up and before you know it Spring is on the way.

But it does seem strange that with all the medical advances, incredible heart and brain surgery and new drugs – we seem no nearer to curing or eradicating the common Winter cold.