The past few awakenings from my nightly repose, I have been the recipient of a most foreboding tickly feeling in the back of my throat. This signifies that I am going to have a cold and/or a sore throat. My intake of tea has increased and use of sugar decreased. I have considered lemon in the tea, but it means that my tastebuds may not be completely happy with me. However, they may need to step to the wayside in deference to other more important functions such as breathing.

What a joyous thing it is to have a clean handkerchief! All of you who say it is unhygienic, buzz off. Tissues scratch and leave me a nice white moustache. Hankies are infinitely preferable to such battlescars. Besides, if you actually wash your laundry then there isn't much danger of catching the cold a thousand times over. Anyway, why am I justifying my use of hankies? Am I insecure about snot or phlegm? Well, my parents never humiliated me for using tissues or hankies.

But I did log onto a chat to extract sympathy from my friends who turned out to sympathise, put me in the corner, and then have a riveting discussion about snot bubbles. I refused to demonstrate, tho, as my cold is not so bad yet.

And now I need more tea, not to mention some PTSD counseling.