Week 49/2025: Just a cold

Week of 1 December 2025

Remember last week I came down with a cold on Sunday? Well that put me out of action most of the week.

This post is wholly researched and written by me. I do not use AI in my writing. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice.

When it’s (not) just a cold

Don’t believe it!

I know you can never be sure where you might have picked up an illness from, but having attended something where masking was impractical and someone in the room said they were sick, then becoming sick four days later (as did at least one other person), I had a strong suspicion.

On Sunday I felt like I had a bit of a cold. Just a cold. Rest up a bit and I’ll be okay in a couple of days, I thought.

Hahahaha. No.

By Monday this had blown into a headache that made my head feel like it was splitting in two. I felt terrible and slept all day. Eating made me nauseous.

Tuesday wasn’t much better.

A second RAT on Wednesday continued to assure me it wasn’t covid, but I also knew these tests aren’t always accurate. I managed to get a telehealth consultation with my doctor, who told me to take the rest of the week off work, to keep resting and stay hydrated. She said it sounded viral and asked me to do a PCR test to find out which of many viruses it might be.

If you remember those tests we used to do at the drive-thru test centres in the lockdown hazmat suit days of the pandemic, well this was similar but I had to do it myself. Swabbing the back of your own throat with an oversized swizzle stick when you’re already feeling like death is not my idea of a good time.

But at least I felt well enough to go out and do it so I went in, did it and headed back home to bed.

I was woken at 9.39 the next morning with a text from the pathology centre telling me my results, which was good news. None of the things like covid, influenza or RSV were positive. Nor were a bunch of things I’d never heard of and wasn’t sure I wanted to know about.

It told me I was testing positive for rhinovirus. Yay? It’s “just a cold”, right?

But it hasn’t been. I have never been this unwell with a cold before.

It made me wonder if as you get older, colds knock you about more, or if this was a particularly bad strain, or if I was just run down and tired anyway and it pushed me over the edge.

I guess it doesn’t matter. It just makes me want to avoid getting sick again.

The message from all of this is an illness that’s mild for one person might be anything but mild for someone else and you just don’t know. If you’re not well, please, stay home if you possibly can and wear a mask if you can’t.

A Cracker Kransky Christmas

By Friday afternoon I’d started feeling better, which was a relief because we had tickets to see The Kransky Sisters show at the Theatre Royal. Last time we saw them, in 2017, was the last time they were in Hobart.

This was their Cracker Kransky Christmas show, which they were touring in Tasmania and Queensland. (Here’s the show promo.)

Yes.

It was lovely that Mourne, Eve and Dawn came all the way from from Esk in Queensland to see us, and we had a fabulous time with them. As did audience member Paul, who participated in one of their songs. I’m not sure what the highlight was, but when they said they were going to sing a song of The Queen’s and they sang ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, well that was absolutely delightful.

Lots of fun. I’m glad I was feeling better!

Habit tracker

I didn’t track any habits this week because I spent most of the week sleeping.

Summary of the week

Some positive things

Not having covid.

This week I learned

In April this year the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) made an Australian-themed cafe chain remove Vegemite from their menu and shelves because it didn’t comply with the local health regulations. The Vitamin B in the product was the problem. However, CFIA later reviewed the decision and agreed the health risk from Vegemite was low if it was consumed in the recommended serving sizes. They allowed the cafe serve it again until they worked out what to do in the longer term.

This week I noticed

One of my resident currawongs has a baby, which we often hear wailing but rarely see.

What’s making me think?

I watched the documentary Larapinta: End to End which I helped fund on Pozible. This was made by Paul Pritchard, a rock climber who experienced a massive brain injury when a huge boulder fell on him during a climb at Tasmania’s Totem Pole in 1998.

The documentary tells the story of Paul and three of his friends, also with disability, who set out to walk the 230+ km Larapinta Trail, which runs along the spine of the West MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. It was an amazing story with a really powerful message:

It highlights the achievements of people with disability, without portraying them as ‘superheroes or victims’. Paul emphasises that people with disability have the same aspirations as anyone else and, due to societal prejudice, are often more creative and adaptable.

The film encourages viewers to rethink their perceptions of risk and independence for people with disability. As Paul explains, decisions about risk are often taken away from people with disability, stripping them of their independence. His expeditions seek to change that narrative.

It did make me think about how some people with disability can be told by others what’s ‘best’ for them and what they should and shouldn’t be ‘allowed’ to do, and how dehumanising this must be for people.

It also provided me with another thing to add to my ‘I never want to do this’ list. Beautiful place though!

Reading

• Minds Went Walking; Paul Kelly’s Songs Reimagined compiled by Mark Smith, Neil A. White & Jock Serong
• Voices of the Southern Ocean: A Nipaluna/Hobart Anthology

Watching

• Stranger Things Season 5
• Larapinta: End to End
• The Lost City of Melbourne
• Resident Alien
• A Cracker Kransky Christmas