Dear Diary

9.50 am
I'm in my white Carousel bus on my way to work, up the hill. Through the window, I watch the bright winter sun melting the frost on leaves and sidewalks. It's failing to thaw me though. I have a runny nose and can feel a headache creep up to my temple, threatening to bring on the predictable watering eyes, heavy eyelids and imagined high temperatures.

In the bus, I'm trying to finish the 'Nations favorite poems of celebration' and return it to the library today. It's been a while since I borrowed it! Towards the end of the book, I find some real gems which cheer me up. Poetry is good for the soul. And not just for a soul with a runny nose.

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11 am
The recruitment process has finally ended and I've hired someone to assist me with work, starting Monday. Fingers crossed and I hope I've chosen wisely. It's an enormous responsibility to be in charge of a full fledged operation, and even more so when your employers entrust you with hiring and training people. And all this in a few weeks of starting work. It's a far cry from the Seniority lists and yearly fixed increments of the Public Sector back home. A far cry indeed.

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Happy Republic Day, everybody. Hope most of you enjoyed the flag-hoisting, singing of the national anthem and putting up your feet on a mid week holiday. Some of you might be at work, like my little sis, but that's the price you pay for success. No freedom there!

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4 pm
Runny noses shouldn't stop you from trying to read, so here I am at the local library. I come back armed with not one, not two, but three James Patterson books that I haven't read yet. It's going to be a weekend of crime and evil. Whoopee! Just what one needs to get better quickly. The writing section has little to offer me anymore. In the past year, I've gone through anything interesting that they had in stock. I end up with 'Living with a writer', an anthology. Seems interesting and hopefully will be an inspiration as well.

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The last word
There's something about having a cold that makes you hold your head up high.

After a whole day of sneezing, my eyes are really starting to water and I feel terrible. Hopefully a paracetemol induced sleep should make things better for tomorrow. It's Mr R's concert tomorrow evening in London and I am determined to go. More so because it gives me an opportunity to shop ;-) Having a severe cold may feel like the end of the world, but that's no reason to NOT go shopping!

Hope the rest of you are, as we used to say in school, in the pink of health.