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Snot Watch: Day umpteen (I lost count a while ago.)

/ Lisa / 1 Comment

Gosh, I barely know where to start to update you all on what has happened this week – and it’s only Thursday!

One day at a time then!

Monday I had job interview number one. I don’t really know how my job interviews go anymore. I just know that I wasn’t a blubbering idiot. After the interview I went and did a CV drop around a few shops I had noticed had signs up. This was supposed to have been done on Friday afternoon, but  after the WINZ appointment I was not in a very great frame of mind to present myself, so postponed it. I think I dropped about 10 CVs in the Cuba/Willis/Lambton area. Not a whole heap for the area that I covered, but it was more than I expected.

Tuesday I headed up to Auckland for job interview number two. This one I think went pretty well, so I’m in the waiting phase – I’m essentially in the waiting phase for both of them. So it was a flying visit to Auckland. I got to catch up with @BitchAboutDevo and @TangThang and not much else. By the time I was on the airport bus and at the airport I was struggling. You know when you’re starting to get sick and your whole body hurts, you just have no energy and no idea how to even stand up anymore? Yeah, that. But as I managed to get on the Koru Hour flight (this is what I have been told it is) I got complementary bagel crisps, hummus and a wine. Did I mention I was on the black plane? It was awesome. By the time I got back to the flat the only thing I was capable of was shower, food and bed.

Wednesday is pretty much a blur. I was not feeling good when I, surprisingly, woke up at 7am. I was then very confused, thinking hours had passed when it was only a few minutes. The morning continued like this and eventually I got up because I was overheating. Turned out it was a bad idea and I got a lot worse. Cue shaking, headache, fever, no energy and coughing. Lots and lots of coughing. That type of coughing where you think your head might explode and chest rip apart. Even worse, was I had to take some Ventolin. I barely have to take Ventolin these days because my asthma is under control, so it just shows how bad the coughing is.

All of this lead to the decision to come home for a bit. Probably just a week. Today I caught the bus and this afternoon I went to the doctor. I’ve now got some steroids and antibiotics, cause my asthma has gotten quite bad and I’ve had this cold/whatever it is for about two weeks now.

Hopefully with medication and lots of rest I will kick whatever this thing is. Oh, and my Mum looking after me.

Snot Watch: Day Four.

/ Lisa

The production of snot seems to be easing. It is still there, but instead of blowing my nose every 5 minutes and running like a tap, the tap is now turned off and I blow it about every 10 minutes.

Progress, to say the least.

Energy levels are low to the point where I once again spent the day on the couch. Apart from a small excursion to orchestra practice! Yes, I might have mentioned I have joined an orchestra for a Halloween musical. We had our first practice today, in which Man Piece was ACTUALLY KIND TO ME in my sickness and dropped me off and picked me up. If he had have made me walk in the rain, well, there would be dire consequences.

He was a bit mean to me when he declined to go get me marshmallows. I still don’t have any. Hmph. *goes and sulks in the corner*

Today I had the added bonus of a sore neck. It feels something like a pinched nerve and I’m having trouble turning my head either way. Yay. It made playing the Flute today rather interesting. So while sitting on the couch, I have had the wheat pack on my shoulders trying to ease the pain and muscles to get it to stop pinching. After having taken panadol and more of the wheat pack, I think it is beginning to work.

I can only come to one conclusion of how it happened. I must have slept on it a bit funny last night and at some point would have coughed, causing it to do something weird which has resulted in the pain and decreased movements.

Yes, I am still attempting to hack up my lungs. I might even make it a world record and do both! I can just see me now in one of those circus freak shows: “The lady that lives without lungs!” “Oooooh.” “Ahhhhhhh.”

This is where my mind goes.

Today I have watched  Sunshine Cleaning, Colin Quinn Long Story Short and Easy A. I’ve gotten to the point where the days are starting to blur into each other and I can’t remember whether I watched The Proposal yesterday or today. Hmm.

Anyway, I think the lurgy is starting to ease up and I hope that tomorrow my energy levels might be getting back to some semblance of normal so I can go for a jaunt into town.

