The world is united against a common foe – flu
Having survived the end of year celebrations, a new and more insidious phenomena has engulfed these islands.
The winter chills have taken hold, and the mass media are encouraging all to have the flu injections.
Australian flu has hit, big time, and the pills and potions have been flying of the shelves faster than an MPs expenses.
We have not escaped, one of the family is laid low, coughing like a hyena with laryngitis, a hard rasping throaty hack, that shakes the crockery, and frightens the horses.
According to the mass media, the nation is in the middle of a flu epidemic, unheard of since the influenza epidemic of 1919, which killed many millions, all over Europe.
Throw in Asian and French flu, and the European ideal of a harmonised Europe has finally arrived, all for the wrong reasons.
We are all in this together, it’s comforting to know the French, Germans, Dutch, Italians, and all points west are in the same predicament.
Shares in the pharmaceutical industries will be worth a fortune.
Meanwhile the sound of coughing, sneezing and wheezing into hankies and tissues continues unabated.
Us of a more solid countenance laugh in the face of danger, for the old and the bold have been there, read the book, and bought the T-shirt, so to speak.
The mollycoddled generation, who have never experienced the sheer pleasure of running free in the streets, climbed trees, made camps on derelict wasteland, built box carts from scrap, and spent every bit of daylight out with their mates, doing what all kids done pre 24 hour TV, computer games, mobile phones, and a corrupting social media fixation, have an inbuilt defence against flu, sniffs and colds.
I'm not saying that the average old un doesn't get poorly once in a while, but we have that inbuilt resilience to weather it out.
The old chestnut of man flu, and how it radically effects the average bloke, who just knows he is about to die, at the first cough and snivel, seems to effect those approaching upper middle age, never us coffin dodgers.
I suppose it’s down to lifestyle, military service helps, as does having to get up and earn a living, the bills won't pay themselves. Colds and sneezes, all part of life's rich pattern, those that can, do, those that don't, suffer. She's put paracetemol tablets, and cough medicine on the shopping list, fore warned is fore armed.
Tony Levy
Wednesfield
