Not in The Spirit

Christmas is less than a week away and I'm not really in the spirit. It didn't help that I woke up this morning running a temperature and with a hacking dry cough. Various pills and lozenges have brought both of those symptoms under some kind of control, but today was still Hell. Not that I was in a festive mood before today. I'm afraid that the lengthy battle with BT to repair my phone line and dealing with the damp problems caused by the council's ivy, have really taken it out of me- which is probably why I was vulnerable to this cold. I did finally get round to erecting my concession to the festive spirit, my Christmas tree on Tuesday. By yesterday evening I'd finally finished decorating it, so unenthusiastic did I find myself regarding the process. Even as I was completing this desultory task, I found myself thinking ahead to how depressing it would be when I took the tree and decorations down on Twelfth Night. I can see this shaping up to be a very trying Christmas season.

Still, I'm hoping that a couple of days in bed over the weekend will see me over the worst of this cold. Sadly, for reasons too spiteful and tedious to go into to, I have to work the first couple of days of next week, depriving me of the opportunity for further bed rest. Thankfully, from Christmas Eve I'm off for a week and a half. Not really long enough, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to take the leave to which I'm contractually entitled due to the objections of others, who seem to think that the whole organisation will grind to a halt if I have the audacity to take a week off. In today's public sector it is also getting far too dangerous to take sick leave (which I should have done today and probably next week too, lest your 'absenteeism' be used against you in bogus disciplinary proceedings which could result in dismissal. I kid you not. Management seem to have even more difficulty getting into the festive spirit than me, (not that this stops them taking their annual leave and calling in sick).