James Complains – About A Sore Throat

Before I begin this particular diatribe, I need to point out that this is part of the, now regular, ‘James Complains’ feature of this blog, so even though I’m not really that ill and I’m bearing up quite well, this feature is very much focused on my ability to whinge about things that don’t really matter. If it was called ‘James Copes Quite Well In Mild Adversity’ or ‘James Makes The Best Of It’ then, obviously the tone would be different. But as it’s ‘James Complains’ I feel duty bound to lament the current state of affairs.

And the current state of affairs is that I’m not well. I’ve been not well since Friday night. On Friday night I woke up with a really sore throat. It was so painful that I couldn’t sleep. It’s now Sunday and it has got a bit better, but I’m still not well, which means I’ve been unwell all weekend.

This is annoying for all kinds of reasons. The main reason is of course that I’m not well and not being well is by definition, not a good thing. But it is more annoying to be unwell on a weekend because that’s a time for fun and frivolities. It’s particularly infuriating that I’m ill this weekend because I worked all of last weekend. So this is my first chance to relax after twelve days of what has been quite an intensive and stressful period at work. And the reason I’ve been working so hard is that I’m leaving my current job in a few weeks time and I’ve been trying to get things in place to make my successor’s life easier.

I won’t even benefit from all my hard work.

And now I’m ill.

How is that fair?

It isn’t fair.

It isn’t fair at all.

I feel like I’m being punished for being a good person.

Now let’s ignore the fact that in two weeks I will have quite a long time off work fully paid because I’m a teacher and that’s what happens if you’re a teacher. Right now, today, I’m not well and I fully deserve everyone’s sympathy.

Also the reason I’m not well is because I’ve got a sore throat. It doesn’t really sound that bad. But it is that bad. Having a sore throat is horrible. Ostensibly I can still physically do everything I’m normally capable of, but my throat hurts. How rubbish is that? I can’t even sit around pretending I’m too ill to move, because it’s abundantly clear that I’m perfectly capable of moving and doing stuff that needs doing. It’s infuriating. If I’m going to be ill, I at least want that to be justification for being lazy.

And yet, although I am capable of doing most stuff, I’m not going to go to my ballroom dancing class today because I don’t feel quite well enough to do that.

“What’s this about ballroom dancing?” I hear you cry.

Every Sunday I go to ballroom dancing lessons with my wife. We’ve been doing it for a little longer than I’ve been writing this blog. I missed last week because I was working and now I’m going to miss today because I’m ill. I could pretend that I only go to these classes to keep my other half happy, and that is sort of why I agreed to start the lessons in the first place. But I would be doing ballroom dancing a disservice, because I actually really enjoy it…

…although there is a whole dance-themed ‘James Complains’ coming to soon to these pages…

But anyway, I’m annoyed because I’m exactly ill enough to not be able to dance, which I would like to do today, but not so ill that I can’t do other stuff like ironing, which I need to do but I really don’t want to do.

And I’ll no doubt be well again by tomorrow and that’s rubbish because tomorrow I’m back in work. Actually what’ll happen is I’ll be well enough that I have no excuse to not go to work, but ill enough that going to work is a bit worse than normal.

It’s not been a great weekend. And to add insult to injury, my weekly grocery shop has just been delivered and they didn’t bring the ‘tiger bread’ baguette I ordered, which I was going to have for lunch.

Now I’m going to have to walk a whole eight minutes to Waitrose to get a baguette.

And when I’m there I’ll probably buy other stuff.

Like the really nice cupcakes they sell.

And maybe I’ll take advantage of the free coffee they give to ‘My Waitrose’ card holders.

Does life get any worse?