SHERINGHAM DIARY No 76 - Not Over Til Its Over

The joys of reading auto -translations on You Tube, are the linguist leaps and previously unheard of word conjunctions. Here is a dictionary explanation for one I encountered the other day.

Shop Force Trauma
Is when a man, who can recall everything he needs to know about cars, football and beer, finds himself ambushed into choosing the style and colour of the new front room curtains.

So, after one night of hacking and heaving completely sans sleep, I did that daringly reckless thing that men occasionally do, and go to a doctor. Making an appointment with the practice nurse. She thought I'd probably had, not one, but a series of overlapping cold infections, which have gradually clogged up my chest and become infected. She's put me on a weeks course of antibiotics and requested a chest X ray. Just in case there maybe more to it than at first seems. Still having the sleep deprived nights, as I write, but the amount of phelgm, colour and coughing are gradually easing becoming less frequent.

As you can imagine after sleep disrupted nights I can be a little tense and on edge. Trying to encourage sleep with any 'you just need to relax' mantra is doomed to failure. I find I have to box clever with myself, distract my mind from obsessing about heaving, breathing or chest pains. Sit upright on the sofa, swathed in blankets, put on an hour long true crime investigation and somewhere in the middle of it I'll drop off to sleep for a while. Awakening to Alan Carr and Amanda Holden squealing with delight as they tart up a flat on the sunny Sicilian coastline. Bizzare.

Its Sunday, early morning. I'm watching the Astaire and Rodgers movie Carefree. The gender relationships / sexual politics innocently exploit very clumsily handled cliched mores. Very much of their era. A man gets frustrated because his girlfriend keeps accepting then backing out of marrying him. He just cannot understand what's going on. So asks his psychologist friend to treat her, to find out what the problem is. You can see where this storyline will end up within the first minutes. Girfriend falls in love with psychiatrist, who after some major misunderstanding or impediment, she marries at the end. But its all delightfully interspersed with the most fabulously neat, fleet footed dance routines along the way. If only life could be that sympatico.

I'm sleeping better, but its not quite enough of a full bodied relaxation to slumber longer  Though I'm not heaving the night away in an entirely separate bedroom anymore. My body appears not to be quite over protecting itself from the consequences of 'the cough perpetual'. My stomach clenches at the most minor clearing of the throat. On this particular morning my torso feels internally bruised, as though its been given a right royal kicking on my left hand side.

Energy levels, with 'the cough perpetual' and lack of sleep are pretty depleted. Three nights last week were completely without sleep, and the remaining were not much better. I cleaned our bathroom yesterday and it did me in for the rest of the day. So, getting over the energy draining consequences may prove more persistent than I'd wish.

Last week we did our once a year fabric hunt. This currently takes in Lincoln and Stamford. We met up with my sister and brother in law for lunch in Lincoln. It was good to see them both, for it has been a while. After which Hubby and I, trawled shops, and went to The Fabric Quarter, perhaps the most consistently useful fabric shop we know. We came away with three potential fabrics for the new season. A metre of each as we are just trying them out. Doubt we'll find much to match the seagull fabric which dominated last years sales. But you never know. The Stamford fabric shop this year was, yet again, a bit of a disappointment. So we're going to drop them from the fabric hunt next time.

Gearing up for fully reopening next week for half term. Stocked up our candle range, bought in a new card and earring range. Just a top up order for soap and finding a new wrapping paper supplier, and that will be it on orders for now, till nearer Easter. Hard to say how Half Term trade will be. I am prepared for it to be underwhelming. Also its back to five day working weeks for us, and making schedules etc. With 'the cough perpetual' hanging on so long, I've not really had much opportunity to recharge my batteries. If anything I return even more tired than I was before Christmas. Jnanasalin has had the same cold as I have, though not for quite as long or so severe. But it has also knocked his energy for six. This looks like being a make or break year for us, so let's hope we can restore ourselves to something like more resilient health soon.

Well, February Half Term is turning out to be the non-event of all non-events. February 2023 looking set to being substantially down on February 2022, which itself only managed to scrape the same total as 2020. The days are so quiet we are experimenting with each of us only doing half the day, swapping over at lunchtime. This is just to make it bearable, otherwise we come home after a full day emotionally drained. 

On the good side I returned to swimming this week. Taking it easy on the number of lengths for now until I get some of my stamina back. It was satisfying to return to swimming after what has been two months break. My joints feel so much better, and residual muscular chest discomfort from coughing so much for so long is beginning to ease as a result.  The swimming itself I find easy, but once I get home I sleep for hours. I had my chest X-rayed on Monday, and the results and follow up appointment are a week on Monday. So we'll see if it shows anything else that may have hindered me getting over 'the cough perpetual'. I feel much better in myself this week, less drained, still a bit of occasional chestyness. Still reticent to sing a song of triumph, lest I spook it - Its really not over til its over. That's probably when I've forgotten about it altogether