I have a cold. It's my second cold of the year. And both have been full on, "I can't feel my face" type colds.
I would like to put this display of illness down to the ever-changing British climate rather than the somewhat unhealthy student lifestyle that I have dipped in and out of for the past four years. But that would be lying. The past few weeks (final exams done and dusted) have been one non-stop party, one which my liver has not enjoyed so much, and now my body is punishing me for all extreme alcohol consumption.
The amount of "fresher's flu's" and partying-induced colds that I have experienced over the past four years should have made me an expert on how to deal with them. Not the case. Every time I catch one of these miserable maladies I curl up in a ball feeling very sorry for myself. I flit between gulping down lemsips, dabbing my nose with kleenex and trying to get my hands on as much vitamin C as possible (this is the only time you'll witness me doing this).
However, one thing I have learned is that sickness prompts me to watch an awful lot of comedy shows. Sitcoms, if you will. And that this does in fact help with the general "I feel like death warmed up" syndrome. Along with the endless mugs of lemsip, of course.
When I was younger, sick-days would be spent on the sofa watching re-runs of Friends episodes. In more recent years, many a sitcom has popped up to fulfill the same cause. These easy-watching, laugh-out-loud TV series provide the patient with a distraction. Films and TV dramas have plot twists that require too much concentration that the sick and sniffly just can't implement.
This week I put my theory to the test. Saturday night (party night but, you know, whatever) I went to bed early with a sore throat that promised the onslaught of every possible flu symptom. I watched nearly an entire series about the ventures of a serial killer. As addictive as the programme was, I can safely say I felt no better having watched it.
I spent the rest of the weekend (and Monday and Tuesday) watching anything from Mrs Brown's Boys to 2 Broke Girls to Blackadder trying to shed the effects of my night-time drama watching. And, although I am still coughing and sneezing away, I definitely feel more optimistic about fighting off this beast of a cold.
So, a word of advice: if, like me, an unhealthy lifestyle has finally got the better of you and you are also curled up feeling sorry for yourself, when faced with a choice between Titanic and How I Met Your Mother...always go for funny.
