Under the Weather.doc

I've been feeling a bit sickly this weekend. For anyone who knows me well you'll know how seldom this tends to happen. I feel sick (cold/flu like symptoms) about once every year and a half. I'm blessed with a really strong immune system so it seems. But Saturday I woke up with an incredibly stuffy nose and a headache I just couldn't shake. Thankfully, I had decided to devote the weekend to dissertation revision so I wasn't planning on leaving the flat for much anyways. Item number 28 on the list of 100 things I am looking forward to back in Canada: indulging in some Timmy Ho's treats (double chocolate chip cookies) when feeling under the weather.

It got me thinking though. Where the heck does the phrase "under the weather" come from? I did a bit of research (one of my marketable resume skills) and I found that it's a term originating from the British Navy. When a sailor was ill, he was kept below decks, and thus, under weather. The last time I posted a grammatical tidbit I received a correction from Doc Walker, so let us see if this one goes unscathed. It makes sense to me. Whenever I feel sick I just want to crawl under the covers (away from everything including the weather) so the phrase seems to fit. This evening I marched out of the house to head to the gym. I hear a 30 minute sauna does wonders for a cold. But low and behold, the one time in the four months I've been going they closed early for some sort of repair. It just wasn't my weekend.

In any event, I didn't let the sick feelings get me down. I managed to add 2000 words more to the dissertation in response to supervisor feedback. At this point it's really difficult to dig up passages written two months ago, but I'm trying to just power through and overwrite it before going back with a machete to chop and clip it into shape. I have to work out submission dates later on this evening, but I'm hoping to part with this thing in two weeks. I'll be happy to say bon voyage to my little project.

Thursday evening we had a bit of a surprise party for Courtney's birthday. We had all planned to pretend it was just a regular get together like our usual MAIPR jams (since it was the night before her birthday). Around 10pm we surprised her with a cake made by our resident expert Bec, and some merriment. There have been an abundance of birthdays in the first term here in Leamington, so it was nice to share in yet another. Courtney has been a great friend in the program this past year, and like Bec, Tory, and Zoey, it will be a sad goodbye in the coming weeks. Thankfully we all have a unique holiday celebration to look forward to later in the month. It may not be the homey Thorold Christmas I'm use to, but I'm sure it will carry its own memorable moments.

I've made a to-do list that puts the last five weeks of Europe in perspective. It's a lengthy list, but I'm really looking forward to the one week of travel at the end of my hard work as a reward for the busy schedule. I cannot believe how fast everything is coming. I'm commissioning just about everyone I know to help me decide just how I should be spending this last week. These are my two options:

A) Head to Amsterdam for three nights to see some friends one final time and then go somewhere like Austra, Switzerland, or Hungary.

B) Head to Tunisia in Northern Africa for a week (where the temperatures are 18C) and chill on a beach at an all inclusive.

Both would cost about the same amount of money, and because everyone is heading their own way I'd likely be traveling on my own. Thoughts?

Doc's Prescription of the Day: I'm not a happy sicky - it impedes progress too much. It's a reminder that we take tip-top health for granted.