The 8th of March.

Well, I have a voice today which sounds pretty normal, so that was a good start. Quite a lot of coughing and nose-blowing, so I've spent the day trying to conserve energy before going out this evening. I feel alright in myself, I'm just slightly worse at breathing and every so often I hawk up some yellowish crap. I'm a delight.

So for most of the day I have been sat in front of the television, knitting the back of my jumper and going through tissues like there's no tomorrow. My nose hurts from blowing it so much, I've had to get the special lip balm out to protect it.

I contemplated not going tonight, after one particularly bad sneezing fit, but in the end I didn't feel okay about cancelling at the last minute. I was invited to a place called Grafton Manor for an Old Hallfieldian dinner for winners of the Allday Cup and the Derry Bowl. I won neither of those things, but because I am on the committee and am special, I got to go too. It was black tie, and I had no clue what to wear (none of my Christmas dresses were really appropriate) until I remembered the purple dress from Coast that I wore to the Catching Fire premiere. Perfect! Grafton Manor is in Bromsgrove, which is quite a trek from Sutton, so we had to set off at half five. Mommy and Daddy went for dinner nearby, so didn't have to do loads of journeys. The traffic was terrible, so I ended up being about twenty minutes late, but thankfully I hadn't actually missed any food, just some of the pre-dinner drinks and chat. I basically spent my whole evening with two girls that I met straight away called Raina and Joanna, who left Hallfield in 2009 and were very lovely. We talked a lot about how fondly we remember the school, and how happy we were there. Lots of comparing of staff members, and what we'd ended up doing after Hallfield. The food was all really good, and I didn't even need to take any of the Rennies that I'd taken just in case. The pudding was particularly delicious. I didn't get a chance to really talk to many other people, but I spoke briefly with the head, Keith Morrow, and with Anne when she came round to our end of the table to say hello. I also got to talk to Ash, whose brother Sandip was in my class, but was at the other end of the table, and constantly engaged by other people. If I'd had time, I would have liked to talk to them both more. However, it was officially supposed to end at ten, so my parents were back in the car park by then and I couldn't linger too long because it was going to take us another hour to get home. Very tired, but very glad I went.

The 9th of March..

Oh I feel terrible today. I fell asleep about one, and didn't have the most restful night because of all the coughing and sneezing. I'm in full-blown cold mode now, just constant phlegm. It's very attractive.

I got up at nine because by that point, my body wasn't going back to sleep, and I was getting hungry. I am planning on doing absolutely nothing at all for the next four days, because I have gigs on Thursday and Friday next week, and I'd really like to feel up to going to them.

So this morning, I wrote about yesterday, then started casting on to begin the front of my French Bulldog jumper. That and watching the rugby have been my activities of the day, although the knitting is going pretty slowly because I have to keep stopping to cough or sneeze or blow my nose. This is already becoming tiresome. I really hope I'm using up my illness quota for the year; I really don't want to keep catching something every other month. Not only do I feel like shit, but I cannot squidge baby Harry to cheer me up. Do not like.