Gah, this sucks. I’ve been ill for over a week now. The thing is it’s not just one illness, it’s like some kind of auper-adaptive thing which is working its way down through me. I’ve gone from having a horrible head cold to a nasty sinus infection, and over the last couple of days it’s continued its journey south and I now have some kind of tonsillitis/laryngitis combination. Talking absolutely kills, and so far I’ve spent most of the day talking on the phone – brilliant.
Training with any kind of illness or infection is always difficult, but I’ve stuck it out this last couple of sessions at the dojang, even if simple warmups are proving to be ten times as much work as they’d normally feel. I’m suffering for it though, the day after training at the moment is a wash-out, I’ve not go an ounce of strength or energy. If it weren’t for the fact that Mondays and Tuesdays at work are absolutely crazy and very stressful at the moment, I’d be at home tucked up watching feel-good films with some hot lemon and honey.
I’m becoming more and more aware of just how close my Dan grading is now, and I really couldn’t have had a worse start to my preparations for it. My fitness is down, my strength is down, I’ve been missing a few lessons. All in all, not ideal.
We had a nice distraction on Saturday though, with the Falmouth Beer Festival. Twice a year CAMRA organise big beer festivals in Cornwall; October in Falmouth and May in St Ives. As usual, it was a great day. A group of us headed down in the afternoon and spent a few hours sampling the various ales and ciders, watching the live music and this year some morris dancers too. I love the beer festivals, it’s such a good atmosphere. By the time we left I’d worked my way through quite a few half-pint vouchers and whoever suggested getting a Chinese on the way home – I salute you. The dark evenings and being a bit merry played havoc with my head. My body thought it was about 11 o’clock, when in fact it was only just past 7. Great times though, and officially the start of the run-up to Christmas. Five weeks ’til my holiday, eight-and-a-half until Christmas – the countdown is on.