Today is Sunday, right?

The day our innocence was lost.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

Today is September 11.

A rather significant date in recent history. What makes it even more significant is that it is 10 years since the attacks on the World Trade Centre, which ended in their collapse and the killing of thousands of people.

That day our world changed. I changed.

I remember how I found out. I was asleep, it was just another school morning, my alarm hadn’t even gone off. Dad came into my room without knocking. Not often has this happened, in fact only ever three times, but I’ll get to that shortly.

He kept it short and sharp and said, “The Twin Towers have collapsed.” For some reason I remember those exact words. It’s funny how these things stick.

The only thing I remember doing that morning was sitting on my parents bed watching the news broadcast. Seeing the towers collapse, people running. It made the world shrink.

I don’t remember getting dressed, having breakfast, all the usual things and somehow I ended up at school. It was the only topic of conversation in all my classes of the day. The one that stuck in my mind most was Social Studies. Our teacher, Mr Kane – who was one of the best teachers I have ever had to this day – explained it all. Even the bits we hadn’t seen on the news yet – who they thought did it etc. It was just so surreal, even on the other side of the world. There is no way you can even imagine what the people of New York and the US were even going through.

I kept newspaper clippings, or should I say entire newspapers from September. Papers like The Sunday Star Times did a special section dedicated to the attacks – the time lines, the aftermath, pictures. So many pictures.

You could say that it was the first significant event of the digital age that was broadcast around the world in seconds. That is just one reason why the world changed.

Even though I didn’t realise until a few years later, 9/11 changed more for me that I can even contemplate. The world shrank. I was more aware of what was going on in other countries and just in general. I began actively watching the news and reading the paper. For me 9/11 played a part in my career path – that of becoming a journalist.

Just some of the newspapers I have:

Even now, looking at these, the photos, I just can’t fathom it.

I don’t like saying RIP about people who have died, I don’t know why, so I don’t really know what to say here. But I hope those that died and their loved ones who lost them are doing ok. It was a horrible way to die.

I mentioned earlier that my Dad has only ever come in to my room three times to wake me without knocking. The first was 9/11. The second, the day my Nana died – April 20, 2003. Third – September 4, 2010. Each of them just as life changing as the next.

Snot Watch: Day Three.

/ Lisa

I have developed one of those hacking what-organs-are-going-to-come-up coughs.

My ears have decided to block so that everything sounds dull.

I’ve also gone through an entire box of tissues and started on the next. The snot monster lives on.

Miracle cure now stings as it goes down due to coughed raw throat. Fun times.

Spent the day on the couch again, it seems the best place until this is over. Watched The Proposal and tried to watch TV I had missed, like Chuck and Supernatural, but it would appear that neither aired this week. Guts.

A few weeks ago I decided to join an orchestra. It’s only for a short time and I’ve been wanting to get back into playing my flute a bit. So rehearsals for the Bloody Broadway show start tomorrow – it’s a Halloween thing and if you’re in Wellington, I expect to see you there. Today I pulled out my flute and had a wee tinker and play with a few pieces I had been sent. Majority of it seems ok and I should be able to pick it up fairly quickly once we get going. However I did have to look up some fingering combinations. Obviously not playing properly for about five years has that affect.

Went out for dinner tonight to Satay Kampong and then to the supermarket. As we were entering I saw Heather Du Plessis-Allan and Barry Soper exiting. I started to fan-girl.

Such a n00b.

However the walk back from the supermarket to the flat just about killed me. I was coughing, barely able to breathe and a couple times thought I was going to collapse. It’s safe to say I probably lost a lung at some point. It was probably about this time that I wished I could either die or just to be rid of this cold/flu, whatever it is. With all the technology and medical advances we have had, why haven’t we come up with a cure for the common cold? Should have been the first thing they did. But I got up that blasted hill, showered, contemplated why the hand basin is in the shape of a kidney and am now safely tucked into a warm bed.

And I forgot to get marshmallows at the supermarket. Damn.