Last week was very busy for me and it was around Wednesday that I noticed that I was having problems talking and felt like I was coming down with a cold or flu. Seeing how my work prevented me from resting for a day or two, I firmly decided I would not let myself get sick and got ready for a full on war. After a few hours of medicine stockpiling, I felt confident in my defences and positive final outcome of the conflict. At one point during my pharmacy crawl I ran into my mother and told her about my war plan. She looked at me unimpressed and simply said: “If that’s a cold, you are just going to have to let it do its thing, that’s the only way it will pass.”
Well, that’s my old school mother for you. She is still thinking in 20th century terms. She doesn’t know how us modern people have evolved beyond letting diseases “do their thing” and we now have a wealth of modern medicine at our disposal to help us. I paid no attention to her, but instead proceeded to work hard for the following few days while combating symptoms of what was turning out to be some sort of a super-cold with various remedies in my arsenal. It worked like a charm for the first two days, but by the end of the third one I started realising I am not winning this battle. If anything, I had merely forced my enemy to regroup and get reinforcements.
In the evening of the third day I was an absolute mess and had completely lost my voice. I spent the next few days in bed barely able to get up. Funny thing about those few days was that I decided not to take any medicine outside of hot tea and homemade honey. There was simply no point. So, not only did I have go through the ordeal of being sick, I was also lessoned in how to take care of myself by my mother. It’s so frustrating she still gets to do that. Oh well, at least she can’t read English, so she won’t know I admitted this publically.
After getting back to work it took me quite a few days to get back to the normal productivity levels. In the past this recuperation period would be much shorter. I would like to think diseases are evolving, but I fear it might be just me getting older. “Old age is the worst disease” – my father used to say. Oh God, I guess he was right too. This week just keeps getting better and better. However, I’ve noticed he never says it anymore, now that he’s old.
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Bozidar Jukic is a Dubrovnik local with too many interests to name them all, with writing being at the very top of the list. He is a lover of good food, music and film, and a firm believer in the healing power of laughter. His professional orientation is towards tourism and travel so it comes as no surprise he spends most of his time alongside Mrs. Jukic running their own local tour company. Their goal is helping travellers from all over the world get a more intimate experience of Dubrovnik and what it has to offer. To find out more about their work, visit their website or Facebook page.
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