KELLY BROWN: When you are ill (or cold), there really is no point trying to look your best...

One-by-one we have been dropping like flies, going down with a cold, cough, ear infection, chest infection... you name it – we have got it!

Everywhere I go, it seems to be the same story. Just about everyone is ill with something, or someone in their immediate family has got something.

And so then comes the dilemma of whether you go to the doctors?

Of course a visit results in one of two scenarios – either you get told, yes you are most definitely ill and should have come to the doctors earlier, or you are told, yes, you have a cough but there is nothing we can do.

I was talking to a lady at one of my fitness classes who had been coughing and sneezing since mid-December.

But when she saw the nurse, she 
said she was made to feel like a time-waster because the nurse told her to just keep dosing herself up, sticking her head over bowls of hot water and keep hydrated: things she was doing anyway!

Of course, no matter how you are feeling, as a mum you have to soldier on.

So while the little ones can lay under a blanket on the sofa, sipping warm milk and watching a DVD and napping, I’m powered by Lucozade and Lemsips to give me the energy to look after my brood.

And as for looking good while you are ill – forget it.

When you are out and about, it is hats, gloves, scarves, cardies, coats and the like. Basically enough layers to make me resemble the Michelin Man.

And even going to bed, the nice PJs and nighties are swapped for winter PJs, big warm tops and, of course, the most flattering of bedtime warmers – socks.

Yes, folks, socks in bed (I really must be getting old).

I was forced to draw the line at putting a hot water bottle in the bed, but only because my husband pointed out that was what old ladies did.

Still this cold snap will, I’m sure, be over in a flash, and before we know it we will have a sub-tropical Easter – and hopefully the coughs will be gone!

***

Why do I always cry?

AM I the only idiot who cries at films even though I have seen then SO many times, I can probably quote the script?

The other night I switched on the telly and found Armaggedon.

It’s a brilliant film which we even own, but I thought it would make excellent snuggle-up-in-bed viewing.

But predictably, towards the end of the film, the tears arrived. It’s not like I don’t know what is going to happen.

I just can’t help myself!