The season's first bad lurgy and Roy's 75th birthday

I was thinking back on this year and I must admit, it has been amazingly free of colds and flu. I did have two bad accidents, one in Slovenia in early spring and the other in the SW in August (both orienteering related), but no lurgies.  Well, this one I have now is definitely trying to make up for it. Digestion troubles, tummy ache, sore throat, headaches, sneezes and bad, bad coughing, which aggravates the already seriously painful throat. Plus it makes me feel I am choking. Obviously, as it starts loosening up, the pain will subside, but I am prone to post viral fatique, so I will not be out of these woods for ages yet.  The really bad luck, of course, is that we are off to Toronto on Thursday, so whatever happens, I will not quite be up to most of the fun and games being planned. Drat!!

Callum the 7year old big boy

Way back last Thursday, when I went to the doctors for my regular prescriptions, I already had a sore throat, but it was not particularly bad and as she is not exactly nice to be with, I just got my repeat prescriptions and quickly scarpered. By the time we got into town on Friday I was feeling dreadful. This, unfortunately, put paid to practically everything we were planning to do over the weekend and beyond.

First of these would have been putting out Sunday's Hash route and then attend the Hash on Sunday. I had to call it off, while I wheezed away in bed feeling wretched. There were other surreptitious plans afoot, like having a surprise birthday dinner for Roy on Monday evening at the Zila, including fancy birthday cake, but that had to be cancelled as well. At least both my not haring on Sunday and not having the dinner party in the Zila enabled Ian to attend some fancy Sunday brunch in the Corinthia Hotel which we fortunately weren't invited to, or I would have had to cry off that too. Also, as soon as it became clear that Monday evening was off and with Ros having arrived on Sunday evening, Ian quickly got a couple of tickets for the BFO concert which, they told us later, was very good indeed.

Las Sunday's hash circle

My medicines had to be got and, of course, the cake had to be fetched.  The former was done by the ever attentive Roy, while Ian volunteered to go out and fetch the cake and deliver it on Tuesday. They appeared today, brought a card and a couple of books as a present, while the cake was unveiled much to Roy's surprise. We decided that with only a couple of days before we leave and due to my delicate condition I couldn't  eat much of it, that we should freeze the cake and have it at a party to be arranged for sometime in November when Ros and Ian are back.

The Birthday Cake

I presented Ros and Ian with a jar of jam, the making of which they have assisted us in in the summer and a box of truffels and petit fours that I have made last week. I also managed to get them a couple of tickets to the Opera, which were spare anyway (us being away in Canada and Bozsa having the same program twice on two different subscription tickets). I hope they enjoy it.

Ian, Roy and Ros with the cake

I am now back in bed, trying to nurse this bloody cold to make it disappear.  It is not getting better at all, wich was to be expected. I wonder if I'll manage to catch a secondary infection on the aeroplane, which is quite common due to recyled air? I hope not. I am really looking forward to seeing Alex, Meaghan and Callum, as well as Heather and Lyle. I don't see them too often, once a year max, so it is really miserable to get ill for the rare occasion a Canadian visit comes round.