Common Colds and Flu in Australia

I’ve been waiting to write this post for a good couple of years now. It’s not a post I’ve not been looking forward to writing, but it is a post that I knew I would write one day.

That day is today.

gotta coldSo how is it that I had the idea for this post so long ago, and yet I am only going ahead with it today? Let me explain.

When I had lived in Australia for about a year, I realised that I hadn’t had a single cold. Not one. Back in England, I reckon I used to have around two or three colds a year. But nothing here for a whole year.

I wondered whether I could make it to 2 years. What a great post that would be, I thought. I could call it “Two years living in Australia without a single cold!”

Then, to my amazement, I made it! Two years living in Australia without a single cold! But I couldn’t write the post. I knew that under the law of “tempting fate”, I’d get a cold within a week of going to print.

So instead, I decided I would write the post when I next got a cold. I then wondered if I could make it to 3 years living in Australia without a single cold.

I didn’t really expect to, but I did. Could I possibly make it to 4 years?

No, I couldn’t.

It started on Thursday last week with a painful sore throat in the morning. In the afternoon, that was joined by a thumping headache. By Friday my head was a concentrated ball of pain, but no real coughing or runny nose.

Did I have a cold, or didn’t I?

On Saturday, when I developed a chesty cough, started ploughing through handkerchiefs and almost lost my voice, I decided that it was a cold.

Game over.

So this post should be called “three years, nine months and 28 days living in Australia without a single cold!” But that’s a bit too long, so it isn’t.

I did a little research on colds; children can get on average between six and 10 colds a year; adults average between two and four colds a year; individuals older than 60 (I’m not there yet!) get the least colds at fewer than one a year.

But nowhere could I find any evidence to suggest that Australians get fewer colds than people living in any other country. So I think three years, nine months and 28 days was pretty impressive, although probably down to luck.

But my cold wasn’t that bad that it stopped me going to the ball. The Gangsters Ball…

BobinOz with gang member Mark and three of our Molls……..

Gangsters and MollsThe Gangsters Ball had everything a gangster could want. Music and dancing……

Music and dancingGambling…..

PokerWeird stuff on stage….

weird stuff on stageLots of gangsters….

Gangsters and MollsAnd beer…..

Bob and a RockerCheers!

Atchoo!!

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