Oooooh

I am now a fully fledged member of healthy land and my Swine Flu induced house arrest has been lifted! Yay! Not only that but I move into a brief holiday period essay-wise. The long-avoided deadline for 2 essays was 12pm today. I cracked the essays off with a minute to spare - actually one minute off the deadline! The OU are very inflexible when it comes to end of course essay deadlines and a minute over would have proved educationally fatal. I'm still hoping that they will approve an extension so I can revisit the essays and improve them. Nasty flu really ate into my study time. I have emerged from the study pit relatively unscathed. Sleep over the last few days has been somewhat limited and in true student style, I went to bed at 2am this morning and reluctantly dragged myself out of bed at 6am. I'm a women that likes to sleep so this was a challenging undertaking to say the least. It paid off though. I breathe a huge sigh of relief. I celebrated with a sandwich of gigantic proportions and am soon to immerse myself in chocolate ice cream. Mmmmm. I still have two more essays to produce but luckily the deadlines are not imminent.

I made a promise somewhere in the mists of time, to paint the town a myriad of colours the moment a study gap presented itself. HELLO STUDY GAP! In the words of Pink "I'm comin' up so you better get this party started". ;-)

xxx

Real me

I've been unfortunate enough to contract Swine flu, yes really. No jest. Two doses of special antibiotics later, I'm improving just enough to blog. I'm in quarantine until Sunday. Timing for catching Swine flu is far from ideal - I was with my new boyfriend, a man I've been seeing for just under 3 weeks. I'm also in the middle of writing two essays, both of which are due on Tuesday next week. Oh gulp. So my lovely new man has seen me at my very worst - deathly pale, even less tanned than usual, no make-up, bad hair and to put the cherry on the hideous Hazel cake - I was sick four times, right in front of him. The kind of sick that really ill people produce. If I could have picked a time to be sick in front of him, the first three weeks of the relationship would not have been it! Top marks to him though, he really has taken care of me. As I sit - wearing his old top, no make-up, bad hair, typing my blog - he still wants to be with me. The hideous Hazel has not put him off. Miraculous!

I've received more compliments in the last three weeks than I have in a long time. I feel honoured to be so appreciated. His approach to beauty reminds me that make-up, short skirts, big hair, preening and polishing are all just layers. They are merely enhancements. I'm liked just as much slobbing out in his old top as I am when I've spent hours getting ready to go out.

The glamourous Hazel is still me but underneath I'm just a woman without make-up, slobbing out in his old top. I like the real me. I even like the almost post-Swine flu sicky me. He likes me too. Thank you lovely man.

xxxx