Categories: uncategorized
Date: 23 December 2004 15:42:37
Everyone in our office is ill. I'm not, for once, exaggerating. We're all working right up to Christmas Eve and I don't think there is a single person in this office who hasn't got some semblance of the same, particularly horrid, fluey cold.
In a sense, this is quite amusing, because it shows up the difference attitudes to sickness everyone has, ranging from total martyr to total wuss. I would say though that most of us who are in today come into a category that I would characterise as "pissed-off martyr" - meaning that while we are secretly and masochistically enjoying our own ability to cope with work when we're ill, we are also secretly resentful of those who have actually taken a day off.
I'm trying hard not to be like that, especially since I don't really feel too bad. But it is going to be tough on those of us who are here, putting all those Christmas papers together with so many people off, and I REALLY want to keep some semblance of a voice for the service we're doing at the asylum seeker's hostel on Christmas Eve. I'm a bit nervous about that - I've not been part of an overtly Christian piece of outreach at the hostel before, and although the manager has asked us to do it (and puts on stuff for the Muslim festivals etc as well) there is the potential for trouble. I'm praying there won't be any. We've put together shoeboxes with useful presents for all the men in the hostel (toothpaste, gloves, etc) because we know they don't have a lot. I'm hoping it will be well received and really impressed by the family who have done most of the organising for all that.
I've also just heard my husband preach for the first time. And he was fab. It was a lovely service too, a very austere, pared-down Anglican Eucharist. It's been a long time since I've been to one of those and it was the perfect antidote to the hark-the-herald-angels-sing overdose I currently have. It's all been a bit glittery the past few days. Forget the office flu, I think I've got tinselitis.