We had planned the first week of January back in December. Stay in France till Wednesday the 7th, drive home to Rotterdam and go to the office. That was until it all fell down. First there was this thing called the weather. The winter had finally arrived for the first time in 5 years and it made traveling home on Wednesday at least ‘adventurous’. We did not take the gamble and drove home one day early, Tuesday night. That proved a wise decision, we had some hinder from mist and floating snow (really it didn’t fall down), but as soon as we hit the tarmac of the highway everything was almost normal. Only the absence of say 50% of the usual traffic. After a 3 and a half hour drive we were home, only 10 minutes slower than usual. Not bad for a winters night. That of course would not have been possible were it not for the gritters and people manning those machines to keep the roads usable. They did a splendid job from France through Belgium and The Netherlands.

At home we unpacked the car, warmed the house and of to bed, because work in the new year had already started Monday, and Wednesday would be no different.

But it would.

Woke up with a headache and started sneezing like hay fever sufferer on steroids and soon after coughed like a sea lion. Unstoppable. That’s the fourth day now and while last night I only woke up twice in a cough frenzy it’s still annoying as hell. And my head is still full of snot.I call myself a snot zombie because of the low energy, high intolerance levels I currently present to anyone close.

Work is piling up but at the moment there is no energy in me to stand up and start doing something. The snot-zombie likes to stay calm and full of self pity. Reading news on the web is anything but comforting right now. Not so much because of the Orange toddler in chief, I’m used to that right now. It’s the lack of spine the rest of the world is showing. Divide and conquer, is his motto, but there seems to be no United we stand against it. Almost all world ’leaders’ are afraid to stand up and laugh the bully in the face.

I’m not saying I would do differently, I’m a born coward myself, but I never had the ambition to lead a nation. Those who had should consider if they have the bravery to say enough is enough, we might miss a lot when we say goodbye to this old ‘friend’ and start acting like grown-ups who can take care of themselves.

I’m afraid it will stay ‘wishfull thinking’ -by Chine Crises-