Kev and I both caught a really horrible cold on the last break we took off work. Not the type you can get on with your life with, but the type that knocks you on your arse for days surrounded by packets of paracetamol and tissues and wondering what the hell hit you.
I’m not sure whether this was the so-called “leisure sickness” that’s attributed to pushing yourself too hard before a holiday and when the adrenaline wears off you get ill while you’re supposed to be drinking Pina Coladas on a white sandy beach.
I can definitely say I didn’t run myself ragged before our week off. I was actually feeling pretty chilled about work and life and I think Kev was, too.
But somehow, a virus managed to weedle its way into our bodies, filling our heads with all kinds of goo, and zapping our batteries so completely that we barely had enough energy to choose what to watch on TV
I think we pretty much completed Netflix, because by the weekend we ended up watching the first few minutes of a Lindsay Lohan rom com called Irish Wish before looking at each other and saying, “This has to stop or we will literally lose all our brain cells”.
The good news is that Kev and I managed to remain quite chipper even though we felt like crap. We laughed about how our main sporting activity was aiming soggy tissues at the fire (and mostly missing) and how our fancy holiday restaurant was a tray on our laps with soup.
It was so bad it was funny.
I haven’t always had a sense of humour like that.
I’ve been in the most amazing places on holiday and still found cause to be a grumpy twat.
I remember being on honeymoon in Bermuda in my twenties and getting salty with my fresh-out-of-the-box husband because of “things”.
I remember sitting on a bench with him looking out to sea, not talking, sulking because we were both “being right” about something. Weirdly, I can’t remember what the argument was about, but I do remember thinking he’d ruined my day by being an arsehole.
I failed to see that I was being one, too.
I had no concept that I was part of the problem. Probably, all it would have taken was for me to shift my attitude and focus on enjoying the beautiful country we were in rather than winning a row and we’d both had an amazing time.
Somehow, I made it his job to change in order to make the world a better place for me, and that was my mistake.
You can be anywhere in the world, doing anything you want, and yet there is still the potential for it to be heaven or hell.
What lens are you choosing to look at the world through lately?