I've got the sniffles



Someone in my class was suspected of having swine flu but dedicated as he is, he still turned up for hospital teaching. And lessons in school afterwards. The next time we had classes, 1/2 that group was missing and there were flu-bitten students dotted about in several other groups. My group had 3 including me.

Turns out he did not have swine flu tho. But this flu has been going on for ages.. Yet it is not serious enough to warrant a journey to Freemen's medical centre.

Ever had the experience of blowing and blowing and blowing your nose and successful or not, still always have something dribbling down 1 nostril soon after? I always wonder if, by blowing, I am encouraging my goblet cells to heighten their productivity to make up for the mucus deficit.

I do not have the habit of using tissues. I think it is the bother of walking over to the other side of the room to pull 1 piece out, thinking that that will be the only piece I will need, only having to walk over again 5 minutes later. 'Bring over the whole damn box to where you are, you potato' many voices tell me. However, somehow after wiping my nose dry on that 1 piece of tissue, the comfort of having a clean dry nose always convinces me that my nose has, this time, truly decided to stay still and stop running. And so after my 4th-ish piece of tissue I decide that enough is enough.

'Enough!' I tell my nose and my tissue box,

and on reflex just reach for the nearest, most convenient piece of wiping equipment I can find, which is, of course, my jumper sleeve. Do not cringe your noses in disdain and say 'ee...'. I know many of you secretly do it too, when you casually sweep your hand across your face to swat away a fly or brush back your hair and casually slide it into your trouser pocket when you are done. Now 2 surfaces (the back of the hand and the trouser pocket) are contaminated with body fluid. Fortunately, I just use my sleeve and I do wash my jumper alot so the rest of my belongings are clean.

I have now found an obvious coping strategy, which is to utilise the 34 packets of tissue I have in the drawer beside me. That way I can stay at the same spot and have unlimited excess to my tissues. The drawback about using tissues in general tho (and many of my tissue packets contain 3-ply tissue. why??) is when your airways are obviously blocked/nose is obviously dribbling but the bulk of the mucus does not wish to leave its nest and you end up using a whole piece of perfectly good 3-ply tissue to absorb just a few drops of fluid despite various styles of angling the tissue to maximise its potential. I am not a huge environmentalist person. Hm but I am a bit of a cheapskate. Anyway, I believe that each ply deserves to be maximally utilised and so when it is just a minor leakage, I still instinctively depend on my handy old jumper for its absorptive properties. Reusable and Recyclable. And I reduce the amount (yes amount. not number) of tissues I have to throw away on a flu-ey day.