Beauty, pain

-- start whining

I just ordered room service: an extra box of kleenex. I'm going all out ;)

Today has been simply miserable. I made my way to the office, coughed and sneezed for most of the morning and was sent back to my (hotel) room by my colleagues. Not a bad idea, considering the sorry state I am in. I bought over-the-counter decongestant but the relief is still very slow to come. Hopefully the night version knocks me out completely and I wake up rested and feeling better tomorrow morning.

The flight to Halifax, in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, allowed me to witness a beautiful sunset above the clouds. We were flying over a thick carpet of white clouds, so thick they looked like they could be solid. A little above us, another layer of clouds, more dispersed, was reflecting the light from the sun in a wide array of colours. All this against a backdrop of blue sky. Beautiful. Then we broke through the bottom layer of clouds and descended towards the airport.

That's when it started hurting.

My ears would not pop, no matter how often I tried equalizing them. The pain on one side was sharp and I felt that my entire head was under pressure. Fortunately, I didn't rip an ear drum in the process. The pressure must have released at one point. Flying while congested? Bad idea.

I was so preoccupied with my ears that I hardly noticed our descent into fog. It's always a bit of a shock when you only see the ground half a second before you touch down. Thank goodness for electronic flying equipment.

Now, if only the hotel staff could hurry up with the kleenex, I could stop wiping my red, sensitive nose with this rough toilet paper.

-- end whining