My brush with H1N1

Just some days ago, a 27 year old woman died of a heart attack brought on by H1N1 influenza. She had no underlying medical conditions. The frailty of life, it could have been anyone, it could have been me.

Two weekends ago, I woke up with a horrible sore throat and it progressed into a fever and hacking cough. I doused myself in juices, panadol and whatever medicine I could find in the fridge, but after a few days the fever had not subsided.

I made it to the doctor, only to have him diagnose wrongly, giving me antibiotics when clearly H1N1 flu (the most common flu around nowadays) is a virus and antibiotics wouldn't work. I had to visit another doctor a couple of days later, only to just pay to receive peace of mind as my fever had subsided by then. He did mention I will be coughing for 2 weeks and it's nearly about there...and I'm still coughing.

As I look back, I feel blessed my fever hardly went over 38 degrees and I could still spend my days watching movies on the couch and chatting with friends over the internet. If you're reading this and are at home feeling fluish, please get yourself to the doctor straight away to get proper medicine.

Men in Movies

Being holed up at home on self-imposed quarantine, whilst I'm nursing a flu and very bad throat, I've had to entertain myself with a slew of Hollywood movies. I watched so many in these last few days I can't believe it myself. Most of them were light hearted romantic comedies or stories, but I noticed one similar trait in all of them - the men say the things that women love to hear.

I'm sure this is just the sort of stuff that tinseltown embellishes to endear us to them. In real life, i've never experienced any man being so clear, straightforward and forthcoming in their expressions of love. With the exception of a man blurting out a flurry of mushy sentences when he is asking you to marry him, regular day to day dialogue, or even sweet nothings at the bedside, would barely include the words "I love you".

Perhaps there are such men in the world, who really tell their lovers like they mean it. I'm excluding the casanovas and don juans of our time, whom i'm sure will say anything to get what they want.

Maybe men in real life should take a cue from reel heroes. I'm sure the "words that women want to hear" will be beneficial to them in the long run.