Cough, sneeze, splutter, freeze

I've coughed so much in the last couple of days that it hurts. It hurts my throat. It hurts my head. It hurts my chest. And yet I still cough. In years gone past I would have ignored this. Not taken any medication. Not done much more than perhaps sprinkle a few drops of Olbas oil on my pillow. Now I've taken my day/night nurse capsules (mostly just paracetamol). I've stayed in PJs, not gone out. I've cancelled meetings and social trips. I've watched banal (as well as invigorating) TV programmes. I've admitted to being ill.

The hardest bit about accepting this level of ill is that I haven't been out in the snow. I've not thrown a snowball, not made a snowman (or snow-woman!).

I've not wrapped up in layers, put on wellies and made my footprints the first in any patch of white. I want to trudge through it before it turns to ice and slush. I want to run across an expanse of pristine snow.

Of course I don't run anywhere now. The director of the play I am currently rehearsing (and, yes, I've had to cancel going to a rehearsal too) recently pointed out that it wouldn't be credible for my character regularly to play tennis and run 2 - 3 miles round a golf course. And she based that on my stiffness when standing up out of a chair. This is the first time I will have to incorporate a major character and script change as a result of my MS. I have suggested that we could replace reference to running with cycling - you can do that sitting down! I haven't cycled for a week but I will soon. Or rather I will when the ice and snow have diminished and my coughing and sneezing have eased enough for me to breathe in without inducing an onslaught of phlegm and sputum. I'll leave you with that image. Now, where's my pile of tissues?

Five things

Lists provide popular material for news items / magazine articles / blog posts / Facebook updates. Even the 140 character limited Tweet can be a platform for a list. Here are some recent ones that have caught my eye (Just five of them because longer lists can get boring!):

There are five things that you cannot recover in life:
(1) The  Stone..........after it's thrown
(2)  The Word..........after it's said,
(3) The  Occasion..........after it's missed
(4) The Time..........after  it's gone.
(5) A person..........after they pass on
(From a chain email promising wealth and success - I'm not sure how the above thought fits in with the "Financial Abundance Angel" pictured on the chain email and right If she has such financial abundance, how come she can't afford a coat? It's cold out!)

The BBC Health 'five things' for 2013 are a little hard to decipher from this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20800795: 
A watershed moment before January is out?
Will the government be bold with the old?
Getting tough on unhealthy habits
Money, money, money
Get ready for the big bang
(Thank you to BBC Health Correspondent Nick Triggle)

Two lists for the price of one! -
On Twitter, I found some freelancer advice in the form of
Five things every freelancer should do this January 
I'm freelance / self employed / just me... I'm not sure exactly what is applicable to an actor on Disability Living Allowance and Working Tax Credit.  I nearly understand most of the freelance advice and quite like this phrase in the Get your business ready for 2013 article it links to:
What our clients can do: No action required yet.
Thank goodness I live in the UK as I don't think I understand the often referred to United States Fiscal Cliff at all. (Thank you to the original Tweeter/Twit/Twerp/Tweep @freelanceadvice)

Here's another Twitter gem(?) - look for Jill Laine's eyes flickering back and forth in the video as she reads her autocue (or perhaps it's just auto cards that tell her what to say) on Trendspotting with Jill Laine: 3 Things to wear when you’ve gained 5 pounds I do most of this already but I think I've gained lots more than 5 pounds - I'm blaming the Gabapentin I take and not my largely-MS-induced inactive overindulgence.

And there we have it. You can comment with your own list for 2013. I don't make New Year Resolutions not least because I have this strange perversity that whenever I say I'm going to do something I tend to do the exact opposite. NB This does not apply to professional commitments I hasten to add just in case you felt like offering me a job! Please offer me a job!