Getting the Monkey off my back!

Happy new year to all and I trust it is turning out to be a good one so far. I hope everyone is well, kicking those old bad habits into touch and acquiring new bad habits to replace them. Thank you to you wonderful people that have posted on my last blog entry. I hadn’t intended to be away for so long but a few things conspired to waylay me and I am only now able to get back into the swing of things.

About the 10th of December – almost a week after my last blog entry - I was doing the usual getting prepared for the festive season’s activity and planning another blog entry when I started to feel under the weather. I slowly ground to a halt over a period of 48 hours and suddenly took a downward spiral into virus hell. For about four days I was completely away with the fairies as my temperature raged, my body ached with such intensity that I felt like I had been the recipient of a good kicking by a marauding bunch of football hooligans and to top it off I suffered hallucinations aplenty. It was the worst virus that I have had in ten years and my God there were times I was suffering so much that I wished I was in possession of a pistol so that I could end it all. Not that I wished to commit suicide you understand - suicide is a long term solution to a short term problem. I was merely unable to find anything that could address the horrible symptoms long enough to give me a break and thus rest my tortured mind and body so being completely worn down and in my delusional state I might just have seen pressing the trigger as a welcome change from the misery I was in.

It was a horrible time and mostly all I did was whimper in a corner because I couldn’t sleep as the symptoms were so strong. And when I finally did manage to beat off the filthy virus I was so weak that I was shaky on my legs, dizzy and light headed for another week. I was worn out just lifting a glass of wine of an evening. Even after I recovered from those after effects, I was racked with heaving chest busting coughs as my body tried almost in vain to clear my lungs of gunge as thick as molasses. My rib cage almost disintegrated at the relentless force of it all and I dreaded every onslaught. God, this filthy little bugger of a virus must have been brought in by aliens because surely it didn’t germinate from our planet. I wasn’t suffering alone though. My lovely husband went down with it approximately a week after me so at least I was able to host the Christmas festivities and such like when the family came to stay. He wasn’t quite as bad as me and was well enough to participate in the festive activities with good humour and cheer. But like me he coughed and hacked his way through and swore blind I was breaking his ribs when he was asleep as coughing alone surely couldn’t cause so much agony. I assured him that I wasn’t walking on his rib cage with stilettos on whilst he was in the land of nod but that if he continued to moan big style that I’d make a point of finding our baseball bat and doing a nutty on him whilst he slept just to justify his accusations.

Our New Year celebration was one of fun, laughter and optimism for 2008 as we shared it with six of our immediate neighbours and friends at a wonderfully constructed dinner party contributed to by all those in attendance. And New Years day was spent again with them and more of our other neighbours in a civilised and friendly canapés and drinks party next door. After four hours or so, quite sensibly most of the neighbours headed off home for a nice quiet evening in but, ourselves and the hosts, felt it necessary to extend the bonhomie and good cheer we were feeling by strolling along to our lovely old inn for a few more snifters just to round the evening and the festive season off. After all, we deserved it didn’t we? Just about everyone at that party had been ill or knew someone who was and so we deserved to enjoy ourselves now that good health was almost restored and our bodies might just be able to handle a hangover.

Work piled up for me and I have only just caught up and also only now feel like blogging again. I was laid pretty low by this virus and the irony is that whilst I couldn’t sleep when I was suffering the awful symptoms, all I wanted to do after was sleep. I’ve only just caught up with everything and today for the first time feel great, fully restored and ready for the year ahead.

I have come into the New Year with a lighter heart and with more direction than I have had for a very long time and with the intention of ditching one final last ‘Toxic Friend’. Something that I have wanted to do for a very long time – well actually from the first time I met her – but it’s a complicated story and one I wont bore you with now but just having that monkey off my back makes me feel like I’ve lost fourteen stone of ugly fat already!

Fair well dear all and I hope 2008 is your year.