What an absolute miserable way to start a new year.

I don't know what I caught, but in short? A sore throat. However, if I were to rank it in terms of suckiness, I'd put this as worse than the Covid episodes.

With Covid, it was general misery you expect from a flu I suppose; fever, shaking, sore muscles, sweating, weakness yadda yadda.

It just kinda sucked for a few days.

This sore throat, on the other hand, has been agonizing. I can't sleep, I can't swallow, I can't eat, I can't talk or sing (I'm a frickin' CHOIR director!).

It comes with an exceptionally dry, tickling cough which induces more saliva production, forcing me to swallow every few seconds, and yet every single swallow is like I'm consuming a desert cat, clawing its way down my esophagus, unleashing particles of sand from betwixt its paws. Every single time.

_{Actual picture of my throat from the doctor}

I swear I've ripped off some flesh and swallowed it at one point.

So as the year came to an end, I was sat on my sofa, scrunching up my face every 7 seconds to swallow saliva, trying desperately to distract myself by playing It Takes Two with my fiance, the very fact she was home with me was something I could not have survived without, and sucking on lozenges until I O.D.

Sleep was the worst. I spent a couple of nights on the sofa simply because I couldn't handle restraining my coughs and other suffering noises. Being on the sofa with the cats gave me the liberty to roll around uncomfortably, whispering expletives of pain to myself, while my fat cat Smash constantly vied for my attention by poking my nose with his paw (To be honest, I welcomed the company. Cats are mighty cute in the dark when their pupils open up wide).

Well anyway, last night I got SOME sofa sleep. Tends to be on-off every hour or so, but it added up to a point where I'm not completely exhausted, and got to work on time, first day back. Thank the Throat Cat I don't have a choir session today.

I'm just sitting here with some throat spray that does nothing, some cough syrup that does nothing, and some lozengers which... well, provide a distraction? Plotting how to get through the day's meeting and classes without saying a single word.

I feel like I missed something, as I do every New Year (last year I think I was asleep at like 11pm lol), but to be honest not much goes on in Shanghai. The sole place you might expect something to happen would be The Bund - the riverside spot with the famous skyline China markets around the globe as a symbol of China's success.

The area is constantly crowded even on a regular day, so on NYE, it's completely rammed as you'd expect. But... Check out last year's countdown (Skip to 2:00 - right at the very end):

,,, yeah. Not exactly worth the trip, in my opinion.

You'd probably ascribe this to Covid times, but this has pretty much been the case for many years now, ever since there was a stampede that crushed to death about 35-40 people there when somebody threw a bunch of fake money into the air. Ever since, the government cracked down on anything over-encouraging mass gatherings going too far.

The only stuff really going on in Shanghai would be night-club stuff, which I'd rather have 7 throats, all of which have this fork-on-a-chalkboard infection, than attend:

Bmm-tss-bmm-tss-bmm-tss-FIVE-tss-bmm-tss-FOUR--....

THREE-tss-bmm-tss-TWO-tss-bmm-tss-ONE...

HAPPY NEW YEARRR-ea-ea-ea-glitch effect + drop the beat!

Bmm-tss-bmm-tss-wahhh wub wub wub waaa wub wub bmm-tss-bmm-tss

Everyone with their phones out recording everyone else with their phones out recording the DJ with both hands in their because he isn't actually doing anything else, before quickly turning their phones on themselves because they're mouth-breathing narcissists who need to let the world know they are a part of the experience.

No offence to anyone reading this who goes to clubs... just don't ask me to join XD

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, nothing.

Happy New Year for those of you who didn't wish death upon themselves to stop the pain, and for anyone going through depression, anxiety, tragic loss or anything in between, Feel free to hit me up - I'm painfully aware of such experiences during these christmassy-new year kind of times. It's almost a family tradition at this point to have a disappointing New Year/Christmas, as it's just a safer bet than to expect greatness, only to be shot down by unimaginably terrible events.

Actually, this year was the first in a few where nothing actually happened, and the worst thing I can say is 'I had a sore throat' and somehow write 808 words about it.

Ok, Bye!